Why SEO Is Not An Office Supply, Pt 1
How businesses who ‘shop for’ SEO are gambling with their future – and how to prevent a disaster from it
It’s become very clear that many, maybe even most, businesses see SEO as something they shop for, like paper clips or reams of paper for the copier.
It’s a commodity to them. In other words they have the impression they can get the same results from almost any SEO, so it’s just a matter of getting the lowest price quote.
If you want to know why there are so many businesses that end up feeling ripped off by their SEO, this idea that ‘all search engine optimization is the same’ is one of the reasons.
That in NO WAY lets dishonest and/or lazy SEO companies off the hook.
However, business shoots itself in the foot by seeing their search marketing, at least in some ways, as an office supply product, rather than a crucial part of their profit engine.
This is only Part 1 of addressing this issue and why/how your business should change its views if you want to succeed online.
The first aspect to deal with is to look at the big picture of WHY you shouldn’t see SEO in such vague terms.
WOULD YOU DO THIS?
Imagine your business, back in the Pre-Web days, needs urgently to do some marketing & advertising because a competitor has moved in next door.
They’re pulling out all the stops and you need to counter if you’re going to survive. So, you decide to hire a marketing/advertising agency. What’s your process for hiring an agency?
Do you look at their proposals in detail? Do you consider their ideas and creative solutions? Do you look at their reasoning and strategy?
Or do you turn to the last page of their proposal, look at the quote and hire the one with the lowest?
Would you REALLY do that when your business is hanging in the balance and your survival was on the line? Would you really make that critical decision based on 1 factor: Price?
And yet, that happens constantly in businesses across the world today, even though their SEO and Internet Marketing is just as, if not more, important as offline advertising once was.
It’s understandable, especially in tight economies, that the cost would be a factor, maybe even a major one.
However, going with one SEO Company primarily on that basis, when your gut is telling you that another SEO was much more skilled, is the 1st indication that you’re setting your business up for a bad fall.
WHAT YOU MUST KNOW ABOUT SEO
If your business needs to know one thing, it is this.
SEO is not about the generic term ‘Rankings’. It’s about the SEO’s ability to get you ranked for the terms that produce sales and customers and taking them to the Conversion column once they are on your site.
A good SEO goes beyond just ranking and on to the end result of Conversions, Sales, Leads & Clients.
Anyone can stuff a page with keywords. It takes a skilled SEO to craft a page that not only gives the search engines what they want, but also gives your Visitor what they need to move forward and become a Customer.
Learn more about the real dangers in Why Your SEO IS Not An Office Supply, Part 2, where we’ll tell you more about the difference between ‘Rankings’ and ‘Results’.
Contact us today for consultation on your SEO and Search Marketing needs.
Article written by Jonathan Cook
