It never fails – every speaking event that I go to, and every class that I teach – someone comes up to me and says something like
I’d love to use your SEO techniques, but my website is controlled by corporate, there’s nothing I can do on it. I have no control over the site other than putting my name and hours of operation on there.
Yeah, that sucks.
Click to continue »
In part two of my Bandaid series, I want to take a look at businesses, particularly SMBs that believe that PPC is the best way (financially) to get quality traffic to your website. Then I’d like to compare some stats, such as long term vs short term investment.
First, let me say that I’m not an anti-PPC guy. I’ve seen a lot of good businesses do quite well in the PPC arena. Most of these businesses have the funding to create a nice campaign, and can keep up with the ever-growing costs related to PPC.
For the other 95% of SMBs, pay per click is nothing more than a short term solution – one that won’t stick. Let’s create a fictional company and hash out some numbers.
Our company – ZXYWidgets, is a small operation; Mom and Dad run the retail store most days and they have two full time salesmen. They sell blue widgets to a select local market. Their current reach is maybe 50 miles radius from their store.
One day, Dad gets a postcard from Yahoo! offering them a $25 credit towards setting up a PPC account. Dad has heard about the Internets and has been wanting to expand for a little while now, so he tries it out. He has no formal keyword research, and has no idea what analytics are. So he just types in some words, puts up a poorly written ad or two and sets up his credit card with a $200 monthly limit. He then proceeds to watch his $200 go down the drain in just a matter of days.
In this case, Mom and Dad have heard a bit about PPC, and have even been exposed to SEO through a friend or local web design firm. They have done a bit of keyword research, and have a decent list of words they’d like to target. They’ve written some fairly decent ad copy, and have settled on a one month test budget of $1000. Their average keyword costs $1.00/click.
During the month, they see some nice traffic to their site. They can view their analytics and see the jump during the month. Within less than thirty days, their $1000 is gone. Immediately their ads stop showing, and website traffic goes back to near zero.
Two outcomes: Either they made money off that $1000 or they didn’t. It’s a bit of a crap-shoot.
And the worst part – as soon as they stop spending, everything comes to a halt.
…for most businesses.
The residual effects of any SEO campaign are phenomenal, and can be felt for months, if not years. Depending on the amount of competition (or lack thereof), you could rank for a nice term and hang onto it for some time. A simple link building campaign will provide ongoing ‘juice’ to your website even after you’ve gone through your budget. Spend that same $200 or $1000 over a month or two and you’ll see nice revenue for an extended period of time vs. what you’d see with PPC.
I want to make it clear again that I’m not against PPC. For some business models, it is the way to go. For most, though, it’s a costly bandaid on a poorly created and managed website.
Interestingly, I’ve seen scenario two play out on an even bigger scale, with monthly PPC spending in the tens of thousands per month. Even some of these big spenders are realizing that SEO is far more attractive and provides a much better ROI over the long term.
So, my suggestion: Use PPC to ramp up your traffic, but use SEO as the backbone that will keep the traffic coming. Then wean yourself off the PPC (unless its converting well, and you can afford to supplement the organic results with your ads).
Many small business owners don’t understand the huge advantage that SEO gives them over other online marketing methods such as PPC advertising or traffic buying. I thought I’d share a few quick thoughts on this topic. It’s nothing new, but may help some of my newer readers understand the benefits of “being at the top of Google”.
More People are Using the Internet than the Yellow Pages for Local Search
While this may not be a surprise to most of my readers, it should be a jolt to small business owners who are stuck in their ways when it comes to marketing. Since most SMBs have small marketing budgets and little or no knowledge of how to get the best ROI for it, they just assume that the Yellow Pages is still the way to go.
Sorry folks, it’s not. While I encourage any SMB to continue to put their ad in the YPs, they should drastically reduce the amount of money they are spending on it. A simple ad that has phone number and website URL is all you need. Target the local phone book and maybe the large ‘city version’ if there is one. That’s it. Put the rest of that money where more people will see your information – online.
Most Searchers Won’t Go Past Page Two of Google
This applies to all search engines, but since Google has around 70% share of the US search market, I’ll use them.
Most people when searching for something, expect it to be there when they hit the ‘Search’ button. If it’s not, they may go to page two of those results, but most will not venture any further. Instead, they’ll change their search string and start over until they find what they want. So if your business isn’t listed on page one or two, those customers are just going elsewhere.
Being on Page One of a Result is Like Getting a Referral
When someone is looking for something, and you have it, they are more inclined to buy from you simply because you had the information they were seeking. Having good content that answers questions they have is like you talking to them in person. You become a ‘subject matter expert’ and therefore gain trust.
