I sometimes meet potential clients who sadly suggest that it is too late for them to run a search engine optimisation campaign. They think they have left it too late, that they have arrived after the party and they will never catch up with their competitors. Others feel SEO is something younger businesses do, not established companies like theirs.
CC Image Credit: Pattista – Flickr
Since I am never bored of arguing the case for SEO, I want to use this post to explore the main reasons people put forward and show why I think they are wrong. I have yet to meet a single business which I have not felt could benefit from some targeted online marketing.
The best key phrases are too competitive
I have two responses to this complaint. One is that there is always a way to drive a website to the top of the results pages, the only limiting factor is budget.
A business has to decide how much getting to the top of rankings for popular keywords is worth – and whether that money may be more productively spent marketing in other ways.
My second point is that, while some keywords and phrases are fiercely competitive, choosing less popular terms can have hugely beneficial effects for much less cash.
If a business selects keywords which are more relevant to its offering – a good example is choosing “Oxford SEO” instead of the enormously popular “SEO” – it can see vast increases in traffic for less cash. That traffic will be more targeted too, meaning the firm is more likely to see conversions.
Search marketing needs a huge budget
The beauty of all search marketing campaigns is that a firm can spend as much or as little as it wants. When it comes to paid search, companies set the budget, they can control how many clicks they pay for and they can bid on costlier or cheaper terms, depending on what they want to get out of their campaign.
A good agency will employ experts who can discuss with a business the best way for it to spend its budget – whether that means focusing on costlier terms which deliver highly targeted potential customers or cheaper terms which showcase its name more frequently.
We cannot afford to redesign our website
Many SEO campaigns will involve some work on a business’ website and some potential clients are worried this will be costly, inconvenient and time consuming.
However, while I hate to utter this cliché, in a world of fierce online competition, can anyone afford not to upgrade their website? If a company’s pages are not optimised for search engines, there is a good chance they will be failing to attract and convert clients in other ways.
When a business starts of new SEO campaign, it can be a really great time to revamp all of its online marketing tactics and really push the web as a platform. Furthermore, a decent SEO agency will take care of the work, leaving the business to concentrate on building client relationships.
I have enough business without the web
This argument always surprises me. Surely all companies want to expand, grow and build on existing success? However, now and again I will meet someone who declares that the internet is unnecessary to them because they have a sufficient client base through recommendations, existing customers, high street traffic, that sort of thing.
Now, to a certain extent, I can see why they think like this. Perhaps the owner does not want to pursue new revenue streams, perhaps they are operating within their comfort zone and do not want the legions of new clients SEO may deliver.
However, the risk of this attitude is that a business will find itself completely left behind once all its competitors are online. More and more people hunt down services and shops on the internet before they venture out to see them in person – meaning a company which fails to showcase itself through the web could find its revenues falling until it is no longer a viable business.
My budget is already committed
Some organisations, particularly larger ones, have huge marketing budgets but have committed them to other platforms, such as broadcast and print.
These can be powerful and will certainly raise awareness of a company. However, such advertising is rarely focused; it targets a wide number of people with a general marketing message.
One of the benefits of the web is that promotional efforts can be highly targeted and budget used even more effectively, maximising the possible returns.
Ideally, though, a company will use the web to complement its offline marketing, like the recent Compare the Meerkat campaign. That way, its marketing endeavours will be incredibly pervasive, making them considerably more effective.
Very interesting and true. I’d like to know if there is any market for optimizing blogs at all. Are there techniques that are used to optimize content specifically for a blog.
This is great stuff! We find very similar objections when dealing with SMEs here in Ireland. I like the one “I have enough business without the web”. It’s all about educating the customer. IKt doesn’t matter how ridiculous the objection sound….The way I see it is OBJECTION = OPPORTUNITY.
Cheers
Fred
Do you ever run into the complaint that SEO just doesn’t work anymore? Do a google search for SEO and you’ll find many articles on how SEO a few years ago does not produce the same results as it does now…
Its nice that you like to argue on SEO at any cases :)
I have the impression that naysayers and folks finding excuses are most likely not going to make any money or get any decent results.
When was the last time an excuse got any results, right? lol
I agree with your point about choosing less popular keywords. However, I would like to add that oftentimes people searching for information via very popular keywords are researching for information. Therefore, it’s a good for business to optimized their sites using more specific, less popular keywords in order convert incoming traffic into sales.
Nice read. I too have felt some of these things with a company i run, the big boys all get top rankings, and i know at least one has a dedicated inhouse seo person, so i feel like i will never be able to catch up on the front.
Like the read about using less popular keywords, but only time will tell if the less popular words convert into more sales.
Thanks
Nice post. People who think they can afford to do Searhc marketing activity as it invoives huge budget, they only look at the negative side of it. Once you have invested money and your search marketing efforts start paying back, for most of the businesses it forms major source of sales and revenue generation..
When looking at top keywords one should not only look at the competition, searches associated with the keyword is the most important factor.
For example: “Social Shopping” as a keyword has huge competition and we could achieve number 1 position in just 2 months time. However there are very little searches happening with this keyword.
It is unfortunate that some people will give up before they even give it a chance. Yes for some industries they have lots of catching up to do but for many there are still many areas for opportunity.
Try explaining all that to clients who cant even set up their email address (to start with) are suspicious of new technologies and who ultimately think the internet is free or that google cost 5-99 to make and now makes billions so all their needs can be meet for the same amount and the results will be through tomorrow wont they.
I really liked your blog! Stumbled your page now. Thanks
I found your article quite useful and interesting. I have bookmarked the site for later usage. Jeremy
Agreed, people always use excuses to put off things they don’t understand. To be honest, that’s how the strong stand out from the weak. All businesses should get into online SEO, but not all will…