Seo - Are Search Engines Worth It Any More?

Are Search Engines Worth It Any More?

The "Number One" Question - the question that I (and probably every other Internet marketing expert on the planet) am most frequently asked:

"How do I get to be Number One in the search engines for widgets? After all, my company is the world's leading provider of widgets - it's ridiculous that these other nobody companies are coming up in search engines ahead of us . . . "

My response is almost always along the lines of:

"Forget that right now, and get a life!"

OK, so I am a little more tactful than that - and I do occasionally encourage an in-depth search engine optimization strategy, but usually I'll encourage clients to spend their website promotional budget in other ways.

Here are the main reasons why I'm not generally enthusiastic about free search engines:

1. You have to be really careful in choosing keywords

Many people make the mistake of focusing on very generic keywords. Not only are these even more difficult to get top placement in, but they also won't generate you targeted traffic.

A prospect approached me recently for help with a coaching site. This site promotes teleseminars to help clients implement life changes described in various motivational books. This prospect initially said that he wanted to be "Number One" on a search for "books".

I'd suggest this would be a virtually impossible challenge for any search engine optimizer. But in addition, someone searching for "books" is probably really looking for Amazon, or Barnes & Noble, and not my client's teleclasses. He could spend a lot of money for very few qualified leads.

2. You need to speak the language of your visitors

We all talk "geekspeak" - it's often second nature to us within our industry or area of expertise. And it's easy to forget that our prospects don't always use the same terminology. One of the most difficult areas in copywriting that I see is when technology sales people are trying to describe their products to a non-technical market - the result is usually incomprehensible!

But there's also the jargon that we use as a matter of pride, or because we've lost touch with how our markets think of us.

I worked recently with an association of plastic surgeons. They had their member database on their Web site, and wanted to attract visitors there to find a local practitioner.

Their "Number One" target keyword for the search engines was "rhinoplasty". Well, I can only spell this because I just looked it up for this article - but usually you and I in the general public would never think of that - of course, we'd be searching for . . . "nose jobs"!

The surgeons didn't like this at all from an academic standpoint. But they had to concede the point when I presented evidence on most common searches from Overture's very handy Search Term Suggestion Tool at http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion.

3. It's very passive marketing . . .

My most pressing argument for not spending too much time on free search engines is that it's a very passive form of marketing. You're relying on a prospective visitor waking up in the morning, and realizing that they need something that you might provide. Then, you're relying on them choosing the precise keywords that you've targeted for search engine optimization. It's a fairly hit or miss business.

When do I disagree with myself?

There are some exceptions to all this. I do believe that search engines are well worth it when you have a niche product or service with extremely unambiguous and well-defined keywords.

For example, an audience member in one of my recent programs was working on a Web site to sell some incredibly advanced yoyos. I did recommend a search engine strategy to him - after all, if someone puts in "yoyo" as a search term, they'd almost certainly be a qualified lead!

What do I do instead?

That's the subject of numerous other articles. To get you started, you can find twenty-three of my favourite techniques in my free tipsheet.

But in short, I much prefer aggressively seeking out sites where your target markets are likely to be reading, or searching for information. That way, you can proactively bring your ideas, products and services to them, in places where they are much more likely to be receptive and interested. And there are so many options for different budgets and campaign sizes, both online and offline.

So, are search engines worth it any more?

I'm not advocating ignoring search engines. And I do like the better paid models, such as Overture.

But I do suggest that you should be very clear about how much passive marketing you want to undertake, and whether the product or service that you're offering lends itself to this.

And if you do decide to optimize your site for search engines, pick the keywords that will be in the mindset of your customers . . . and be willing to settle for "Number Two" sometimes!

Philippa Gamse, CyberSpeaker, is a Web strategy consultant and professional speaker. Check out her free tipsheet for 23 ideas to promote your Website: http://www.CyberSpeaker.com/tipsheet.html Philippa can be reached at (831) 465-0317.

| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 |

Seo Training - Avoid Making This Costly Mistake!
SEO training can be overwhelming. There are literally hundreds of factors that go into search engine ranking on today's major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN. When designing a web site or a web page for high search engine ranking,avoid making this one mistake that alone could prevent you from achieving a top ten ranking on your target keywords. What is this one costly mistake? Read on to find out.Build your site on a good foundationYour web site structure is the foundation to high search engine ranking. If you build your website with the wrong structure, anything else you do to promote your web site will be crippled from the start. The most costly mistake you could do to cripple your SEO efforts is to build your w...(related: Seo)

10 Minutes To Your Google Sitemap
Google's calling your name...Hi, Google here. We want to index your website...Is anyone there?This article has a free corresponding online video tutorial that shows you how to summons the ...(related: Seo)

