Breaking Down The Hype
Search Engine Optimization
SEO has been the forefront of many business meetings in the past several years, but today SEO has evolved into a proven skill that is viable in the Marketing industry and in-house SEO teams are being formed on a daily basis.
What’s all the hype?
Smart business owners understand that the online market is not simply another market. With the tools that are available to Internet Marketers today, it is fairly easy to collect data on your customer-base like never before. With the use of proper research, compelling content, and tracking tools, the online market is far more than just another market…it is a better market!
What do I mean by this?
All customers are good customers, so don’t misread this, but I prefer an online consumer 3-1 over a “brick and mortar” visitor. Here is the short list on why:
All communications are in writing which avoids confusion and streamlines procedure.
Reduced Customer Acquisition Costs
Inventory Tracking is Streamline
Form of Payment is Guaranteed
Bookkeeping is Streamline
With just these qualities, you can see how online sales are able to prevail in price points and customer service values over the traditional retail storefront. The vast reduction in labor and time requirements allows a deeper budget for marketing your online presence.
So, How Do I Get My Business Online and Visible Fast?
Web Design costs have significantly reduced with the competitive markets of site builders, templates, scripts, and the increased number of qualified web designers graduating from colleges around the world everyday, so the production of a website is not typically the difficult issue in this equation. The visibility part, now that’s an entirely different story. There are hundreds of thousands of places to market a website, so what’s the best way to be visible?
My standard answer to that question is “what’s the budget”? In this case, we’ll assume the budget is next to nothing, since that’s the budget I started with. I remember one point when I had $600 left when I finished my second online venture. So, how would you market a new website for $600…you wouldn’t unless you were able to utilize the immense power of FREE internet advertising or what we call “Search Engine Optimization”. Don’t let the word fool you, although SEO is primarily focused on harvesting the power of major search directories and their traffic, there is always an emphasis on creating content and tools that increase the chances of each visitor becoming a sale. If I were to put my last $600 into any one thing it would most certainly be SEO.
Please do not take this article as a way to diminish or reduce the value of paid search and internet marketing. No website can sustain a marketable presence online without all 3 main elements:
Paid Search and Banner Marketing
Continuous Engagement and Content Production
Search Engine Optimization
The main benefit to SEO is simple; it’s free if you have no value in your time. The second biggest benefit in SEO is that it is trusted by the consumer and online trust is a very valuable asset in conversion rates.
Online consumers want to feel that they have reached a person or business that has a resolution to their problem for a value that cannot be matched in a retail atmosphere, and from a transaction that was safe and supportive.
The major search engines have already established that trust to the consumer and they realize that the free listings must be earned by proving themselves to the search engines and no amount of money can buy those listings. With this foundation of trust, the consumer is already half-sold by the time they see your website.
So, if you’re looking for a constant stream of customers that actually buy, then SEO is the right foundation of any campaign.