7 Potential Pitfalls of Search Engine Optimization

What Every Small Business Owner Needs to Know About Going After
the Top Spot in the “Free” Search Engine Rankings

So you want to get the #1 listing on Google (and every other major search engine, for that matter!)?

You’re not alone! Everyone wants to top the “free” listings. There’s no doubt being in that top spot can put you in the catbird seat for attracting visitors to your website.

But is trying to get that top spot for your small business worth it?

A whole new industry called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has sprouted up over the past few years to convince you that it is. However, there are a few things business owners should consider before hiring someone to help them try to climb up the free rankings.

1. It’s not really free. Want to hire a SEO firm to try catapult your website up the rankings? Be prepared to pay hundreds, if not thousands of dollars up front and then an ongoing retainer each month. While the clicks themselves may be free, trying to get those coveted top spots can be anything but.

2. It takes a lot of time. With SEO, it can take months (6 or more) before you will see any significant improvement in your rankings. When you’re trying to build a small business, time is not your friend. You want to focus on landing new customers today, not months from now. (Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising, or paid search, works much faster. With PPC, if you bid enough, you can claim the top spot in minutes.)

3. SEO is a never-ending process. You’ve invested the time and money to optimize your site and are lucky enough to claim the top spot (or a spot on the first page). Time to celebrate, right?! Not so fast.

What you may not realize is that while you’re celebrating, engineers at Google are tinkering with the algorithms they use for their search rankings. Google’s made changes that have literally taken companies from the #1 spot to out of the top 1000 – overnight.

4. There’s no guarantee of success. You’re not the only one gunning for that top spot on the rankings. Many of your competitors are hiring SEO firms to help them climb up the rankings as well. Especially for companies in highly competitive markets (and isn’t that just about everyone?), there’s no guarantee your efforts will get to the top spot or even the first few pages of results.

If a SEO firm says it can guarantee you a top spot, run the other way. It’s the search engines and their algorithms that determine who’s in the top spot, not a SEO firm.

5. Optimize for people, not search engines. With SEO you run the risk of trying to please the search engines at the expense of visitors. And when it comes down to it, it’s only the visitors who have bank accounts.

SEO, done right, should make sure the layout and content of your site appeal to your target audience first and foremost. Optimizing for the search engines comes later. There are talented SEO folks out there that know how to do this – the trouble is finding the reputable ones and paying their fees.

6. What keywords do you optimize for? Finding the right keywords can be tricky. Sometimes keywords that you’re sure are going to attract visitors, don’t. On the other hand, there may be keywords you don’t consider that would get you a great ranking.

Also, just because a keyword attracts a lot of visitors, it doesn’t mean those visitors are going to convert (a conversion is the action you want someone to take when they visit your site like making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, calling your company, etc.). And when it comes to your website, conversions are more important than traffic.

With SEO, you run the risk of spending a lot of time and money optimizing your site for keywords and phrases that aren’t attracting your target audience and/or getting them to convert.

One trick to avoiding this problem is to use Pay Per Click ads to quickly test a large number of keywords and phrases. Once you learn which ones get the results you’re looking for, you can then incorporate them into your SEO strategy. This will give you a much higher confidence level that they will drive the type of traffic you’re looking for to your site.

7. Good web design = Good SEO. If you hire a good web design firm or are savvy enough to design a good site yourself, you’ve won most of the SEO battle. It comes down to this: deliver good content, update it regularly, and earn relevant links from quality websites. Not only will this go a long way to helping your search engine rankings, but more importantly, it will help you deliver quality content that turns visitors into customers.

The purpose of this article is not to dismiss the merits of SEO. When done right, it can
make a huge difference in a company’s bottom line.

The purpose here is to make small business owners aware of the potential pitfalls involved with pursuing a SEO strategy. It is important weigh the pros and cons of SEO before deciding whether it’s right for your business.

Above all else, make sure you don’t put the cart before the horse! Quality content and design come first. Then figure out the best way to drive quality traffic to your site.

A Small Business Owner’s Introduction to Google AdWords

The turnaround was stunning.

When I had last seen Jan, her business was in danger of going under. Just six months later, however, business was booming. She had large Fortune 100 clients, small local clients and everything in between. And she wasn’t pounding the pavement trying to find customers anymore – the customers were coming to her!

I asked her what she credited this amazing turnaround to. Her response: Google AdWords.