Writing Seo Copy ? 8 Steps To Success
We all know that the lion's share of web traffic comes through the search engines. We also know that keywords and links to your site are the two things that affect your ranking in the search engines. Your keywords tell the search engines what you do, and the inbound links tell them how important you are. This combination is what determines your relevance. And relevance is what the search engines are after.There's a lot ...(related: Seo)

Playing By Googles Rules
As the undisputable leader in search engines, Google places a very high importance on the quality and relevancy of its search results, especially now that the company is public. The know that in order to keep the shareholders and users of the engine happy, the quality of returned results are extremely important. For this reason, doing the wrong thing, purposely or unintentionally could r...(related: Seo)

Do-it-yourself Search Engine Optimization
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is big business. If you rely on search engines to bring visitors to your business website, you need to rely on more than luck. Your business will lag far short of its potential unless your site is optimized and re-optimized for search engine results.<...(related: Seo)

Increase Web Site Sales With A Seo Proposal - Part 1
You can easily get confused by all the search engine optimization companies and SEO experts that offer SEO services. It's hard to know who to trust or what should be included in a SEO p...(related: Seo)

What Is Google Talk ?
The advent of Internet has affected lives of almost the entire world and websites, e-mails and chating on net none need any introduction even for young kids. There is an outpour of websites throughout the Internet all offering numerous services to attract the potential visitors online. The question actually matters is what's the foolproof way to keep visitors glued to a particular site and not jump to other numerous sites that are upcoming each new day. What makes one of the web pages much more popular than the other when both are based on almost similar theme. The answer lies in the way of presenting the information and the simplicity with which the users ...(related: Seo)

How Important Is Pagerank, Really?
Webmasters can spend most of their waking hours doing everything they can to raise their Google PageRank. It is common knowledge that PageRank, which is largely based upon the number and quality of backlinks a webpage has, is an important factor in how well a particular webpage ranks within the Google search result...(related: Seo)

Googles Trap, Dmozs Nap, And Yahoo!s Crap
On November 16th, 2003, Google commenced an update (the Florida update) which had a catastrophic effect for a very large number of websites and, in the process, turned search engine optimization upside down. It is common to give alphabetical names to Google's updates in the very same way that names are given to hurricanes, and this one became known as "Florida".In a nutshell, a vast number of pages, many of which had ranked a...(related: Seo)

What Is Search Engine Marketing?
It's in our genes, we're driven to seek. We 'hunt' for food, homes, partners, jobs and lately ? with the advent of the Internet ? information.Even in the early years of the Internet, before it evolved to include Web browsers, there were text based search engines. Back then they had funny names like Archie, and Gopher. It was only later, when the graphical browser was invented, that searching became much easier and accessible for the rest of us.The concept behind Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is quite simple: when a consumer or business person searches the Web through either a text box or by clicking through a directory hierarchy, they are in "hunt mode."...(related: Seo)

Seo Expert Guide - Free Site Promotion (pr) (part 6/10)
In parts 1 - 5 you learnt how to develop your proposition, identify your key words and optimize your site and pages. You were also introduced to our mythical Doug (who sells antique doors, door handles, knockers, door bells or pulls and fitting services) in Windsor in the UK.Now we turn our attention to site promotion, starting with free techniques. In marketing parlance, we are talking about PR here. My key message is that free publicity opportunities abound on the web, but that people tend to invest their time in the wrong areas!If people spent even half the time they generally spend on reciprocal link requests and invested it evenly across all the other tips and tricks I am going to tell you abou...(related: Seo)

What Are My Chances To Get The First Place In Search Engine Listings?
You must have heard the stories how people became rich and famous with their websites. How could they achieve this? Their websites took a first position in search engine listings targeting popular keywords. Sounds easy, right? Wrong! To be honest, chances for a regular small business website to get to the top of the search engine listings are close to zero and each day they become smaller and smaller as a number of new and old websites grows.Let's exam...(related: Seo)

Simple Way To Get High Pagerank
Everyone knows that if your website has a high Google Pagerank, you have all chances to reach good search engine positions, to get serious partners, or simply get more money selling text links.But how to get a high Pagerank? (Let's clarify: saying 'high Pagerank', we mean at least PR6)Of course there are many different ways. You may start exchanging links with PR1-2 websites, then with PR2-3, then with PR3-4 etc? and after a year of this madness you'll probably get a result. But till that time, your mailbox will burst from tons of "link exchange proposals" and your website will look more like a free-for-all directory. Or you may start writing articles adding your website URL in the bottom, but no...(related: Seo)