WHY BUSINESS FEAR SEO

The landscape of Search Marketing is as mysterious and seemingly treacherous to business owners as the farthest reaches of Tibet’s Himalayan Mountains are to the everyday traveler.

However, more and more businesses are recognizing that – just as the Himalayas possess the most beautiful treasures in the world – so too may Search Marketing hold the most rewarding fortunes of internet marketing.

UNDERSTANDING SEARCH MARKETING

But what exactly is Search Marketing? Also known as Search Engine Optimization, and commonly referred to as SEO or SEM, Search Marketing is the practice of offering your product or service to your target audience while they are actively searching for exactly what you offer.

More specifically, SEO is a system for developing top listings on the front page of the world’s most popular search engines, such as Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

WHY YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS THE BENEFITS SEO PROVIDES

It may very well be that the more you feel you need SEO, the more distrusting you are of its ability to truly impact your bottom line.

"SEO isn’t easy. However, in an advertising world where very few things can be counted on, SEO is a reassuringly safe investment."

~ Tad Clarke, Editorial Director, Marketing Sherpa

But gone are the days when SEO stood on the sidelines, unproven and without substantial returns. In 2006, researchers discovered that SEO provided a far higher rate of return than any other marketing outreach, including email marketing, direct response, advertising, and public relations.

Search Marketing’s ability to provide such high rates of return lies in its unique industry makeup.

ART MELDS WITH SCIENCE

SEO must target human individuals with their myriad emotions and short attention spans while also targeting inhuman search engines whose intricately complex algorithms call for specific (though constantly changing) data, forms of presentation,  themes, and more.

The SEO professional must not only add all necessary elements to your website that the search engines desire – but he or she must also craft each element to engage, inform, and persuade your human visitors to purchase your product or take a specific action.

Because this double-faceted marketing approach is complex and ever-changing, few of your competitors will likely bother with it, allowing you to dominate your market online.

LISTINGS = SALES, BRANDING, PR,

REPUTATION, & RELATIONSHIPS

Another reason experts believe SEO provides such a powerful return on investment is because each listing earns your business far more than just visibility.

SALES & LEADS

Obviously, the key area of return we aim for is in sales or hot leads. We want to increase our website traffic and inspire that traffic to take a specific action.

Traditional marketing interrupts consumers (and executives, in the case of B-to-B marketing) and bombards them with marketing messages they have not asked for. Or they guess at when the consumer wishes to receive the marketing message and hope to hit their target.

SEO has the unique fortune to display your company’s listing (which should, in essence, be your unique marketing proposition) at precisely the moment your audience is searching for your product, service, or information.

BRANDING

When optimizing your website for the search engines, you want to target those keywords and keyword phrases that your audience searches most often. The result?

Besides more traffic, you instantly brand your company as the leading resource for your audience’s query. Because your keywords will naturally be thematically related, as the prospect continues her research and your website continues to pop up, you begin to build a powerful relationship in her mind between your company and the challenge, problem, or question she is researching.

That relationship is otherwise known as your brand.

PUBLIC RELATIONS

With the advent of the blogosphere and news aggregators like Google News and Yahoo! News, the consumer can now go anywhere for her current events.

Where in the past, press releases only targeted media outlets, now it is quite common for consumers to read press releases they find through the search engines.

Therefore, adding a bit of the search marketer’s touch to your press releases, and crafting them to engage the consumer directly, will help get your company consistently in the front-page headlines.

REPUTATION

An integral part of search marketing is cultivating links from reputable, authoritative websites in your industry that point to your website.

Not only do these incoming links help your site rise in the search engine rankings, but your audience will see that other leaders in your industry are linking to you – which amounts to a vote of approval, or endorsing you as an expert.

RELATIONSHIPS

Though often overlooked, we believe that relationships are the most valuable return on investment your company can receive. Relationships are proven to translate into increased future sales through referrals, word-of-mouth buzz, repeat business, and testimonials or endorsements.

As consumers and executives grow ever more discerning in their research before purchase, the emotional buy becomes less of a reality. Our growing aim in marketing is to facilitate the informed and empowered purchase. And the right search marketing strategy compliments this goal beautifully.

Instead of trying to pop your marketing message up every place you think your target audience might be, SEO allows you to create the pathways yourself so you can subtly nudge your audience into your website from a variety of places.

For example, imagine that a prospect is researching red widgets on Google. On the first page of results, she sees the following:

1.       Your website

2.       A wikipedia article mentioning your website

3.       A blog post reviewing your red widgets

4.       An article on another website about red widgets, written by your company

Instantly, she gets the impression that your website is well known, well respected, and no matter which listing above she chooses to click on, all roads lead back to your website.

Of course, from then on, the quality of your relationship with this prospect will depend on your website content, customer service, product quality, etc.

However, you’ll be hard pressed to think of a more powerful way for the two of you to be introduced.