Since that conversation, the more I’ve learned about AdWords, the more I’ve used it, and the more I’ve talked to others who’ve used it – the more convinced I’ve become that AdWords is the most powerful marketing tool to come along in a very long time.

What is Google AdWords?

AdWords is Google’s version of Pay Per Click advertising. When you perform a search on Google you typically get two sets of results. On the left side of the screen are the free (organic) listings. On the right side are the AdWords ads (sponsored listings) which are paid advertisements (sometimes 2 or 3 paid ads appear on the left above the organic results).

As an advertiser, you bid on keywords related to your product or service. When a search is performed on keywords you’ve bid on, your ad appears. It’s known as “Pay Per Click” because you only pay when someone clicks on your ad.

The Power of AdWords

So what is it about AdWords that makes it such a powerful marketing tool?

Speed and ease. For $5, you can have ads up and running with the potential to reach millions of people worldwide in about 15 minutes.

Over 1 billion searches a day. About half of all web searches are performed on Google. Every one of these searches is conducted by a person who has a problem they need solved or has a need, desire, or quest for information they need filled. If you can scratch the itch of even a small percentage of those people, chances are your business will do very well online.

Drive highly qualified, highly motivated visitors to your website. Businesses spend a lot of time prospecting to find people who need their product or service – and need it NOW!

When someone types in a search term into Google, they do the prospecting for you. They’ve virtually put a big neon sign over their head that’s flashing the words “I need your help!”

Show them how you can scratch their itch and you’ve landed a highly qualified prospect at your website who is ready to buy. Instead of prospecting to the masses, you can spend your time selling to a highly targeted audience.

Only pay when people click on your ad. As mentioned earlier, with Pay Per Click advertising you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. This lets you target your advertising dollars on prospects who express an interest in your offer. You also control both your monthly budget and the maximum amount you are willing to pay for each click to help further maximize your ROI.

Test and measure your marketing results. AdWords, along with Google Analytics and Website Optimizer (both free tools), allows you to test and measure your marketing messages faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before. This capability is probably the most important, yet most underutilized and underappreciated, aspect of AdWords.

As an advertiser you can keep track of how many people view your ad, and of those, how many click on it. This is known as the click-through-rate (CTR). You can also measure your conversion rates. This is the percentage of people who visit your website and take the action you want (ie. make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter, etc.).

Constantly tweaking and testing various aspects of your campaign is critical to success in AdWords. Small improvements in the performance of your keywords, ad text, bid prices, and landing page can lead to exponential increases in your CTR and conversion rate – and, ultimately, sales.

The benefits of this testing don’t just apply to AdWords. Once you find keywords, messages, headlines, landing pages, etc. that work in AdWords, there’s a good chance they’ll work in other online and offline marketing campaigns too.

Success in AdWords, however, isn’t ultimately about the keywords, headlines or ad text in your ads. It’s about your website. If your website is difficult to navigate, doesn’t offer a compelling message to your target audience, or doesn’t deliver what you promise in your AdWords ad, all the clicks in the world won’t help you. If, however, you have a good website, use AdWords to help make it even better, and drive those highly qualified, highly motivated prospects there – the results can be stunning.

Just ask Jan.

The Single Most Important Component of a Successful Marketing Campaign (Can You Guess What It Is?)

What is the single most important part of a successful marketing campaign?

Testing.

Wait, don’t leave yet! I know the word testing brings back nightmares of pulling that all-nighter to study for the calculus exam you had to pass to keep from failing out of school.

When it comes to marketing, however, testing is your best friend. In fact, I believe that testing is the most important, yet most ignored, ingredient to designing a successful marketing campaign.

Test everything out on a small scale. Find out what works and what doesn’t BEFORE investing lots and time and money on a large marketing campaign.

Doing this helps you avoid the mediocre campaigns. It can make a good campaign great. It can even turn a great campaign into a phenomenal, competition thumping, retirement-here-I-come campaign!

Traditionally, ad testing was largely done in print media and could take weeks, if not months to conduct. The internet has changed that. With the tools now available online, particularly through Google AdWords, Analytics, and Website Optimizer, you can now test your marketing messages quicker, cheaper, and easier than has ever been possible.

Even with the internet, testing does require time and patience. In return, however, you will learn what your prospects respond to and what they don’t. You will take the guesswork out of your marketing.

And when it comes to your marketing dollars, would you rather invest them in guesses or in facts?

So when it comes to marketing your business, stop guessing and start testing!!