The Fallacy of Search Engine Marketing Only
Scott Buresh is the CEO of Medium Blue, which was recently named the number one search engine optimization company in the world by PromotionWorld. Scott has contributed content to many publications including Building Your Business with Google For Dummies (Wiley, 2004), MarketingProfs, ZDNet, WebProNews, DarwinMag, SiteProNews, ISEDB, and Search Engine Guide. Medium Blue serves local and national clients, including Boston Scientific, DS Waters, and Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. Visit MediumBlue.com to request a custom SEO guarantee based on your goals and your data.
Hi Scott – it’s almost become a moralistic judgment whether an SEO business should advertise outside of the SERPs circles. I’m in complete agreement with your sentiment. As an independent SEO consultant myself, I rely purely on inbound leads from my own website or, for the most part, referrals. However, any business that sees a positive ROI on an advertising method, whether on- or offline, shouldn’t simply dismiss it from their marketing mix due to their own specialism.
Yes, an SEO business should practice what they preach, it’s a tremendous business failure if any business offering an SEO service cannot position themselves amongst the most relevant search terms. It’s the same scenario as visiting a professional painters and finding cracked walls and paint spillage – to trust a service provider you need to see their own work in action.
Great article
Ian
Great piece Scott….
And yes, we too rely on not only online marketing efforts but the old-school networking model too. We belong to our local and regional chambers, we sit on boards for same as well as BIA boards, non-profits too and we also do at least 2 pro bono SEO campaigns annually for deserving local non-profits.
Guess what I’m saying is that if you support your community — there are rewards, eh!
🙂
Jim
Scott, good to see that you “practice what you preach”. I agree that given unlimited resources a business should use all marketing campaigns that generate a healthy ROI, however seldom is that the case. So at what point would you advise cutting the lower ROI campaigns off?
I would also be curious what your firm thinks of media buys and if they factor into your online campaigns.
If you have time, my team is building a tool that pin-points low hanging fruit for business owners in the online marketing arena. Looking for early adopters and critics: http://www.cluepad.com
“It’s the same scenario as visiting a professional painters and finding cracked walls and paint spillage – to trust a service provider you need to see their own work in action.”
In theory yes. In reality maybe not so. With Google, etc, as the ultimate judges on a playing field of ever shifting sands, I’m pretty sure the painter has a much easier job. Further more, IMHO the ultimate job of SEO/SEM is to deliver not just leads but higher quality leads. That may or may not correlate to high placement on certain search terms.
Finally, a good SEO/SEM outfit should understand the big holistic picture – that includes non digital marketing methods. God knows there are already too many drinking only their only Kool Aid stuck on selling their own brand of a head stuck in the sand mindset.
This is a well written article. I think common sense is good for business. Just don’t fall into the trap of you have to do this but not that.
Successful marketing needs multiple channels and needs to take a flexibility approach. Things change and thus, the marketing efforts have to be diversified.
This was a great post. I agree that diversification is necessary, so companies that have not followed others in the internet marketing should try it. But, if traditional marketing has proven to be a successful promotional tool, do not pull away from it just because others are.
I think the key to being a good marketer is tapping into many different traffic sources. It is not beneficial to put all of your eggs in one basket. You should be trying social media, rss subscriptions, classified sites, article directories, etc.
My only gripe about supplementing SEO work with PPC is the click fraud. Granted you can police it, but there’s too much potential for it when clients have $5-$10 keywords.
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