Marketing - 5 SEO Myths Debunked

When a business thinks of marketing and advertising in 2015, it's very likely they will think the internet. With PPC like Adwords and Bing Ads, social-media platforms and content-recommendation services all touting their pay-per-click options to instantly boost traffic to your website, search engine optimization (SEO) sometimes gets lost in the mix, since it’s not something that brings you “instant clicks”. The benefits of true SEO are not immediate, as those efforts take weeks, even months.

Here are the top 5 SEO objections debunked.

• SEO doesn’t work.

Did you know that every study shows between 44%-61% begin their purchase research by using a search engine? This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise. After all, search is the 4th most used internet activity in the US, beaten only by social media, email and video (thanks Netflix).  

And this traffic converts. According to one report 57% of B2B marketers admit that SEO has the biggest impact on their lead generation goals. Another report found that leads generated from search are eight times more likely to close into customers than outbound leads.

What’s more, research shows that users tend to ignore paid ad listings and click on organic results instead.  Over 85% click on one of the top 3 organic listings and 72% will click on at least one of the page 1  organic listings.

• SEO is expensive.

When hiring SEO you pay for expertise and physical execution on a multitude of complex tasks:

• Researching your industry, market and sales trends.
• Conducting competitive research.
• Finding keyword, long tail and meta terms that can bring the most relevant traffic.
• Optimizing a site.
• Ongoing Google SERP targeted SEO News/Updates/Blog entries
• Monitoring and results analysis.

Each of these tasks takes time and effort, and there’s just no SEO without them. So while you do need to pay for someone to implement these tasks, keep in mind that SEO keeps bringing results long after the actions are performed.

Now compare that with a continuously increasing Adwords cost and you have a clear winner.

• I’m doing business the traditional way. I don’t need SEO.

And I’m willing to bet you have a traditional desktop only site, because none of your customers own an Android or IPhone.  In the US over 75% of us consult online before making a purchase.  That’s exactly when you want to be seen, and seen properly on whatever device they used.

Almost 90% of US citizens used the Internet daily last year. 93% began with a search engine. If you estimate that a tiny, tiny fraction of them would be interested in what you sell, that’s a huge number anyway.

If you are not promoting your business online, it means that you’re missing out on the biggest opportunity to grow your business.

Even worse, you’re giving it away to your competition.

• SEO will require me to change my website.

Businesses may need to update their website to improve SEO, as non-responsive or poor design, confusing structure or weak content will hinder your efforts. So can slow loading time, a one second delay can reduce conversions up 7 percent.

A static webpage in 2015 is similar to a billboard on a road that’s been bypassed by a freeway. It just doesn’t work anymore. 

So yes, it’s more likely than not, that your business website may need to be updated to a more fluid, organic, growing platform. Without a well-optimized site, it won’t matter how much effort your SEO puts into the campaign: It will fail.

• SEO can be automated.

This might sound a bit ridiculous, but guess what? I can’t press a button to spring clean my house, and I can’t press a button to perform SEO. 

There is no program or platform (like Go Daddy), that can, in any way, automate SEO.  Automated SEO is a spam practice that has nothing to do with managing, synchronizing and optimizing dozens of processes for not only your site’s existing content, but also for or your blogs, news, updates, images, video and social media postings.

Can one button place your blog post in a search engine return page (SERP)? Can one button pace an image of your product under “images” in a SERP? Can one button place a video of your service under “video” in a search? See more on the benefits of universal search.

Don't believe anyone who says that everything can be done in only one click.

TABB Solutions focuses on helping small/medium businesses with web presence and government/commercial marketing strategies. For a free consultation, call us toll free at (844) TRY-TABB