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Scott Buresh
talks about the mistakes and misconceptions many people have about
search engine optimization and achieving top rankings. Find out
how to avoid the trap of searching for ultimate rankings while neglecting
other parts of your business.
The Myth of Rankings - Beyond Search Engine Optimization
What follows is a condensed version of a conversation that happens
all too frequently when I am approached by a prospect interested
in search engine optimization (SEO):
Prospect: We need our website optimized, because we aren’t showing
up for any searches.
Me: What searches have you tried?
Prospect: We don’t show up for ANYTHING.
Me: Why do you want to show up in searches?
Prospect: Well, it seems like we should. Our competitors do, and
our website is WAY better than theirs.
Me: But, really, what would you stand to gain from showing up prominently
in search engine results?
Prospect: Well, we could get more people who are looking for our
products or services to find out about us.
Me: So, what you are saying is that increasing your search engine
results could help you to increase sales and awareness?
Prospect: Yes.
Me: Now we’re on the right track. Since your goals are to increase
sales and awareness, have you thought about not only improving your
search engine rankings, but also getting more people to take an
action on your site that leads to a sale, getting more people to
read your press releases or whitepapers so that they can consistently
associate your company with your offering, or sending your prospects
a regular newsletter to reinforce your name and expertise?
Prospect: Didn’t you hear me? Our website is great. We just don’t
show up for searches.
And so it goes.
A consistent problem with the “ranking-centric” mindset demonstrated
above is that it doesn’t reflect a powerful rationale for getting
involved in SEO. Where is the true business case? What tangible
results are desired? In general, if a prospect can’t explain what
he or she hopes to achieve beyond “higher rankings” or “more traffic,”
we’ll first try to educate, and, if that person can’t move beyond
these base subjects, we’ll kindly refer them elsewhere.
More and more frequently, people are getting into SEO for the wrong
reasons (and sometimes for no real reason at all). Achieving high
rankings for targeted keyphrases, while an admirable and worthwhile
goal, is really only a small piece of the entire online marketing
puzzle. In this article, we’ll discuss a few additional, but equally
vital, pieces.
Website Conversion
Website conversion is the art and science of getting more of the
people who come to your website to take the action that you want
them to take – fill out your contact form, read your whitepapers,
sign up for your newsletter, or (in the case of e-commerce) buy
something. For a company that is trying to build offline business,
this action is typically something that gets prospects into the
sales pipeline through some form of online registration. For a company
or organization that is trying to build awareness, this action can
be a number of things – getting visitors to a certain page of the
site, getting them to stay longer at the site, or getting them to
tell a friend about the site. The critical point that is commonly
overlooked in a ranking-centric mindset is that no number of high
search engine positions will address the real problem if your website
is not serving as an effective marketing and sales tool. And, as
I have said many times before, the overall net effect of raising
your conversion rate from one to two percent is the same net effect
as doubling your traffic, and it is almost always easier. Increasing
the number of visitors to a site that does not convert them effectively
is like pumping high performance gasoline into a car with engine
trouble – it might help the car to run a little bit better, but
if you’d done repairs before adding the premium fuel, it really
would have hummed.
Online PR
Your website is only one potential online destination where people
can find out about your company, and a typical user will regard
your site as an advertisement since you have complete control over
the content. With optimized press releases and expert articles,
however, you can have your company name mentioned on popular news
sites and industry portals, where credibility is more inherent.
Optimized Press Releases
Press releases that are optimized to appear when certain terms
are typed into news search engines are an excellent way to build
name recognition and credibility. If someone is taking the time
to look for news related to your industry, he or she is probably
either in your business, learning about your market, or writing
a piece about your industry. The last category is especially significant
since a recent study* indicates that 98% of journalists go online
daily, 92% use the Internet for article research, and 73% use it
to find press releases. Whatever motivation a person has when he
or she searches for news related to your industry, you want your
company represented in the results.
Expert Articles
Another great way to promote your expertise and business is to
write expert articles and submit them to the leading online publications
in your field. At least one person in your company is almost certainly
an expert in your field – why not let everyone know that? A person
that reads an expert article published on an industry portal, and
who subsequently clicks through to the website (from the link in
the expert’s bio) is extremely targeted and already has a favorable
impression of your company. Moreover, the same study cited above
found that 76% of journalists go online to seek news sources or
experts. When your company has demonstrated that you have experts
on staff by publishing articles in credible, non-biased forums,
the phone invariably starts to ring. Your experts will be asked
to provide their opinions, quotes, or experiences for feature articles,
often in prestigious industry publications. The benefits of this,
of course, do not need explanation. A side benefit to both of the
strategies above is thatthey increase the number of inbound links
to your website and, therefore, can help greatly enhance your search
engine rankings – which might be the primary reason you looked into
SEO in the first place.
Newsletters
Direct mail was once considered a marketer’s dream – but email
newsletters can be much more effective. Imagine a direct mail list
with a low delivery cost, where every single person on the list
has shown an interest in receiving such mailings. Such is the nature
of opt-in email newsletters. People have shown enough interest in
your company, or, at least, in what your company has to say, to
invite you to communicate with them on a regular basis. They are
essentially giving you permission to keep yourself “first in mind”
whenever they are considering your products or services. Such opportunities
are rare in the marketing world. By combining the conversion principles
you have applied to your website to your email newsletters, you
can also get people to take an action that puts them into your sales
pipeline without worrying about getting them to your website itself.
Conclusion
These are only a few of the additional ways to expand an online
initiative beyond a misdirected ranking-centric approach. Weblogs
(or blogs) are often considered another new frontier in online marketing,
and we haven’t even touched on paid media opportunities such as
banner ads or pay-per-click marketing. However, the three components
mentioned above are important elements of a complete and successful
online marketing initiative. An SEO campaign launched without considering
them is like driving a four-cylinder car with only one cylinder
firing – it will move, but you’d definitely reach your destination
more quickly – and more smoothly – with all four.
About the Author
Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium Blue Search Engine Marketing
(www.mediumblue.com).
His articles have appeared in numerous publications, including ZDNet,
WebProNews, MarketingProfs, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, and Search Engine
Guide. He also contributed to Building Your Business with Google
For Dummies (Wiley, 2004). Medium Blue is an Atlanta search engine
optimization company whose clients include DuPont and Boston Scientific.
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