It doesn’t matter how much initial education you put into a new engagement, a Search Engine Marketing Villain will pop up when you least expect it. I have identified a short list of the Villains that we seem to come across when engaging new prospects.
Can you relate to any of these?
Lack of Goals
Don’t Tell How Much You Want to Spend, Tell Me How Much You Want to Make
In every new prospect meeting we ask the question, “What are your business goals?”. And almost every time the answer is “drive more traffic” or “rank on specific keywords”. Your Search Engine Marketing partner needs to understand what makes your business run. Then we can target the right keywords that will drive more quality traffic to your website. Failure to align your business and search marketing goals is one of the most frequent causes of online marketing failures.
Lack of Resources & Commitment
Lack of Resources Has Hanged Many a Person
Undoubtedly you will need resources to achieve your search engine marketing goals. Shirley Tan wrote a great post on SearchEngineLand last week about this fact. Businesses don’t fully grasp that achieving success requires human resources and financial commitment. Driving more Web traffic to your site is far from being free. There are very few companies that have enough resources from the start to achieve their desired goals.
Lack of Patience & Focus
None of What You Have Already Accomplished Will Matter In the Least If You Do Not Relentlessly Pursue Success
Very rarely does a search marketing campaign work after one or two months. There is a reason Search Engine Marketing Consultants want businesses to sign a 6 or 12-month contract. Achieving a business’ desired goals takes time. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is not one-and-done. SEO is an ongoing process of on-site and off-site optimization. Pay Per Click (PPC) is not set and forget. PPC is an on-going refinement process to get the most bang for your buck.
Lack of Attention & Execution
The Devil is in the Details
Your business and online marketing strategy could be flawless, but a lack of attention and execution can prove the best strategy wrong. Not paying attention and executing improvements often leads to lost opportunities to maximize ROI. SEO is not all about link building, paying attention to your on-site optimization can dramatically increase rank. Landing pages are key to converting PPC traffic. PPC is not about lowering your Cost Per Click (CPC), it’s about lower your Cost Per Conversion.
