Tag Archives: search engine optimization

Does SEO still matter?

Ask anyone when the last time they opened up a yellow pages and they will most likely tell you 6 months to a year ago, if that. The sad reality is that yellow pages and traditional print advertising is dying. Yellow pages are still delivered to households around the country and it is never a surprise to see the yellow pages sitting outside waiting to be collected.

Ask the same person where they turn to when looking for a local business and they will most likely say the internet. The internet has become the new yellow pages. Being able to access the internet from your house or even directly from your smart phone has far too many benefits over the yellow pages. Businesses around the country have scurried rather quickly in figuring out how they can capitalize on the internet.

The first step in successful online marketing is to have a website of some sort. Most businesses have one and it serves as a legitimacy factor more than anyone. Although some businesses do utilize their website for maximum potential by adding things like online shopping capabilities. At the bare minimum you should have a website that describes your business, the history, services/products provided, and contact details.

A website by itself won’t make you any money. In order for people to find your website you will need to search engine optimize (SEO) it. SEO is the process of optimizing your website in order to manipulate the search engines by displaying your website higher in the search results. Many business owners are clueless about SEO and even the acronym SEO is foreign to most. This is especially true with the generation gap that exists among smaller family businesses run by older folks.

SEO in general is very basic and anyone could do it but below the surface lays many technical intricacies that only veterans would know about. Business owners could attempt to perform SEO on their website themselves but truthfully told are better hiring a proper SEO firm to handle all online marketing. Most business owners are simply too business running the day to day operations of their business and do not have the time to learn about SEO.

The benefits to SEO are huge. SEO brings more online visibility. With more online visible comes more customers. More customers mean more sales. More sales mean more money in your pockets. SEO piggybacks on the law of attractions as well. You might have cold called or done direct mail in the past which you know is not effective at all. With SEO, customers find you, giving you better position to ask for more money.

The downsides of SEO are very few. For one, it takes time, lots of time. It takes time to perform hence why we recommend hiring a professional SEO firm. Secondly, it takes time to see results. Businesses have to understand that SEO is not a on/off switch that will magically make your website appear in the search engines. SEO is a process, a process that takes several months and even longer depending on your keyword competition. Lastly, SEO costs money, but you must look at it as an investment. Although SEO takes months to see results, the results you see will last a long time.

Compared to the past, companies were spending thousands of dollars monthly in the yellow pages for something that never gave a positive return on investment. Not only that, yellow pages were hard to track, you never knew if it was working or not. Yellow pages also do not have the ability to update on the fly. Any mistakes or corrections you wanted had to be released months ahead in the next edition. Today, yellow pages are down right ineffective.

SEO on the other hard is trackable. Every conceivable metric associated with SEO and your website is trackable. How many hits your getting, your websites movement in the search results, number of leads generated, etc are all things you can instantly know by looking at your analytics. SEO pricing varies greatly but for the most part is reasonable. Generally speaking, you should be able to recuperate your monthly costs by bringing in a few new leads a month. If you are a dentist that charges an average of $500 per client, they you would only need to bring in 2-3 new leads a month to make your money back and then some.

Going back to the original question, yes, SEO does matter in 2011 and doesn’t appear to be slowing down. I recommend you to take the initiative to use SEO for your business. SEO is a sign of the times and many businesses have already established dominant online presences making the playing field much harder. Businesses might want to find a local SEO company to work with. For example residents in Virginia should look at hiring a Virginia SEO company as it will make communication and transparency much easier.