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Increase Web Site Sales with a SEO Proposal - Part 1
You can easily get confused by all the search engine optimization companies and SEO experts that offer SEO services. It's hard to know who to trust or what should be included in a SEO proposal. I will endeavor to clarify some of these points for...
SEO 101... These Tags Really Do Matter.
Copyright 2005 Ron Hutton In search of the coveted search engine traffic? Yes? Then don't ignore your meta tags. If anyone tells you that meta tags are not important, they are seriously misinformed. Follow these simple rules and the clicks will...
SEO For Ecommerce
Ranking well under the free listings in the major search engines basically mean one thing – Lots of free, recurring, and targeted traffic. Major search engines like Google, Yahoo and MSN can be very powerful weapons in your internet marketing, if...
SEO - keywords - do your research
In the last segment we talked about relevant keyword phrases, so at this point you have two or three phrases that you think might work well for your site. The next step is to check out those keyphrases. Open up your favourite browser and go to...
Seo Software: The Window To Unlimited Online Opportunities
I cant think of another piece of software that can be so
revealing ! Day after day you can find new advertising sources
just by running a back link analysis on your top
competitors...no matter what niche your in .
You can even run checks on...
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The Business Case for SEO
It’s interesting how potential clients have preconceived notions about which aspects of search engine marketing have the most value. In fact, they tend to fall into two camps that are 180° apart. The first camp believes completely in the value of pay-per-click marketing (PPC). It’s easy to understand why. PPC provides immediate and measurable benefits. The ROI of PPC marketing is obvious. This group doesn’t understand why it’s necessary “to bother” doing SEO. The second camp believes the only way to go is SEO. Clicks are free and the branding benefits of high rankings have been well documented.
The right answer is that they are both valuable. Each has its benefits and when you can afford to, you should implement both.
Pay-per-Click
PPC makes sense if you want immediate benefits and like the idea of paying for performance. SEO provides branding benefits and longer-term will provide an ROI that is compelling. But unlike PPC, SEO revenue results aren’t as directly measurable and manageable.
Pay per click (PPC) gives you the ability to have complete control over your search traffic. With PPC programs you select the keywords and write the listings. You control where you’re listed and what the listing says. You decide what your budget is and can adjust your spend rate based on results or events (e.g. announcements, promotions).
By tracking results from a PPC campaign, you can build up a knowledge base with respect to your business, including which messages perform the best, which search terms have the best conversion rates, and what destination URL is best for specific users to land on. Over time, this knowledge can help you to improve and define your business.
One of the greatest attractions of PPC is the ability to easily track clicks and costs allowing you to understand your ROI from a specific marketing initiative. This gives you confidence to spend money and drive volume. You may have thought that spending $5,000 a month on a PPC campaign is way outside your budget, but once you measure the ROI, you may realize that it’s well worth the investment.
Search Engine Optimization
So, if PPC is so great why bother with SEO? Basically, because you will be missing out on a large number of potential clicks. How large? A number of recent studies have demonstrated that there are still a lot of users that do not click on the "paid" listings but rather will search through the regular editorial search results. One study shows that 60% of the search users prefer (some exclusively) organic over paid listings. The only way to get optimized (high) rankings in these regular editorial results is through an effective SEO program. In most cases, once you have good positioning in the regular search results, you will continue to receive “free” traffic. Again,
based on data from a number of marketers the increase in traffic due to SEO averaged 73%. Consider search engine optimization the same as you would word of mouth advertising or public relations. It’s exposure that comes with a very high degree of credibility and trust. Traffic coming from traditional search listings tends to have high conversion rates.
There’s another advantage to traditional search listings. They are considered unbiased and non-commercial. Traditional search performs very well at certain points in the buying process. When consumers are gathering information about a purchase, they show a marked preference for traditional search listings. When they are ready to buy online, they seem to have less bias against paid placement listings and their likelihood to click on one of these listings increases.
The Dollars and Cents of SEO
Perhaps the most compelling reason not to exclude SEO from your online marketing strategy comes down to dollars and cents. In an attempt to quantify the business case for SEO I have gone back and done some analysis on three recent SEO engagements and the results they achieved. I chose ecommerce clients that we had optimized and reviewed their average sales before and after SEO was implemented. In two of the situations the only change made was the optimization of the site. In another the optimization occurred at the same time we implemented a PPC campaign. In the first two cases the store sales rose 64% and 75% after the SEO was implemented. In the third case the store revenue actually went up a staggering 169%, but if you back out the sales that were a result of the PPC campaign, the store revenue that could be attributed to SEO improved by 49%. In other words, the average improvement in store revenue that was apparently due to SEO was 62%.
Can we be sure that all of this was a result of SEO? No. There could have been product, seasonal and other effects that contributed. But I think it's safe to say that there was a significant increase that resulted directly from the SEO. The bottom line: search optimization has a real and measurable impact on traffic, conversions and revenue (or lead generation) improvement. Given that these clicks begin to approach “free” after amortizing the cost of SEO over time, the ROI for SEO is compelling. Added to the branding benefits no marketer or business owner should doubt the value of search engine optimization.
About the Author
Scott Smigler has been an evangelist for a serious, ROI-based focus on the online channel since he founded Exclusive Concepts (www.exclusiveconcepts.com) in 1997. Exclusive Concepts provides integrated online marketing strategies, brand consulting, search engine marketing campaigns and results-oriented web sites.
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| Search Engine Optimization, Google Optimization - SEO Chat |
| Search Engine Optimization, Google Optimization - SEO Chat. |
| www.seochat.com |
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| Search engine optimization - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
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| en.wikipedia.org |
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| SEO Home |
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| Aaron Wall's SEO Book.com |
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| www.seobook.com |
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| SEO Today |
| Provides articles and information about the search engine optimization and marketing industry. Latest articles can be sent via email. |
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| Search Engine Watch: Tips About Internet Search Engines & Search ... |
| Search Engine Watch is the authoritative guide to searching at Internet search engines and search engine registration and ranking issues. |
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| AddMe, Search Engine Optimization Submission Free Site Promotion ... |
| A leader since 1996, search engine submission, search engine optimization, free search engine submission, site submission, and website promotion. |
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| What is SEO? - A Word Definition From the Webopedia Computer ... |
| This page describes the term SEO and lists other pages on the Web where you can find additional information. |
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| SEO: Search Engine Optimisation. SEO copyright advice. FREE SEO ... |
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| www.ihaveawebsite-nowwhat.co.uk |
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| Search Engine Roundtable ::: The Pulse Of The Search Marketing ... |
| A well-rounded view on search engines and search engine marketing from five segments of the Web population represented by senior members of the major ... |
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| Submit Express - Search Engine Placement, Optimization, SEO Marketing |
| Search engine optimization services with guaranteed Top 10 results. Submit your website URL to 40 major search engines for FREE ! |
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| The SEO Analyzer is a FREE tool that uses a sophisticated algorithm that detects how optimized your web design is for search engines. |
| sitening.com |
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| SEO Company For Search Engine Optimization |
| Weblinx Limited - SEO Company for UK Search Engine Optimization. |
| www.weblinx.biz |
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| Matt Cutts: Gadgets, Google, and SEO |
| I believe that Google is the only search engine that will confirm to webmasters ... If you pick a bad search engine optimizer (SEO) and they make a ton of ... |
| www.mattcutts.com |
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