We all know that times are tough at the moment and most small businesses are looking at ways to cut costs. Probably the first place any small business will look to cut cost is advertising. The main reason for this is it extremely difficult to monitor the success of your advertising campaign. However with SEO things are different.
Investing in a new form of marketing at the moment may seem crazy but there are a few things to consider that may influence your decision. If you have already looked at SEO but are not sure whether it is worth it then this article may give you a bit more information.
Why Invest in SEO Now?
These are our top reasons for investing in SEO in a tough economic climate:
1. Unrivalled ROI
It has been shown that SEO has an unrivalled return on investment, even compared to email marketing. If you think about it, if your website is in the top 2 results for the right keywords you will be getting a large number of click from people that want to know about you. It is even more important when you think that around 80% of internet users will use search engines and of those only approximately 11% ever go on to page 2 of the search results.
2. Targeted Traffic
If you do your research properly you will be able to select the right keywords that people looking to buy your service will be using. If you then get your website to the top of the search engines for these highly targeted keywords you will be getting highly targeted traffic. As the people visiting your site will actually be looking the buy then a well written site will give you a high chance of converting most of your visitors.
3. Quality Tracking
There are now a large number of advanced tracking packages. A good one to try is Google Analytics as it is completely free. The best thing about this is you can see exactly how many people are visiting your site through your chosen keywords. You will also be able to set up goal conversions to see whether people are buying from coming to your site. You will also be able to track where people that don't buy are leaving your site and make improvements to keep them on. This kind of tracking allows you to know exactly what your visitors are doing and what you can do to increase your conversion rate.
4. Ahead of the Curve.
The great thing about starting something now is it will put you in a great position then the economy picks up again. If you get yourself comfortably to the top then when the number of people looking to buy increases, the hits on your website will increase without you spending any more.
How to Approach Your SEO Campaign
There are 2 options for you when starting your SEO campaign. Do you do it in-house or do you hire a firm to do it.
1. In-House SEO
There are 2 ways in which to approach this. Firstly you could hire an SEO expert to work within your company. The problem with this solution is that it is out of the budget of most small businesses. The other alternative is that you get one of your current employees to learn about SEO and do some work for you. This seems like a good idea but you need to make sure your staff have the time to learn all about it properly and that they will do a consistent campaign. It is very easy to do some little bits in house but never really get a proper campaign off the ground.
2. Hire a Firm
It can be a great thing to hire a firm to help you with your efforts. Partly because they already have a wealth of experience and resources that they can pass over to you. Not to mention the fact that they will continually do research and be aware of changes in trends.
However please be aware that no SEO company can guarantee you any ranking position at all. No one has control over the search engines or what other website owners are doing. If you are guaranteed anything you should consider whether this is the right company for you.
Make sure it is very clear what you SEO company will be doing and keep track of them to make sure they are sticking to what is agreed.
Conclusion
It is important to remember that SEO efforts can start small and increase. You do not have to break the bank with a large campaign at the moment but you can begin with some highly targeted keywords at a slow pace. As things begin to pick up you can increase your efforts. However you will already have the ground work there which will put you ahead of your competitors.
You’ve probably heard or read some of the nerve-wracking headlines that have been leading the financial news. The gloom and doom includes "Caterpillar, Inc. Joins Other Large Corps Warning of Recession." "Broad Profit Woes Spark Stock Plunge On Recession Fears." "Shares Tumble as Fears of Recession Cap Gloomy Week." "CEOs, Wall Street Warn of Recession." If these were warnings about an impending blizzard, milk and bread would be flying off the shelves.
Is a recession indeed on its way? If so, will it be a mild one as some are predicting, or will it be a doozie as others suggest? In either case, how will it affect your business? When it comes to answering that last question, you have more say than you may think.
Time to get a bigger boat Referring to the metaphor about a rising tide lifting all boats, a recession generally lowers all boats. But that doesn't mean that your business is going to sink. In fact, a recession can prove to be an excellent time to work on getting a bigger boat.
Many businesses decide to cease most or all of its marketing activities when times get tough. However, you may discover that, as your competition reins in its marketing, you have the opportunity to take a greater share of your target market. Then, when the economy rebounds and the tide rises, you and your competitors all rise. The difference is that you have a bigger boat than you did before, i.e. a greater market share.
Profitability is more important than ever Profitability should always be a concern. But when a recession hits, you have to be extremely aware of your profit margins. When they are too low, you find yourself struggling to a greater degree. But when they are at a healthy level -- even with lower revenue -- you have the means to promote your company in an effective manner. Your competition, however, is forced to market less ... wondering how you continue to push forward.
Start low-cost, high-return marketing now There are a number of marketing tactics that cost little more than time, so they are perfect for businesses to employ during the good times and the slow ones ... as long they meet two criteria -- one is that they fit your overall strategy, and the other is that you can implement them consistently.
Several of these tactics are web-based, such as beginning a blog, consistently adding to your current one, and keeping your site fresh by frequently posting news. Another opportunity is adding an autoresponder to your site. Then give visitors something of value in exchange for their names and e-mail addresses. When your visitors submit their information, the autoresponder goes to work behind the scenes, periodically sending valuable information to your visitors. The idea is that the visitors who sign up have identified themselves as prospects. By staying top-of-mind and showing that you offer them value, these prospects are going to contact you when they have the need that you can fill.
Yes, if the pundits are correct, there is going to be a recession. But, by managing the effect a recession has on your business, as opposed to just reacting to it, you give yourself the opportunity to not only survive a recession, but thrive during and after it.
Both Mercedes Aspland & Peter George are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Mercedes Aspland has sinced written about articles on various topics from Web Development, Forums and Home Management. If you have found this article useful then you can get more information from Dazines - , London UK.Dazines -. Mercedes Aspland's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.
Peter George has sinced written about articles on various topics from Customer Service, Surveys and SEO Search Engine Optimization. Peter George is a marketing coach and consultant, helping small businesses consistently attract more customers. Download Peter's FREE e-course,