Searching for a clue
- Stephen Murphy
- 19 August 2008
When search engine marketing emerged as an industry, practitioners fell into two distinct camps: white hats – ethical companies that abided by the specific search engine rules; and black hats – companies that specialised in tricking, keyword stuffing or spamming for short-term results. These days, most black-hat techniques are ineffective, thanks to highly sophisticated search engine technologies.
Many Australian online marketing agencies suffer from wear-many-hats syndrome. This is when they profess to provide search engine marketing and search engine optimisation techniques. Many digital companies – including web developers, media buyers and affiliate marketers – say they offer paid search and natural search campaigns. The offerings between each service type and agency vary greatly in technique, depth, performance and ultimately return on investment. So how can you tell if they’re any good at it?
Some people fall for the idea that all you need is good software. If that’s the case, you can buy a package off the shelf that claims to have everything you need to deliver top-10 results in Google.
While you’re dealing with a digital world, the consumer is still human. You still need the human intelligence of usability experts and copywriters. Search engine optimisation tools are useful to a point, but they cannot replace human analysis in determining strategic directions.
Unfortunately, most business owners don’t understand the science and art of search engine optimisation and some agencies take advantage of this.
"If search marketing is offered as a gimmicky add-on to an existing service, it's likely you'll get a gimmicky solution" Many companies simply deliver their customers a spreadsheet of numbers that offer no value, insight or growth into conversion improvement. If an agency shows you results and says the campaign is performing, how can you possibly question it without any background or previous benchmarking?
A true search marketing solution should offer full keyword analysis, competitive landscape analysis, landing page design, copywriting techniques, calls to action, A/B testing, conversion and funnel analysis, as well as monthly reports on key learning and optimisation.
Don’t let the industry jargon throw you off. Any search marketing expert worth engaging should explain in plain language each strategic element and how it applies to you. In my experience working with the big end of town, I’m often gobsmacked by how often large companies fall for poor search engine optimisation techniques. We’ve seen infantile levels of keyword stuffing, poor page design, lack of analytics, and lost revenue and leads. We’ve seen too many big companies with know-it-all IT team members who believe they know how to do search engine optimisation after reading a few articles online. These characters usually cause more havoc than good for their companies.
As a small business owner, you might feel you’re even more at the mercy of search marketing rats because you have less time and money. Don’t settle for anything that smells like a quick fix or an automated solution. If search marketing is offered as a gimmicky add-on to an existing service, it’s likely you’ll get a gimmicky solution.
Ask to meet the search marketing experts. They should be able to clearly explain how they intend to use their skills to optimise the core of your site, position you accurately in your industry and give you the competitive edge you need.
