By Nigel Cooper
Here's the top five reasons we hear for companies not investing in an SEO strategy:
1. Results for SEO campaigns aren't immediate (unlike Adwords campaigns).
2. Effective SEO campaigns aren't free.
3. SEO campaigns don't come with any guarantees of success.
4. Good search rankings don't necessarily mean more conversions or sales from my website.
5. My site already places top for my company name, so it's optimised already.
If you've thought of any of the above points yourself, you're not mad - they're all valid points. But that doesn't mean they're a good reason to avoid investing in SEO:
1. Results aren't immediate for SEO campaigns
This is true, they aren't. But as with any area of your business, if you don't plan ahead and think long term, it won't survive.
For SEO to be a success, all you need to know is how many targeted web visitors a month typically convert to a sale/conversion online. Once you know that, you can work out how much to invest in generating more visitors. Which leads us onto our next point:
2. Effective SEO campaigns aren't free
No, they're not, nor should they be. Effective SEO campaigns require careful research, planning and implementation but the key word here (excuse the pun) is effective. If a campaign is effective (and there's no reason it shouldn't be if it has been researched and planned properly) it will make you more money that you've spent on it, whether that was £6K or £60K.
3. SEO campaigns don't come with any guarantee of success
Again, this is absolutely true. If an agency says they guarantee success, run a mile - they're not being honest.
This doesn't mean you're entering into a campaign blindly with no hope of success, though - far from it. Thorough audience, competitor and key term analysis make the difference between campaign failure and success.
4. Good search rankings don't necessarily mean more conversions or sales
This is only true if you're targeting the wrong key terms or your website isn't doing its job properly.
Set up your SEO strategy properly and you'll be driving targeted traffic - qualified visitors with an intent to buy from you. If your traffic has increased but you aren't converting - with either enquiries or sales - you might need to conduct an audit of your website to find out why and then fix the problem.
5. My site already places top for my company name, so it's optimised already
This doesn't necessarily mean your site is well optimised for search - far from it. It's great that you're placing well for your company name or web address, but what about your goods or services?
What do people actually search for if they're looking for what you do? Do you place well for that?
Unlike a paid search advertising campaign, there's no financial limit to the traffic you can generate with your SEO campaign. And while SEO is an ongoing strategy that might take more time to kick in, when it does you'll reap the rewards.
Check out Qube's Kick Start Search Marketing Package >
Call 01273 689672 or email us to talk about search engine marketing.