SoloSEO

SEO vs. Paid Search Marketing Clash

Posted by Aaron R Stewart on February 13th, 2007

If you have not gone over and read about the tussle between Dave Pasternack and SEO pros, you must take a minute to review it, it has been quite entertaining. Our friend Michael Gray has jumped in with both feet, and his post called Dave Pasternack of Did-it.com – How to Fix Your Problem is an excellent place to get a good overview of the feud. Essentially Dave Pasternack has come out saying SEO isn’t “rocket science,” and it has caused a bit of a stir among the SEO ranks. Pasternack claims he gave up SEO years ago, and now considers himself a PPC expert, and co-founded a company that consults and assists firms with their paid search campaigns. It is his opinion that SEO is a “Fix-it-Once” Task, not an Ongoing Service. It is this statement where Mr. Pasternack loses credibility. It would be nice for all of us small business owners if SEO really was a quick, one-time fix, but instead it is an ongoing and unrelenting pursuit. Not only to keep our sites optimized to do well in SERPs, but also to stay ahead of our competitors, competing for the same keywords in the same marketplace. I think this point gets glossed over by many discussing SEO. As a business person first, I personally don’t care if I show up as #1 on a SERP, I just want to show up above my nearest competitor for the same or similar products and services. Some markets will be more volatile than others, but keeping an eye on competitors, and their movements in the SERPs will always be important, and most likely a moving target. The importance of competitor watchdogging will continue to increase as more firms figure out the benefits of online marketing, and begin to implement SEO and Paid Search techniques.

So personally, I have no problem with the use of well researched, and wisely created PPC campaigns, and well managed SEO techniques; there is a place for both practices, and using one without the other doesn’t make much sense. The first step however is to SEO your site and get it optimized for the traffic which the PPC ads will hopefully drive to it. I have noticed Paid Search only gurus occasionally suggest SEO pros use “scare tactics” to encourage long-term service contracts, but unfortunately the Paid Search guys do the same thing, making site owners nervous about doing PPC campaigns themselves, and perhaps blowing their opportunity to do well. PPC isn’t too tough either, don’t let either of the two groups scare you, just realize both take some expertise, and some patience to LEARN. The main reason there is demand for these two services is they both can be overwhelming if you don’t understand them, and they are both work.

As an example, 5 years ago I use to sit down and do my business and personal taxes myself, I even used TurboTax a few times. Even with all the Turbo Tax tools it took quite a bit of time, it wasn’t rocket science, and I got the job done, but frankly I did not enjoy it, even though a sizable refund was my eventual reward. Now with a dozen different business running, and less time, and no patience for our screwed-up tax system, I love the fact I can pay someone, an expert, to do all that work for me. I could do it, but I don’t want to, I have other pressing matters more important to me. There is the SEO and Paid Search services in a nutshell. The tools, advice to do both are out there to learn, but whether someone has the time or desire to learn and do them on their own, is completely another issue. I will also admit there is some increasing art to the SEO process when we consider link baiting, creating a buzz and social marketing aspects into the online equation.

Finally, there will be times when all the SEO and Paid Search in the world isn’t going to get you anywhere, as marketing results will depend on the industry you are marketing within. One of our companies has a very nice site, it is SEOed well, and we have been running solid PPC campaigns for the most appropriate keywords in the industry, but we have gained little traffic and only a few leads a month. We know the industry well, we know our service is widely sought after, we know we are priced nicely, but we still don’t have the business we know we could have. So last week we headed Orlando to exhibit at a large trade show in this industry. The results were amazing, our service was highly sought after and well received. We heard comments like “where have you guys been?” or “we have been looking for something like this for years,” from booth visitors. So the golden question… where were our potential clients looking when they couldn’t find us? The answer… obviously not online. Make sure you know your potential clients, and where they are most likely to be searching to find you, if it isn’t online, then adjust to help them find you some other way.

The world continues to move online, and will continue to do so in an ever increasing pace, but not everyone is there yet. Marketing is the art of getting the firm’s message to potential clients, wherever they may be, even if it is offline. So getting your site’s SEO in line now will pay dividends in the future, but it may not be the end-all, be-all marketing home run you want it to be right now, especially if your future clients just aren’t online yet.

Add comment Visited 5646 times February 13th, 2007 Aaron R Stewart

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Benefits of Elusivity in Internet Marketing

Posted by Michael D Jensen on February 12th, 2007

The words “elusivity” (being difficult to describe, detect, or grasp) and “Internet Marketing” are not words I would typically join in a sentence (no one else in the world either). But after doing a tradeshow this last week for one of our companies I found there are many benefits to “elusivity” in marketing, and that these could certainly be applied to Internet Marketing. And in case you’re wondering, yes I will explain the picture here…but you’ll have to read on.

The Tradeshow Experience – Learning about Elusivity

If any of you have been to a tradeshow before, you know the drill. A fancy stand-up booth lining the back of the 10′ x 10′ has exciting pictures and sometimes colors on it, usually with some buzz words and pictures of the product. The sales reps there are always standing, no chairs are even around for them to sit on. This not only saves $400 in renting chairs, but keeps the sales reps on their toes (for 4 days) so they are out in the front of the booth grabbing people’s attention with irresistible one line questions like “So what do you do?”.

Our booth was a bit different. No fancy stand-up booth, just a vinyl sign with our company name and logo, a slogan, and our domain name. We had 4 chairs and a round table, at which my partner and I sat at with our MacBook Pro’s (laptops) open. The other 2 chairs were situated for demonstrations of our software. Our booth was situated at the end of an aisle, and we lined up the vinyl banner with the aisle instead of central to our booth (in web design this would be like a “violator“).

