NO B.S.
SEO
(Search Engine Optimization)
Q: Where's the best place to hide a dead body?
A: The second page of Google search results
Do you know who your next new customer is?
It could be the person who, while you read this, is actively searching Google for the products or services you offer.
Who is SEO for?
If your marketing strategy is more mature and you are already using other tactics successfully, SEO is probably a good next step.
- If you want to 'own' a specific vertical.
- If you have already deployed other, more immediate marketing tactics and are looking to add to your brand authority.
- If you have patient capital and a longer-term investment horizon.
- Generally SEO provides the best results when deployed by local businesses who provided local goods & services.
- National campaigns can be successful, but revenue potential must justify the increased expense of a larger geography.
Who SHOULDN'T deploy SEO as part of their marketing strategy?
If you’re doing no other marketing and an investment of $1000 per month is going to break the bank (or cause deep anxiety), SEO is probably not the right marketing tactic for you to start with.
- If you who sell low-margin, low value goods & services.
- If you need sales immediately and haven't deployed other more time-sensitive marketing tactics.
- If your business is 100% referral-based.
- If your product or service is brand new and nobody has ever heard of it.
When should SEO be used?
On-page SEO should be deployed during a website build, or shortly thereafter. More advanced tactics can be integrated as your marketing strategy matures.
- We suggest that advanced SEO tactics be utilized after marketing tactics that produce more immediate ROI have already been deployed - and those immediate tactics are already working to generate capital (for example: Google Ads, Social Marketing, Google Business Listing Optimization).
- SEO should typically be used In concert with other marketing tactics, like Google Ads & Google Business Listing Optimization.
- When margins justify the expense.
How much does SEO cost?
The primary answer here is “it depends”. For local campaigns, you can count on budgeting a minimum of $1000 per month.
- It depends on how expansive the geography is. Are you selling to Spuzzum, BC - or are you selling to North America?
- It depends on how many other organizations are competing to show up for the same search results .
- It depends on how broad or narrow your search-phrase focus is.
How long does it take an SEO campaign to start generating revenue?
Local, long-tail search phrases usually start yielding results around the 3-month mark.
- This depends entirely on how big the geography is PLUS how specific the search phrases are PLUS how much competition is vying for the same search phrases.
- A campaign can be slow to ramp, but once the engine is running, it can generate positive results for an extended period of time.
Does SEO work?
In short – yes. SEO can help fortify recurring revenue by consistently sending you traffic (aka people) that are high in the buying cycle (aka looking specifically for what you’re selling).
- If deployed correctly, using transparent methods, and with a focus on high-quality content, then yes.
- When part of an overall marketing strategy and logical to do so, then yes.
- Traffic = leads. Leads = sales. When the goods or services have high enough margin or Customer Lifetime Value, then yes.
When does SEO NOT work?
This is a space in the marketing world that is often inhabited by sharks, charlatans, peddlers, and panderers.
- When 'black-hat' SEO tactics are utilized with a promise of immediate results. This can result in penalization by Google and you'll be kicked off the bus.
- When SEO is deployed for a month and then cancelled when sales aren't being delivered by the wheel-barrow full.
- When the snake-oil is rich & thick, the guarantees are heavy & creamy, and wind blown up your butt is accompanied by a pied-piper whistle.
- Top position in search results strengthens Brand Authority.
- Has a positive impact on Google Business Listing.
- Works in concert with Google Ads to help 'own' a keyphrase or business vertical.
- Produces ongoing results over a long period of time.
- Can generate high-quality leads 24hrs a day, 7 days a week.
- Captures customer attention while they are 'high in the buying cycle' - AKA they are actively seeking a particular product or service.
- Doesn't generate revenue immediately.
- Ongoing work required to maintain position once it's achieved.
- Google is slow to move.
- Is a commitment as it can't be 'turned on' and 'turned off'
What work goes into ranking a single keyphrase on page 1 of Google's Search Engine Results?
Running an SEO campaign
SEO (search engine optimization) is the process of affecting the visibility of a website or a web page in a search engine’s unpaid results—often referred to as “natural,” “organic,” or “earned” results.
In general, the higher a ranking on the search engine’s results page, and more frequently a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine’s users.
These visitors can then be converted into customers. SEO may target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, video search, academic search, news search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.
As an Internet marketing strategy, SEO considers how search engines work, what people search for, the actual search terms or keywords typed into search engines and which search engines are preferred by their targeted audience.
Optimizing a website may involve editing its content, HTML and associated coding to both increase its relevance to specific keywords and to remove barriers to the indexing activities of a search engine’s page crawlers.
Promoting a site to increase the number of inbound links is another important SEO tactic. As of May 2015, mobile search has surpassed desktop search.
Google is developing and pushing mobile search as the future in all of its products and many brands are beginning to take a ‘mobile’ approach to internet strategies.
Geography Matters
For many small or local businesses, geographic boundaries play a factor in which website visitors they are able to serve.
To ensure a business is reaching the right audience on the web within your target city or province, it’s important to have a solid strategy in place for ‘local’ search engine optimization (SEO).
There are obvious On-Page aspects of optimizing for local search, including consistent use of geographic search phrases and local terms within your On-Page metadata, page content and your ongoing blogging efforts.
But another crucial area that will aid your domination of local search are all the things you can optimize for off of your website.
SEO is an long-term investment
Not a silver bullett
SEO
Pricing
SEO
Search Engine Optimization-
Slow to pace, long-term results
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