Written by a Collaborator
“We don’t have the money to invest in SEO right now as we need to make sure every single marketing invest returns the money,” is a phrase often heard. Sure, it might come in different forms, using different words, shorter or lengthier, but it all comes down to the same thing: short term goals are more important than long term vision. And who can blame these companies?
Industries are usually hypercompetitive, and shareholders demand increasing profits each year. No wonder that marketing budgets are being scrutinized and anything considered frivolous, or simply just not hard-working, will face the chopping block. Often this is the case for an SEO service, which is mere self-destruction.
Results Are Too Slow
The problem is that SEO is a slow-burner, as many experts will tell you. Unlike PPC, for example, the results of SEO work is not immediate and can take some time to bed in. Some will tell you it can take up to 3 to 6 months before the time, and money investment in SEO will bear fruits. This is because you’re not buying your way in, you are merely trying to convince the search engine (in most cases Google, and more specifically Google’s crawlers) that you are the best source of information for a particular topic. And that doesn’t come easy or quick.
It’s Not Getting The Right Attention
Another problem is that SEO usually gets the short straw when it comes to focus and investment in general. Often the task of SEO is seen as a purely technical one. I.e., it’s up to the website guys to make sure we have some extra meta-tags on the page. So any SEO related work will go to the IT department who, very often, simply don’t understand SEO. And why should they? IT usually has their hands full of real IT issues. No, SEO should be a marketing issue, getting marketing focus and marketing budget. If SEO stays with IT, 9/10 cases it will get snowed under and will end up at the bottom of the priority list.
Why This Is A Problem
And being bottom of the priority list is just not going to serve you. Companies love to invest in channels like PPC, as it provides a seemingly clear link between investment and return. Most experts will tell you this is because PPC sits low in the marketing funnel. It targets people who are ready to buy. The same experts, however, will also tell you that PPC is a ‘demand-pull’ channel. It can grab the demand, but it won’t be able to generate more. This is why moving up the funnel is the only way to maintain growth. And this is precisely where things will hurt if a company has decided not to invest time and money in SEO.
Beat (Or Don’t Be Beaten By) The Competition
People will do research before deciding on and making a purchase. The same people also prefer to click on non-paid search results, the so-called organic results. Not being there for consumers at some of the earlier stages might mean you drop out of the consideration set or a competitor is able to influence the consumer’s perception of your product versus theirs. You could have the best PPC campaign, but if someone’s already made up their minds, it would have been all in vain. Therefore a long term vision requires serious consideration.
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