SEO is the TIP of the Spear
???? Matt Storms
SEO International Consultant - E-commerce Growth Marketing & SEO - fmr SEO Manager at TripAdvisor - U.S. Navy Veteran - Expert Witness
If your SEO plan is not on point you will be hurting as a company. Plain and simple I get asked all of the time should your company be 100% focused on SEO and what should the mix of traffic be. So yes you should be focused on SEO but if you are a startup I actually suggest SEM. As the life cycle of a company we have to see where the SEO should be focused. I recommend using SEO at the start of a company to ensure the website it following correct principles are being followed. This is a good time for a consultant, or agency. As the company grows, then it is time to look into more experienced SEOs that can scale and really grow the company from SEO. The usage of SEM will help you grow but there is a cost, you have to balance that cost versus reward.
At a previous company I worked with the SEO mix was 35% SEO and 70% SEM, within a few years we were able to flip that to 70% SEO and 35% SEM. That mix allowed for very dramatic growth. As a startup, the launch period is the perfect time to work with a consultant, after the traffic is starting to mature into the growth phase, that is where you want to hire a solid SEO that knows what they are doing.
Scaling the SEO can lead to wild profits and while you are making more money this is the time to re-invest into your company. SEO is the mix that should be leading the traffic. Now with the chart below you will see a company that has a very small budget in SEM but they are killing it in SEO. As a CEO, CMO and everyone that can look at the traffic and revenue to a company you need to understand the traffic and revenue sources. SEO is generally free, you have overhead and you have some tools (SearchMetrics, ScreamingFrog, SEMRush and others) that will cost a little bit but these tools help the SEOs understand what to fix and how to improve.
SEO is the tip of the spear in the sense that as a company is launched that the CEO and everyone needs to be thinking about that 1, 3, & 5 year roadmap for growth.
What are your thoughts for SEO being the tip of the spear? Leave your thoughts below.
Senior SEO Specialist @ Turnkey Marketing
5 年While you are correct that SEO should be considered at business launch, it really depends on the business model if SEO is truly the “tip of the spear”. I’ve been seeing more cases where startups have done incredibly well focusing on other channels ex: Untuckit. I see SEO as more of one prong tip on a trident. While SEO is an important channel it may not always be the one that moves the needle most. https://www.inc.com/brit-morse/untuckit-aaron-sanandres-marketing-public-relations.html