International Search Engine Marketing Blog

P. Arkwright, of Business Services U.K., kindly contributed the following post:

These days one of the most widely used terms on the Internet is ‘SEO Expert’. It still amazes me how anyone can claim to be an expert in any field without any formal qualifications. This does not even take into account the fact that Search Engines oftentimes have elusive policies and their ranking criteria can change. Take it from me there really is no such person as an SEO Expert outside search engine organisations.

Most of these self appointed experts spend their time hanging around forums, in the hope of finding gullible clients. Their services do not come cheap; they are known to charge a client anything from £1,000 to £150,000 for their work, with no long term guarantees.

I have often caused a stir in these forums by asking a simple question, “How can you offer SEO services, when your own sites have little to no PR and extremely poor SERPS”. As you can imagine this question instantly causes a stir, panic starts to set in as these amateurs start to see £’s disappearing before their eyes. They quickly compose themselves and write an articulate response stating they are far too busy to spend time optimising their own site. I simply reply, “You seem to find the time to post on this forum on a regular basis”. That question is generally the final straw for that particular band of raconteurs. They either pack up their bags and move on to infest another forum or they keep quiet for a few weeks in the hope the thread is soon forgotten. The cleverest operators become forum moderators. This is a first class move, since their status as a moderator adds weight to their services and with one click of a mouse they can ban competing providers or people who ask the “wrong” questions.

There are many SEO providers who fully understand the fundamentals of optimisation and over the short term have the ability to move any site higher in the search rankings. However let there be no illusion, few reputable organizations will ever offer any long term guarantees and it is generally best to watch out if they do.

My advice to anyone looking to use the services of a SEO provider is to stay well clear of forums and only use the services of a provider whose own sites are well ranked for numerous keywords or phrases.

Search engine optimization and search engine marketing are not the same. Rather SEO is a one part of SEM. SEO focuses on top search rankings, which are certainly important in any internet marketing campaign whether local or international. However, SEM takes search engine optimization to the next level. Instead of focusing entirely on high search positions, a SEM campaign encourages individuals who click on a website’s link to then contact the website’s owner or purchase a product or service from the site.

Many website’s have top positions in the search engines, but still fail to achieve any meaningful return on the investment spent in obtaining these top rankings. The same companies or individuals who own these websites oftentimes hired a search engine optimization firm in order to achieve these results. Even after spending all that money, little or no return on investment is seen. 

Not surprisingly these marketers will call the SEO firm they hired and unfortunately a common response is, “We did our job. Take a look at the rankings, the rest is up to you” or “We have another package you may want to consider purchasing…” I cannot count the number of times a prospect has told me such a story or one analogous to this.

What is a webmaster or marketer to do? Fix it. It does not matter the size of your campaign or if your target demographic is local, national, or even international. The positive news is that anyone who already has top search rankings is one step closer to owning a profitable website. I suggest taking the next step and follow through on the efforts of the previous SEO company. Devote resources to take your site to the next level and start monetizing the traffic obtained from the high search position. This could include doing the work on your own or hiring a company such as the one I own to help with your efforts. Either way additional time is needed to make the site profitable. 

For those who have yet to hire a marketer or SEO company then my best advice is to learn from others who did and remember there is much more to internet advertising than a top listing in Google, Yahoo, or MSN. Search engine marketing takes into account these other considerations. 

Typically a search engine marketing campaign includes SEO. However, that is all that is in common. There is a reason most people visits the first page of a website then hit the back button on their browser. There are thousands of items to keep in mind regarding the design and content of a website, all of which influence whether a visitor will stay on the site or click away. One of the more common reasons visitors leave a website is that it lacks something to grabs the visitors’ attentions and there are no calls to action of any type. Another typical reason is that a page does not meet the visitors’ expectations.

Fortunately, marketers and webmasters do not have to guess. Installing a comprehensive analytics program is oftentimes a smart starting point. This way visitor browsing habits are tracked and marketers can modify a site based on data rather than assumptions. What one should modify based upon this data requires a whole new blog posting. One of the key takeaways from this post is to remember that while SEO is important, it is only part of a well thought out search engine marketing campaign.

Often when talking to international or local clients and prospects about SEO, they mention their site shows up in the Top 10 search results for a particular phrase under which a million plus other results appear.

However, what many people fail to realize is that it is not the size of the haystack that matters, but rather the competitiveness of the website within it. For instance when’ typing “brown food” into Google, the blue search bar above the listings will include the text “Results 1 - 10 of about 125,000,000”, yet when “SEO company” is typed into the search box Google displays the following “Results 1 - 10 of about 22,100,000” (see the bottom of this post for an image).

What can we ascertain from this? The number of results is not of huge importance. Despite the fact that more results appear for “brown food” it is much easier for a SEM company or firm to optimize a site for this keyword phrase than “SEO company”. Why is this case? Simply, there is little value associated to the phrase “brown food”. Conversely, there is an enormous value in ranking number one for “SEO company”.

The bottom line is that even if a large number of results appear for a keyword phrase it does not mean that the phrase is competitive. Now, how does knowing this help when advertising on the internet? It helps dispel a fallacy that many less ethical or knowledgeable SEO sales people use when selling their services. When marketing a website, either on your own or with a company, it helps to know fact from the fiction. Hopefully this blog post will make it that much easier to separate the two if you are ever presented with this myth.

How many get rich quick ideas or internet marketing schemes have you heard of? Likely, many more than you can count. How many of them have worked for you? I’d be amazed if you can name even one. Almost everyone who is not rich wants to become rich, quickly and in as little time as possible. The fact of the matter is that rarely happens. Wealth oftentimes takes time, perseverance, and savvy. The same is true with SEO and SEM.

Who wouldn’t want their website to appear as the number one listing in Google for a competitive phrase, with no wait time? An effective SEO campaign can achieve top search rankings, but in almost all instances, it will not happen overnight. Search engine optimization and marketing take time. As any internet advertiser knows, it takes time to develop a strategic outline, conduct proper research, perform the needed work, and then still more time is required before the results of all the above efforts are reflected in the search engines.

The positive news is that those who are patient can achieve wealth with a properly executed SEO campaign; simply do not expect it to happen instantly. Top search rankings can generate an enormous amount of traffic for a website and significantly increase a site’s revenues. Wealth and obtaining it through SEO can and does happen.

While this post is about SEO, please keep in mind that it is still only part of a search engine marketing campaign. Website owners who generate the highest levels of income realize this.