I got a featured article in my email the other day from SEO News written by Gary McHugh from Web Reunited. Normally I don’t put down other peoples’ articles, but this one I will make an exception for simply because I’m seeing more and more of these types of articles popping up.
In the jist the article basically protests the whole SEO practice. It’s point in case is that search engine traffic doesn’t convert as well as link partner traffic and is a waste of time considering how much effort goes into it. I have to agree with Gary on a few points. SEO is hard work and doesn’t pay off for everyone. I won’t bother arguing whether or not search engine traffic converts better, because one quick look at his site will show you 2,000+ links on an automated link directory script and only 53 people signed his petition. The point is already made for me.
My point is simple and I don’t intend to pick on Gary’s particular article. There’s plenty of these type of articles out there urging people to quit trying to optimize their site for search engines because it’s not worth the investment, whether that investment be time or money.
DON’T LISTEN TO THESE ARTICLES! They are not written by marketing experts. The people writing these articles will never receive job offers from Sony to join their marketing team. Why? Because marketing is based off of an extremely simple concept. It doesn’t matter what your return on investment is with your marketing efforts as long as it is profitable.
When I first started my brick n mortar business a lady from the local radio station came in to have a meeting with me. She asked me how I currently advertise. I told her my primary way was flyers in the newspaper. She wanted to know how much I spent on my ads, and I let her know it was $X,XXX /per ad. She wanted to know my return, and I pulled my figures and said $XX,XXX/per ad. She was shocked. She told me that if I quit advertising with the newspaper ad and switched to radio I could run an ad for a whole month for the same money and since radio has such great demographics I could make a larger return on my advertising investment.
This essentially is the same thing these people are trying to sell you. Sounds reasonable right? I just have one question about it? If I KNOW that every time I run a newspaper ad I will generate a profit from it why would I ever quit running the ad?That would be stupid. I can still try radio as long as the budget fits, and if the radio really does turn out a larger ROI than the newspaper ad. Great, I’ll simply do both!
I’ll make my point. Search engine traffic is free. Even if you are not great at SEO or your attempts completely fail, you can still pull in some traffic from the search engines. The traffic is consistent. The traffic converts. No matter how low the conversion rate may be, a sale is a sale. Why turn it down.
Keep optimizing your sites people, and for fuck sake authors, quit wasting your and our time by writing articles on ways NOT to market our sites. All they mean to us is one less competitor.
Side note: For those of you who are wondering, the radio ads converted about the same. Also, I didn’t put the x’s to hide anything from you or to give any advice about newspaper/radio investments. I’m just not comfortable disclosing private company information and the actual numbers were irrelevant.
organic search traffic generates 100 million dollars a day in us transactions or somethin like that. now i dont know how that number stacks up against print and tv media, but those are nowhere near as targeted. these self proclaimed marketing experts need to pass the pipe
I think if you optimise the pages properly, i.e. when a person searches for “cheap mobile phones”, your page that sells “cheap mobile phones” or promotes it, would have a good conversion rate. It really depends on how we use SEO.
“It doesn’t matter what your return on investment is with your marketing efforts as long as it is profitable.”
Well said and it’s true. And, the more sites you build and the more you practice seo the better you get.
I remember when I first started I would create sites and work on them forever and never make any money. Now it’s a different story. I created a site last week selling ebay products and already made a fast forty bucks.
You get better with practice.
Hmm, you are so right, I read garbage about the SE’s all the time, and just laugh to myself.
Lol so true
Perfect example to make the point !
The information you provided was very useful. Because of your help, thank you
This is a nice example of how they should be approached.
Another great post.
nice Example man
good work
Yeah it surely is
As long as the ROI is correct, why should you cancel any advertising stream? It simply adds up to your business!
When you think of happy
It’s all about the art of putting your content in front of a hungry set of eyeballs.
7Your place is valueble for me. Thanks!…
0I so enjoyed every bit of this site and I’ve bookmarked your blog to keep up with the new topics you will post in the future
This is a great example. Thank you for sharing
I do agree with all of the ideas you have presented in your post. They’re really convincing and will definitely work. Still, the posts are too short for newbies. Could you please extend them a bit from next time? Thanks for the post.
I’ll second that
good linking thinking !
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Great Post Eli
Hmm, you are so right, I read garbage about the SE’s all the time, and just laugh to myself.
use, and have some more good features. Try to learn all new version to be smart developer.
I’m big fan of wordpress MU
Miami SEO 2,000+ links on an automated link directory script and only 53 people signed his petition. The point is already made for me.