SEO Myths

Like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, or Adam and Jamie trying to figure out if people really do catapult into the U.S. from Canda, there are several myths about SEO that need to be addressed.

Search engine marketing is the key to a successful on-line business. You can get search engine marketing training from e-books, on-line tutorials, or you can hire a search engine marketing specialist. Search engine marketing services have shown a growth of over 200% in the past two years...but that does not mean all marketers or firms are the same.

Because of the explosive growth of the Internet, SEO has moved to the forefront as the most affordable and best return on investment advertising vehicle. But to succeed you must have a realistic search engine marketing strategy that understands this online advertising medium. Every single website owner and webmaster knows, understands, and agrees that search engine marketing literally can provide, if done correctly and effectively, a very high amount of targetted and qualified traffic to purchase your goods and services. The problem many website owners face however is cost.

Search Engine Marketing vs. Search Engine Optimization

Believe it or not, there is a difference between optimization and marketing. Search Engine Optimization essentially concentrates upon optimizing your website pages so they are presented to the search engines and their spiders in a more appeasing matter which results in improved rankings. This specialty area is mainly concerned with free or organic search engine listings. Conversely, Search Engine Marketing involves high placement of your website and its pages primarily through purchasing paid listings as offered through Yahoo! or Google.

Thinking about Doing it Yourself?

We wish you all the luck in the world. Attempting SEO on a website that has stiff competition is a complex endeavor with sometimes answers that are not easy to find. Based upon our analysis over 73% of corporate accounts fail to understand the basic fundamentals; i.e. how to properly use keywords, meta tags and titles and worse, do not submit their web sites to top tier directories (Yahoo, LookSmart, OPD) and the hundreds of second tier directories.

Most companies delegate the search submissions to the webmaster or web site development staff and they lack the time and desire to understand the daunting complexities required to generate page one rankings or to stay abreast of the shifting submissions and ranking criteria standards, as modified monthly by top tier search engines. In many companies, the search ranking is added to the overworked webmaster tasks purely as an afterthought as opposed to being addressed formally by the marketing department, with dedicated personnel and a budget.

What About SEO Software Programs?

While roughly 5-10 years ago, software such as webpositiongold and now SEO elite could do an effective job at optimizing web pages. That of course was before the time of changing algorithms, toolbar queries and scraper sites. It takes a tremendous amount of labor and time to identify keyword sets (not just words), optimize the content for these keywords, submit the pages while obeying the rules of the road and then continually analyzing rankings and tweaking to maintain and drive rankings (web site visibility).

Software can certainly help to automate some facets of the process and be used for back end analysis, but do not expect any application to make the job easy, there is too much inherent complexity in the processes. And, competition for keyword sets is fierce since there are an estimated 10 million registered domains with 60,000 new domains being registered every day.

When to Hire a Professional SEM Firm?

According to a recent U.S. study, only 20% of all businesses outsource search engine optimization programs to professional SEM firms. The remaining 80% either do not conduct search engine optimization at all or they believe they have the resources and skills to do it in-house. Of this 80%, it is probable that 90% of these companies are not found on the web. In order to generate any amount of significant web visibility, your website must typically rank within the top 30 results.

From a business standpoint, it makes sense to try to leverage internal resources to maximize your productivity and profitability whenever possible. However, there must be a line drawn in the sand between knowing what your capabilities are and what they are not.

As you can see, there is more to search engine marketing than meets the eye. In order to implement and maintain a SEM program, you must acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and resources.

At Web Promotion Consultants, a professional search engine marketing firm, we have dedicated resources and experience to support your web marketing initiatives, whether commerical or personal. By leveraging our experience and know-how, your company can quickly and more efficiently implement a successful search engine optimization program.