Most search groups see better rankings, more visibility, increased traffic, and more leads.
However, feedback on pipeline, revenue, and sales results do not show the same positive results.
If the SEO KPIs are green and the graphs are high and to the right, business results do not always show the same success.
Why strong search performance doesn’t translate to business results
Search operations can look healthy on the surface while being fragmented into areas where search teams don’t own or fully see themselves.
It’s tempting to turn quickly to attribute models, data quality, or KPI definitions.
Ultimately, the problem is often how the performance breaks down after the click – in places that the search teams don’t own.
While search activity has become easier to measure through automation, software, standardized workflows, and frameworks, execution does not equate to deep understanding or control.
This challenge has been around for over 20 years and can be scaled up.
Stopping the analysis too early, or keeping it too shallow, limits the understanding of performance in the broader context of the business or product.
In large organizations, monsters widen the gap. If CRM and sales aren’t tightly integrated with search, the teams work independently, with no one owning the complete journey.
Pressure from the leadership can exacerbate the problem.
If the results look good but fail to deliver in the end, the lack of clarity becomes uncomfortable for everyone. This trend is not new, but it is becoming more prominent.
To help deal with this disconnect, here are five areas you can focus on.
1. Inaccuracy of intent
Targeting is what search teams focus on when creating the content, topics, and focus used to attract a target audience through search. That’s a given.
It doesn’t always match or map to deeper factors like buying stage, urgency, or alignment with internal sales expectations for a particular time or season.
If the traffic is qualified by title, keyword, or other search criteria, even if the intent is consistent with the best available research and data, the readiness for sales prospecting and staging may still be lacking or difficult to quantify.
Analyzing what problem the searcher believes it is solving, and how that relates to how sales positions the offer, can help bridge the gap between search and sales.
That, in turn, allows teams to ask whether they’re catering to a need, curiosity, or other part of how someone enters the customer journey.
Dig deep: How to explain flat traffic when SEO really works
2. Conflict of conversion
If leads are driven by a search conversion on a website, it can be an uncomfortable situation if they don’t end up being clients or customers, and sales has strong opinions about that conversion.
There are many reasons for this conflict. Technically, leads exceed criteria that are specified and agreed upon within an organization or agency.
Problems often exist quietly in another gap, sometimes classified as conversion rate improvements or product related, product development, or related areas. But that is often a distraction.
When teams are familiar with specifics and qualifications, problems often come in generic forms, CTAs that don’t align well, or unclear next steps between form submission and the actual conversation.
Conversion does not equate to customers, or commitment to the sales process.
Key questions focus on the promise made in the search results, the content of the website the visitor consumed, and whether the landing page and site journey fulfills the visitor’s intended purpose.
Most importantly, when evaluating performance, teams need to ask what the change is actually delivering to the organization, versus what was intended.
Dig deep: 6 SEO tests to help improve traffic, engagement, and conversions
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3. Higher education vacancies
Whether you work at a company or location, including agency and in-house teams, that use lead points and qualifications or not, ensuring that your marketing-qualified leads are sales-ready is critical to a highly focused business.
This article is not intended to delve deeply into the differences between qualified marketing and sales leads or all the nuances involved.
However, the challenge cannot be overemphasized when the parties do not have a shared understanding and definitions.
That includes scoring models, definitions of what qualifies as “qualified,” who fits those definitions, and what happens when sales refuse to lead.
This may not be a comfortable place to navigate.
But reaching common definitions and eligibility criteria can be some of the most useful and meaningful workgroups, because it helps to prove the value of the search.
Dig deeper: How to monitor your website performance and SEO metrics
4. Sales handoff and follow-up
Yes, I share points, but this one tends to hit the hardest and can be the most challenging.
That’s because you may be a C-level executive, manager, agency partner, or otherwise oversee or be directly involved in sales.
We are enemies, friends and partners. I’m not here to revisit the basics of marketing versus sales. But I’m here to challenge you.
Speed, message, and context are important. This is not just about getting the form in front of the person as quickly as possible and whether they fill it out.
Item and details are important. Finding the right prospect with the right context, based on how they want you and find you, is important.
Of course, this becomes difficult when analyzing customer journeys involving LLMs and other sources, but that doesn’t mean teams can’t or shouldn’t try to understand that behavior.
If the disconnect occurs at this stage, teams should push to understand if sales knows why the leads came in, how quickly the follow-up happened, and if the message is relevant to the real purpose. These are key areas that help teams fine-tune or adjust their strategies.
Dig deep: 9 things to do when SEO is great but sales and leads are bad
5. Measuring blind spots
Sometimes everything seems to be in place.
Statistics show conversions and search leads are relevant, but there is no movement when reviewing CRM results.
Whether exposure is compromised, impatience sets in, gray areas appear, or other factors come into play, blemishes can form.
This often leads teams to automate their metrics.
No one wins when KPIs are not shared or when there is no single source of truth and trust.
When visibility stops and ownership of “connecting the dots” is unclear, challenges arise outside of the job, team, or leadership role.
Decisions are then made without full context.
Dig deep: Critical measurement in a post-SEO world
The cost of not knowing what works
I am not writing this article to be hard on search leaders or marketing experts. This is not a search failure.
If any of the challenges described here sound familiar, you’re not alone, and they may not be working well to solve them.
Marketing leaders don’t need to be perfect when it comes to describing or prospecting efforts. That is not true. What is needed instead are better questions, shared meanings, and clear identities.
The biggest risk is not when performance is down, but when performance is strong and no one knows with confidence why.
Measurement always involves risk, and teams should not measure efforts without certainty or a clear understanding of that risk.
Ultimately, the goal is for the search profession to build credibility, trust, and impact beyond deep expertise in search engines and major language models associated with visibility.
Contributing writers are invited to create content for Search Engine Land and are selected for their expertise and contribution to the search community. Our contributors work under the supervision of editorial staff and contributions are assessed for quality and relevance to our students. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. The contributor has not been asked to speak directly or indirectly about Semrush. The opinions they express are their own.