SEO Lasts a Long Time – PPC Stops when You Stop Spending
I was talking with a client last night who has been doing SEO for about a year and a half now. They are so far beyond their competition that it’d take a while before the others could ever catch up. Some of his competitors are doing PPC, which is good, but once they stop spending for those clicks, they go back to a negligable amount of visitors (if not zero).
On the other hand, an SEO’d website could withstand literally cutting their budget for 3-4 months and not lose a lot of ground. Sure, they’d lose some, but the overall effects of it would dwindle over time, not immediately. (This isn’t something I recommend you telling your SEO clients – they may just try it!)
PPC has it’s place in the overall world of search, but it shouldn’t be the hinge you balance your entire marketing platform on. Just like the Yellow Pages, it should be used in conjunction with your SEO efforts, but should not be the main focus.
Top Ranking for Long Tail Keywords is Money in the Bank
As a general rule, the more specific the search, the higher rate of conversion. This means that if you rank at the top of the search engines for ‘blue widget with 12hp motor’, the chances of that visitor buying your widget is definitely higher than someone searching for ‘blue widget’. These longer tail keywords are easy to attain high rankings on, and they bring better overall traffic.
Ranking Brings Brand Recognition
Think about this – if a person is searching for something, and your website keeps coming up at the top, they are going to see your logo several times over the course of their searches. Even if they don’t buy from you on that day, you still had your brand in front of them several times. What is that worth to you?
Location, Location, Location
Just like picking out a physical location for your business, you wouldn’t want some backstreet that no one sees, would you? Same goes for online marketing. You’ve got to be where the traffic is driving past.
Summary and Shameless Plug
While this is far from a complete list of the reasons you should consider SEO, it’s definitely a good start. I’d love to hear what you think about the list, and let me know what I missed.
If you are a business owner who needs to get your website to the top of the search engines, it all starts with a phone call (888-341-2551) or email. Give me a call and I’d love to discuss what I can do, or visit my website at http://www.WhereIsMyBusiness.com
I’m looking for a good PPC ‘spy’ program, and I’ve come across two (what seem to be) major players so far: SpyFu and KeywordSpy.
Do you use one of these? If so, what are your thoughts on it? Do you like it? Is it worth the money? How did you choose which to use?
If you use a different program altogether, what is it? What are the things you like about it?
So here’s something interesting. I recently did a search for ‘St Louis SEO‘ on Google. For the first time I noticed that there are some PPC results on the page, and perhaps they always were.
What concerns me is ‘St Louis SEO’ isn’t really a very competitive term. This isn’t exactly a hotbed for SEO services. So why would an SEO company use PPC instead of just rank for something that is what they do?
I can hear the phone conversation with some of these companies..
“Do you rank for the services you provide?”
“Yes, look on the righthand side of the page – we are near the top”
Recently USA Today did an article on Gray Googlers – people in their older years making money with Google’s AdSense program.
The article profiles several older people who have started niche websites and have put AdSense on their sites to generate income. One man claims to be a handyman that now makes $250k/year in adsense revenue. True? Probably.
What’s the catch? Quality content often. You can’t think you can put up a site and it’ll start bringing in the dough. You’ve got to put new content up, and you’ve got to do it a lot. It’s a lot of work, don’t let the numbers fool you.
Got this offer in my mail from the Yahoo! Publisher Network:
Get a $50 credit to your account, or save $50 on assisted setup – our expert starter service.
Call (866) 318-8151 and mention promo code USDMO158 or visit searchmarketing.yahoo.com/enter.
Need more information? Write us at LearnMore@yahoo-inc.com
This offer is only for US sponsored search accounts. So if you haven’t started an account yet, here’s a chance to get a $50 head start!
When I first jumped into PPC, I was all excited to get clicks to my affiliate site. I was disillusioned to think that everyone that visited my site would click through and apply for whatever it was I was presenting them. Boy was I wrong.
Not only did they not click through, but I was paying a fortune for those no-good clicks.
So how can I get people to my site without paying so much?
Well, start by targeting the third or fourth spot in PPC. Click to continue »
If you’re one of millions who are watching their PPC rather closely, and you want to have full control over things, you really need to watch out for messages from the PPC companies about scheduled maintenance. Click to continue »
Do you have a product that people may search for in a particular state? Want to attract those people to your site?
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Will Hanke is part husband, father, geek and all kickass SEO. Follow on Twitter or stalk elsewhere.
