127 SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMSATION: SE..OH NO..
How many times a week is your business approached by companies promising first page rankings on Google or similar digital marketing miracles? BY SIMON WISHY OF VOCO VERITAS
T
he fact is that businesses are becoming disillusioned with the stream of “expert” agencies,
and self-proclaimed gurus hawking these questionable solutions, and the hard truth is most of them only have a rudimentary understanding of SEO or Search Engine Optimisation (the pro- cess of optimising your website to get organic, or un-paid, traffic from search engine results pages). Unfortunately the barriers to entry
for this kind of business are very low: Proclaim you are an expert, give a decent sales pitch and you can charge clients from £200 to £2000/month for SEO, with the caveat that “it takes time” (meaning at least 90 days). By the time the first three months have passed you are heavily invested in a process that is often frustrating, non-productive, and sometimes even downright fraudulent. Voice your concerns and they often
explain it will “take a little more time” and “we don’t want to loose the founda- tion of the work we have already done”. They often lobby for continuity and another 2-3 months of fees. Businesses of all types fall victim to these amateur attempts at digital mar- keting – from local start-ups to well-es- tablished large companies. When there are no results the vendors typically have another arsenal of excuses: “Google have changed their algorithm” “You need to spend more to get better results” “We need more time” (again) “But you are now number 1 (or 2, or 3) for the phrase “snorkelling in Dartmouth” (Or other phrases that have no commercial value and/or zero searches/month). With so many businesses now having their share of SEO misadventures it is not surprising that the marketplace for this important cornerstone of digital marketing strategy is suffering a wide- spread lack of credibility. If you are going to invest in web-
site optimisation here are a few SEO survival guidelines: 1. SEO companies must offer some insight into the return-on-investment (ROI) their programmes will generate. 2. They should ask questions about
your business model, including average sale value, profit margins and current site performance. Without a clear understanding of your business model, how can your SEO budget be properly invested to produce the right results? 3. Educate yourself on which search terms really matter. It is all too common for an agency to proclaim how they have achieved number one on Google for phrases that have little commercial value or a tiny number of searches each month on the major Search Engines. Here is a classic example relating to car leasing taken from a real business: An agency was retained by a car leas-
ing company to gain rank for phrases relating to business car leasing. The re- port they provided at monthly intervals tracked keyword phrases such as: “car leasing for new businesses” “new business car lease” “business car leasing Devon” The agency made slow, plodding
progress for this handful of phrases and a few others. Six months (and £6,000) later, the client was mystified why the number of enquiries on their website had barely increased. The explanation is that there are a
total of 110 searches/month across the UK for all of the above listed search terms combined. Almost no one uses these phrases to find a car lease. If only the car leasing company
had known that making progress on a phrase like “business car lease”, would have produced dramatically different re- sults; This term has a documented 9900 searches/month on
Google.co.uk. Gaining a top 5 rank in the search
results for that phrase would have produced significant value. The calculation for how many site
visits would result from that rank is summarised here:
Searches 9900
Position On
Google 1 2 3 4 5
% of audience clicking on the listing
34% 16% 11% 6% 5%
Actual site visits
3366 1584 1089 594 495
So reaching number 2 in the organic listings in this case would send 1584 new visitors to the website, for that one keyword alone. So following this math how many vis-
its would be produced reaching number one on Google for “car leasing for new businesses”; “new business car lease”; “business car leasing devon”? That’s it.
37 visits.
About Simon Wishy Simon will already be known to many local businesses who have worked with him on developing their online strategies and also from a popular series of seminars By The Dart ran jointly with Simon approximately 6-7 years ago. Simon has over 25 years of professional involvement with the internet and brings a pragmatic and ROI focused approach to helping companies get the best from their investment in digital marketing. About Voco Veritas Based in Dartington, the consultancy works with a diverse portfolio of clients across Europe and North America. “We have meticulously developed
and tested our unique methodology and world-class suite of analytical tools. For every client we bring all of our expertise to bear on one outcome: cre- ating a highly profitable and sustainable presence online. Our advice is based on decades of
real-world commercial experience with clients ranging from major retailers to mining companies; aerospace contrac- tors to art galleries; from celebrities to construction firms.” “We create bespoke digital strategies based on real-time data & a clear under- standing of your business model and have helped to launch & manage 100s of profitable online businesses.”
By The Dart invites you to a FREE SEMINAR (by Simon) on ‘THE MYTHS OF DIGITAL MARKETING’, The Flavel, October 25th
- see page 10
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