The challenges, however, are twofold:
- Very few of those potential customers realize they need SEO. I heard a speaker claim that 85% of the websites in existence get fewer than 5 visits a month. I don’t know if that’s true but the point is there’s a lot of wasted investment in the online world. Why would anyone invest in a website and then not invest in driving traffic to that site? “Build it and they will come” is a horrible strategy.
- The reason people are reluctant to invest in SEO is because it’s an inexact science. Google and the other search engine tell you a little about their search algorithms and we learn a lot through trial and error but, in the end, SEO is part guesswork and there is no perfectly optimized site. There’s always more than can be done and there’s nothing you can do that your competitor can’t do as well. In theory it’s a level playing field (see below). SEO is a necessary investment but not a sure investment; more stock than bond.
To overcome these difficulties I use blogs, emails and social media to educate my target audience on both the importance of SEO and the basic tactics they can employ to improve their search ranking. For example,
- When you perform a Google search you get a page with 10 results. Those 10 results drive approximately 42% of the search traffic. If, however, you’re on page two, search results 11-20, you can be expected to get 21% of traffic. That’s a big difference! You could double your traffic by moving up to page one.
- The difference between page one and page two on Google is often something very minor, perhaps something as small as a Header. The lesson is small differences can result in big results and, depending on your business, huge increases in visits or even revenue.
- Since no site can be perfectly optimized the goal is make sure your site is more optimized than your competitor’s site. For my SEO clients we pick one competitor to benchmark against and then, once we’ve overtaken them, pick another site to benchmark against, and so on. Picking one competitor at a time allows us to define our own playing field and create a competitive advantage. A rifle approach produces more targeted results, is easier to measure and, often, less expensive than the shotgun approach where you try to do everything perfect.
Lately I’ve tried a new marketing tactic and it seems to be working. I find a website that I know needs work and provide a free evaluation along with 3-5 specific recommendations for improving the site. Call me if you'd like to evaluate your site for free.
Done with tact, most people seem to appreciate the comments and, as a result, some new work is coming my way.
Steve
800-707-9150
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