SEO is Voodoo?

I honestly can’t believe some people still think that SEO is some kind of black magic or voodoo. I remember back in the old days of 2004 Brad Fallon and I were out hocking SEO services and we got the same reaction. Heck Home Depot looked at us like we had built a time machine and asking Nardelli to take it for its initial test drive.  But this is 2008 Google stock is over $500 a share and I still come across post that people think SEO guys are charlatans and scam artists. So let me set the record straight. SEO is for real and the tips and tricks used work and are necessary. If you are on the other side of this debate the reason you are is you don’t get it so I will spell it out for you.  This part is high on the redundancy factor but it must be done. SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Now is a in principle often paraphrased as “All things being equal, the simplest solution tends to be the best one.” In other words, when multiple competing theories are equal in other respects, the principle recommends selecting the theory that introduces the fewest assumptions and postulates the fewest hypothetical entities. It is in this sense that Occam’s razor is usually understood. Understand. Ok keep up. Lets look at the first two words “search engine”. These are the machines, like Google, that use complex algorithms, that’s math to your nonbelievers, that retrieve information off of a computer system. So now that we got that straight lets focus on the second word “optimization” now that is the idea of trying to find maxima and minima of a function. Since our function is to have our site rank well on the SERP’s we will focus on the maxima. For example if we were doing NASCAR optimization we would want to optimize our race car to win the race. Really low drag coefficient, good sticky tires, solid engine and so forth. So since we are doing Search Engine Optimization we want our web site to win on Google, Yahoo, and MSN. We want it to be optimized to win the search engine race. There are two parts to SEO, on page factors and off page factors. Or what you do to your site and what you do on your site. More on these later but you have to do both to rank well. So here is where I end the debate since there are Search Engines and they are built on mathematical function you can optimize your web site to work in conjunction with there algorithms then SEO is real.

Eye Tracking and Banner Blindness

All this talk about foveal eye gaze and eye tracking has one wondering that we may be missing out on the most important part and that is ease of use. OK so you can see what people see when they come to your site and you have optimized you site to work to over come the foveal eye gaze issue but what if your site is confusing to  very audience you are trying to attract.  If customers think that some of the site information you present is really  advertising information they are likely to skip right over it or go some were else.So how do you put convert important information into a graphical banner and keep your customer from ignoring it. Simplicity and continuity. Don’t have a your site in say pink and have a big ad or discount coupon in red. Customers will bounce. For example look at these two sites selling the same items both what to engage the customer but look at site one.   The live chat button is RED and LOUD and does not flow with the rest of the theme of the site, this can cause a guest to skip right over intended objective. Yes I know you want them to buy not chat but just to give you and idea.    Or look at Wedding Favors to Go. The Live chat button compliments the site and has a better chance of being clicked, we know this because we test. When we used a bold non site related color we saw a .5% decrease in click thoughts than the same live person button with the new color. Now that may not seem like much but in the world of conversions it means everything.     

Is SEO for Real

Performing SEO just once leads to long term performance

We would all like to go to the doctor for a cure once and keep healthy for the rest of our lives. SEO is a strategy, and as any marketing strategy it has to be continuously readjusted to the realities of the search engine market. SEO is made up of two components: the basic site optimisation carried out upon signing the contract - which constitutes a large part of the work involved - and smaller website changes that are required due to monthly or unexpected shifts in the search engine market. The basic site optimisation is the part of the SEO which should be carried out only once. Unlike any other medium, the online market is the most dynamic and fast changing for a business to evolve in. That is why month to month changes in search engine algorithms require continuous attention.

Long term success comes easy with a bit of effort

Any SEO campaign is based on analysing factors, creating a strategy that addresses those factors and achieving success when carried out. Search engines use up to 100 factors to rank sites and the required time scale to obtain visible results is of several months. Therefore, considerable effort, time and patience are involved in a sustained SEO campaign with long-lasting effects.

Paying can get you right at the top

Most major search engines have algorithms that rank sites by relevance for a particular keyword. However, there are some search engines that display sponsored listings at the top of the results page. So yes, you can pay to get to the top. Unfortunately, once the money runs out and the sponsored listings are replaced with others, your site is dropped. User studies reveal that most surfers ignore paid results in favour of organic results because they consider paid results to be less relevant to their search due to their commercial nature. However, recent months have seen development that made sponsored listings more and more similar in look and feel to organic, natural search engine results. This means that a larger percentage of web surfers mistake them for organic results.

