Special thanks to:
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#1
10-06-2004
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Is SEO cheating your customers?
What percentage of business websites actually look to the greater consumer public or multi-national markets for their business and how effective is Search Engine Optimization (SEO) marketing for them?
Lets have a look why businesses have a website: < The pea**** – look at my lovely feathers; an online, accessible, marketing brochure for new business contacts, the company will supply them with the URL < The Octopus - A business and client wide area intranet for business critical processes < The Elephant - A presence to impress and educate existing clients in the complete business offering < The Sheep – everyone has a web-presence today < The Venus-Fly-Trap - A marketing tool to develop additional business through online marketing Only in the final case (The Venus-Fly-Trap) will it be necessary for potential clients to ‘find’ a site on the Internet, as the alternatives will locate the site through other means, which brings us to the second question; how effective is SEO for Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)? In my opinion, “Most companies do not need exposure to a global or even a national audience”, and as such do not necessarily need to be well located in the major search engines. I will go into the discrepancies of this statement below. Meanwhile lets have a look at the logic behind the statement that in essence states that spending marketing cash on the large search engines is a not an efficient usage of resources and does not give a reasonable return on investment (ROI). The reality of business is that most companies in the world are Small or Medium Enterprises (SMEs). In fact across every business sector most businesses fit within the SME sector. In addition, in the USA only 10% of businesses even trade outside of their immediate resident state. SMEs need to be divided for marketing purposes in to Business to Consumer (B2C) and Business-to-Business (B2B), as there are very clear differences in the way they need to market. In the discussions below I am not entering in to the Internet advertising sphere, as this is a separate argument. B2B Firstly, a clear majority of small businesses are focused on B2B markets and are not looking to attract large numbers of Internet users but small, specialized groups of potential clients to their ‘Venus-Fly Trap”. The Internet allows them to gain an additional channel to new clients in targeted additional markets, only in this case of attracting additional clients from new markets, is the Internet relevant as a low-cost marketing tool. A great placement, if it was possible, in a major search engine may aid, or even, hinder this process. The most cost-efficient and effective means for these companies to market on the Internet is to ensure that they rank well in the sector-relevant trade directories. These can be commercial, associations, journals or even trade exhibitions, each sector offers numerous sources and most allow improvement of a ranking for a price. A secondary advantage of this methodology is that the more links, and the importance of the links, the better placement a site will obtain in Google. To find and ensure listing in these sites is a hard-slog but rewarding, I should know it is my area of specialty. B2C B2C companies include the retail sector and many service companies, law firms, plumbers etc. These SMEs in the B2C sector are looking to the wider public for business but then, by the very nature that they are small or medium, almost invariably within a restricted geographic area. If they want to try to market product to larger markets then eBay and similar ‘Online Shopping Malls’ will suite them just as well, at lower costs but only if they build a fulfillment channel. Service orientated offerings are even more restricted geographically, I cannot see anything better, as regards ROI, than to ensure listings in localized service directories or respected trade associations, with links to well-positioned websites that ensure the client fully understands the professionalism and scope of a service. Believing in SEO A fundamental problem all businesses now have is a belief barrier in SEO. Every web-marketing company seems to claim to be able to, ‘Get you to the top of a search-engine’ and to be, ‘the best SEO practitioners on the planet”. There must be 500 who claim the title just in the UK. This is patently untrue as the numbers just do not stack-up and in my opinion many businesses can understand the fragility of the pitch and will increasingly shy away from the whole Internet marketing sector as a result. To Conclude It is my belief that in many cases the selling of SEO services to many businesses is dishonest, and worse, leaves the whole web-building and marketing industry, the good and the bad, open to distrust and ultimately real damage. It is totally necessary to complete some Internet marketing for every business website, but rather than take the easy and lazy option, every marketing campaign must suite the real target market of a client and be individualized to their targets. As someone who has been deeply involved in technology for many years, I know there is no technological solution but ONLY experience and hard work. As an industry we have to get our act together and behave in an honest and honorable manner. Selling SEO services to a small manufacturer of ball bearings in Birmingham is close to fraudulent and trading on his ignorance and gullibility. Selling a service that will expose a client’s website to his real potential market is much more difficult, particularly as it is extremely difficult to show the real results quickly. An Internet site is somewhere between PR and brochure marketing and should be explained to clients as such. Neither will necessarily bring direct sales but is designed to aid in the branding and positioning of a company to its potential customer base. Lets get real, get honest and treat our customers with the respect they deserve and stop the SEO. Joel Last edited by dannysullivan : 10-06-2004 at 06:32 AM. Reason: No signatures with links, please 
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#2
10-06-2004
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Wow, are you goint to post this on every seo/sem board? I count 2 so far, cool by me but please dont bore the arse off me by posting more
 As pointed out on the seochat thread, your entire argument is flawed. oh, and btw, a genuine welcome to SEW Forums  Nick
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#3
10-06-2004
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Here's an example:
Quote:
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#4
10-06-2004
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<added> I realize you may have encountered some situation(s) that prompted your comments. Still, I find it more fruitful to look at what is happening rather than to apply an observation too broadly.
And welcome, acerview54.
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#5
10-06-2004
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I understand this person, and to be honest, most of the leads I get from the SEO marketing side of my business I turn away. But I have landed several large contracts from my SEO efforts. I run a small business that is very focused in a specific niche (custom Web based application development). SEO efforts, for me, is very very cheap. The ROI make extreme sense for my small business and I am sure it makes sense for your small business.
I can see how it can be discouraging for a small service oriented firm. 95% of the leads I retrieve from my SEO efforts are not a perfect match for my company. But there is so much potential for small business B2C efforts. Set up an e-commerce shop and you will see.
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#6
10-06-2004
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This was also posted on the High Rankings forum:
http://www.highrankings.com/forum/in...topic=9920&hl= I wrote a long rebuttal there already so I'll not clutter up this board with duplicate postings (something the author may wish to consider, as well). Suffice to say that neither I, my clients, nor, apparently, the search engines currently rolling out "Local Search", could disagree more. Ian
__________________
International SEO
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#7
10-06-2004
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Quote:
In regards to your statement above, tell that to all the e-commerce sites out there whose sole existence is not a typical brick and mortar shop but the Internet. Can someone say Amazon?
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#8
10-06-2004
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B2c
My goodness, your argument B2C is 180 from reality. Right now the web is the only place where a small time player can compete with big budget corporations. The search engines provide the only easily attainable audience and potential customers. Why pay ebay and those vertical "Shopping Malls" when you can out rank them for a specific product term?
IMO search engines and inexpensive sipping are two reasons why a small firm can inexpensively carve out a customer base where the barriers of entry would historically be too high.
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#9
10-06-2004
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As I mentioned on v7n, the difference between having a good search engine ranking, and a poor one, is like the difference between having a shop on London's Bond Street, as opposed to a shope in the fields behind the village of Wetwang on the Yorkshire Wolds.
Sure, with a strong product/service and client base, the shop near Wetwang will do fine. But might it not possibly do more business in the heart of London's shopping district? That's what SEO offers businesses and clients alike. It is the cyberspace equivalent of "Location! Location! Location!".
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#10
10-09-2004
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Quote:
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#12
10-09-2004
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I like it. Show up in a bunch of forums, hit 'em with an antagonistic premise that "proves" the forum-goers don't work to benefit their customers, present a bunch of analyses that may or may not address real issues but sound good, more or less, interject that one has to "believe" in the services provided by the community which are, of course, faulty and detrimental ... and - presto! - you've positioned yourself above the entire industry.
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