We noticed that about 60-70% of people came by and asked us “So what do you do?”. The great majority of those were our target market, and we were able to get them to sit down for a brief demo and exchange contact information. This kept us quite busy during the tradeshow. Interestingly, it wasn’t our slogan (which has a bit of elusivity in it) as much as it was our business name (which really isn’t too elusive but not completely self-defining). It ate at people to walk by and not know what we do, especially seeing two guys typing away at their laptops not trying to hound them. Not only did we get a lot of leads, we also got a lot of work done!

The Leafy Sea Dragon

My parents and my own family went to SeaWorld before the tradeshow, you know, Shamu and the whole deal. One of the exhibits was various types of fish and sea creatures. One of them appeared at first to just be a bunch of coral and sea weed. My mom’s first reaction was to just keep walking past it, nothing moving, nothing to see. Having been familiar with this species, I pointed out to her that there was actually something living in there, the Leafy Sea Dragon (see picture). These creatures are amazing, one of the ultimates in camouflage. After realizing it wasn’t just coral and sea weed, the exhibit became all the more interesting and exciting for her. The elusivity of it makes your brain perk up and directs your attention away from whatever you were doing to this new object. Hey, that sounds like something that would be nice for Internet Marketing!

Elusivity in PPC

When writing ads for pay-per-click (PPC), our first reaction is to say everything. Obviously we don’t have enough space to do that, as you are typically limited to a title line and two text lines, plus your domain name. Instead of trying to give away everything in your ad, why not try to create a question or “wonder” in the minds of your ad readers, to first draw them into your site, but then to have the question answered and fulfilled. Now don’t lie to me in your PPC ad just to get me to click it, or else I will be upset and have negative associations with your brand. Instead, create a gap (or make us realize there is a gap) and then fill it when I come to your site. Don’t make me search for it either, it should be right there for me to find and learn about.

But how do I do that? Obviously every product/service is different. A good place to start is to identify what your customer is missing or lacking, the reason they are looking for you. Then fill the gap with how your product/service handles that, and why it is unique in its own way.

Elusivity in Search Marketing

This gets a little tougher because we can’t control it directly like PPC. You can optimize your site’s search engine snippets and create elusivity in there, if it applies. You can also do it all on one page, starting the page with grabbing their interest, creating a question that they can expect to get answered. They keep reading and hopefully go on to a sales or lead conversion.

Now certainly I am not saying that elusivity is the answer to Internet Marketing, it is one form of it. It has its place with certain parts of your audience. It can make a lasting memory of your audience’s first encounter with your product or service, by taking their brain off of its usual path and onto a “see gap/fill gap” experience.

There are obviously many other ways to benefit from elusivity. E-newsletters for example, are a great way to capture readers at the top fold of the newsletter, and get them to read on or click through.

What other ways can elusivity help in Internet Marketing?

2 comments Visited 3573 times February 12th, 2007 Michael D Jensen

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Local Search SEO from 20 Experts

Posted by Michael D Jensen on February 5th, 2007

Michael Gray, AKA Gray Wolf, has started a series called Local Search Tips, Tricks & Secrets where he is interviewing 20 SEO experts about local search. He has already done four of them, with Aaron Wall (SEOBook), Dean Bloomfield, Bill Slawski, and Scott Smith.

Aaron Wall, in his interview, has some great advice for starting local search SEO:

Due to their trust and authority many of the large traditional business directories rank well across a broad array of local terms, and even for the official names of many local businesses. Before a local business spends money submitting to any of these business directories they should make sure they submit to the Yahoo! Directory, DMOZ, and get at least a few other links so they have enough link equity to outrank the general directories for their own brand specific searches, and hopefully some more general local ones as well.

and he continues by giving some detailed suggestions for where to find links…

To promote a local business one should get local links (like the local chamber of commerce, other affiliated local businesses, local government sites, donate to / sponsor local charities), links from general authorizes (news sites and large general directories like Yahoo! and DMOZ), and links from industry related authorities (like trade organizations, niche publications, niche blogs, and niche directories).

Keep up with the interviews of the list of experts to help with your local search SEO.

Add comment Visited 5677 times February 5th, 2007 Michael D Jensen

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Jumping on Keywords When they are Hot

Posted by Michael D Jensen on January 30th, 2007

Recently a big story hit the news about Google modifying their algorithm to fix googlebombing. When news hit, my first instinct was to start buying PPC ads for classic googlebombing phrases, like miserable failure. It was a good instinct, as we got some decent traffic from our market audience who, just like me, needed to see it for themselves in the search results.

I wasn’t the only one that started advertising, as there was at least one other company that had an ad up on Google. And interestingly, Rand posted about predicting search queries over the weekend.

A very similar situation happened to me a few months ago after Aaron Wall posted about the keyword “trust rank” and how it wasn’t being utilized at all by PPC campaigns (can’t find the post, sorry Aaron). Being the thinker I am, I created a page about Trust Rank as well as Page Rank, and then created a simple PPC ad and put it up. Minutes later…traffic. Not a whole lot, but definitely traffic from our market audience.

Being able to predict search queries would be fantastic. However, I think being observant (reading blogs, talking with people, being attentive in your audience’s shoes) will keep you in the game and help you to catch search terms quicker than others. This not only applies to PPC, but also to blogging, where if you can get to your audience before other communities do, then you’re more likely to get further credit when they blog or comment.

3 comments Visited 5003 times January 30th, 2007 Michael D Jensen

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