Submitting to hundreds of search engines can bring you unlimited traffic

Submitting to hundreds of search engines is always done automatically, not manually and as a result, there is no guarantee as to where in the results pages your site will appear. That means that despite the hundreds of submissions your site will remain as unknown to users as it was before. Even if some of the submissions were successful and you were to receive visits as a result, the traffic is often one that doesn’t convert into sales, making the ROI virtually non existent.

In house SEO is more efficient

It may appear, to start with, that performing SEO in house is more cost effective. Truth be told, you still have to take in consideration staff training, gaining access to essential industry tools and information and that requires time, effort and money. Letting untrained staff perform SEO can be risky as search engines carry out penalties for breaking quality guidelines. However, working closely with a SEO that provides consultancy and training can be a solid long-term solution. In time, your staff will be properly prepared to take over all or some SEO activities.

ROI and Leads from SEO don’t count

Some people don’t consider SEO to be a true marketing solution and they discount the importance of leads resulting from it. You have to remember that compared to the traditional environment, Internet marketing involves lower costs with measurable results. In some industries, the number of online leads might be much greater than those obtained in the offline environment but the conversion rate might be lower, thus bringing search engine marketing on par with traditional marketing.

Paying for “guaranteed rankings” programmes can get you right at the top

No SEO has the ability or knowledge to predict changes in the online market and in search engine algorithms. Hence, they cannot guarantee top results unless it is for obscure and unprofitable keywords. Customers have to be careful to what guarantees SEO bring to the table.

SEO is too expensive

SEO is not a cost, it’s an investment and like any investment it brings a measurable return. Think in terms of ROI, not in terms of cost.

SEO Contracts

Performing SEO just once leads to long term performance

We would all like to go to the doctor for a cure once and keep healthy for the rest of our lives. SEO is a strategy, and as any marketing strategy it has to be continuously readjusted to the realities of the search engine market. SEO is made up of two components: the basic site optimisation carried out upon signing the contract - which constitutes a large part of the work involved - and smaller website changes that are required due to monthly or unexpected shifts in the search engine market. The basic site optimisation is the part of the SEO which should be carried out only once. Unlike any other medium, the online market is the most dynamic and fast changing for a business to evolve in. That is why month to month changes in search engine algorithms require continuous attention.

Long term success comes easy with a bit of effort

Any SEO campaign is based on analysing factors, creating a strategy that addresses those factors and achieving success when carried out. Search engines use up to 100 factors to rank sites and the required time scale to obtain visible results is of several months. Therefore, considerable effort, time and patience are involved in a sustained SEO campaign with long-lasting effects.

Paying can get you right at the top

Most major search engines have algorithms that rank sites by relevance for a particular keyword. However, there are some search engines that display sponsored listings at the top of the results page. So yes, you can pay to get to the top. Unfortunately, once the money runs out and the sponsored listings are replaced with others, your site is dropped. User studies reveal that most surfers ignore paid results in favour of organic results because they consider paid results to be less relevant to their search due to their commercial nature. However, recent months have seen development that made sponsored listings more and more similar in look and feel to organic, natural search engine results. This means that a larger percentage of web surfers mistake them for organic results.

Submitting to hundreds of search engines can bring you unlimited traffic

Submitting to hundreds of search engines is always done automatically, not manually and as a result, there is no guarantee as to where in the results pages your site will appear. That means that despite the hundreds of submissions your site will remain as unknown to users as it was before. Even if some of the submissions were successful and you were to receive visits as a result, the traffic is often one that doesn’t convert into sales, making the ROI virtually non existent.

In house SEO is more efficient

It may appear, to start with, that performing SEO in house is more cost effective. Truth be told, you still have to take in consideration staff training, gaining access to essential industry tools and information and that requires time, effort and money. Letting untrained staff perform SEO can be risky as search engines carry out penalties for breaking quality guidelines. However, working closely with a SEO that provides consultancy and training can be a solid long-term solution. In time, your staff will be properly prepared to take over all or some SEO activities.

ROI and Leads from SEO don’t count

Some people don’t consider SEO to be a true marketing solution and they discount the importance of leads resulting from it. You have to remember that compared to the traditional environment, Internet marketing involves lower costs with measurable results. In some industries, the number of online leads might be much greater than those obtained in the offline environment but the conversion rate might be lower, thus bringing search engine marketing on par with traditional marketing.

Paying for “guaranteed rankings” programmes can get you right at the top

No SEO has the ability or knowledge to predict changes in the online market and in search engine algorithms. Hence, they cannot guarantee top results unless it is for obscure and unprofitable keywords. Customers have to be careful to what guarantees SEO bring to the table.

SEO is too expensive

SEO is not a cost, it’s an investment and like any investment it brings a measurable return. Think in terms of ROI, not in terms of cost.