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If not, you may have fallen prey to one of
common misconceptions to achieving success with an online business.
Several studies show there's a disconnect between what really works in online marketing … and what marketers actually spend money on.
According to a study by Jupiter Media Metrix, only 23% of Internet surfers who are ACTIVELY looking for your company's Web site will type the correct URL into their browser. The rest will try to find you or your products by using a search engine such as Google or Yahoo.
Yet, according to another study, 97% of Fortune 100 company Web sites are difficult to be found by search engines -- and 45% don't even use meta tags, which are the most basic form of optimization. And an August 2001 study from CyberAtlas revealed that fewer than 15% of American companies bother to use the services of search engine optimization and positioning firms.
Instead, more than 80% of American companies take care of search engine optimization "in-house", even though optimization has become so complex that many in-house experts make serious mistakes. These figures indicate most companies may be losing an enormous amount of qualified traffic (people actively looking for their Web site or products and services) because companies are doing an astonishingly bad job at search engine optimization. What might be keeping marketers who spend substantial amounts on professional help with their advertising and direct marketing from bothering to pay for expert help with search engine optimization and positioning?
We will try to examine some common myths --
Misconception
#1: If you put up a Web site, people will come. Regretfully, this is far from the truth. Competition is fierce on the Internet, and you must learn how to compete in order to have a successful online business. Putting up a Web site is the first step, but doing nothing more will ensure your site's failure.
Misconception
#2: Amateur promotion will render professional results. Many people believe that they can purchase a handy dandy software program that will submit their sites to 999 search engines and directories, and their promotion efforts are over. The truth of the matter is, the majority of the traffic to most Web sites comes from the major search engines and directories, so submitting to 990 other ones is simply a waste of time and won't bring you any success.
Misconception
#3: Submitting your site to the major search engines and directories is all you need to do. Wrong. Think of it this way: there are 10 search results per page for most of the engines. Most people won't go through any more than three pages of search results before giving up and trying another search. So, only the top 30 rankings really matter. If your site is #3,429 out of two million results, how much traffic do you think you'll get?
Misconception
#4: META tags are the key to success with the search engines. Truthfully, very few of the major engines even look at META tags any more. So, sticking META tags on your pages won't bring you traffic and sales.
Misconception
#5: The key to success on the Web is achieving top 10 rankings for keywords that are important to your business. This way of thinking is outdated. Instead, the key to success on the Web is bringing in extremely targeted traffic that converts to sales. You can have all the #1 rankings in the world, but if the rankings don't convert to traffic that ultimately converts to sales, your Web site will never be a success.
Misconception
#6: We can handle optimization "in-house"
This may be true if you have an in-house expert -- perhaps your Webmaster -- who has told you they'll take care of optimization. But the problem is they may be far less good at it than they think. Optimization and positioning used to be fairly easy; but not anymore. Some tactics that were ok (such as submitting your site to search engines repeatedly on a regular basis) will now get you in trouble as a "spammer" and could cost you your rankings. To learn just the basics of what works, you'd have to memorize about 500 pages of instructions. To keep up with changes, you'll need to read another 50 pages a month and get in lots of hands-on experience along the way. Chances are your in-house expert already has a full-time job, so he or she isn't doing a good enough job of handling this as well.
So you might start thinking about outsourcing this expertise if any of the following are true:
You use your site for sales lead generation - You have multiple products (or content articles)
Your site features lots of Flash, graphics or frames
You sell in more than one country
You fear your in-house person may have 'spammed' search engines by mistake
Misconception
#7: We Bought Some Software That Does it for Us
It's a pipe dream to believe you can buy a low-cost program and have your optimization all taken care of. Have you seen ads for software programs that claim they'll "submit your site to hundreds of engines"? Many of these programs are worthless, and could get you labeled as a spammer. Other programs on the marketplace create "junk" doorway pages that could also get you labeled as a spammer.
Fact is, if optimization and positioning were so straightforward that an inexpensive program could handle them, then hundreds of experts would be out of a job. Plus the message boards and discussion groups experts hang out in wouldn't be buzzing with constant questions about new nuances.
Misconception
#8: Optimization Experts are too Expensive
Optimization is generally far cheaper by CPM than any other marketing campaign you can conduct online or offline. It costs less than direct mail, renting broadcast email lists, banner ads, print ads, booths at trade
shows, etc. Confusion may arise because pricing is all over the map in this profession. Some experts have six figure price tags, some have cost just a few hundred dollars. However, most cost a reasonable amount -- a few thousand dollars can cover the cost of an entire site getting optimized for and positioned in the top 10 search engines which are responsible for more than 80% of Web traffic today. That means a fairly small investment could significantly raise your site traffic.
Misconception
#9: You Can't Predict the ROI of Optimization
Wrong again.
Optimization and positioning are fairly easy to budget for once you have three key figures:
How many people search for words, terms or phrases that relate to your products or services each month?
Once a visitor enters your site (or special landing page for a search term), what's your conversion rate to turning them into a sale (or sales lead)?
How much is your average sale?
Misconception
#10: Search Engine Traffic Isn't as Good as Visitors from Other Sources
Companies spend thousands on direct mail, email and online advertising campaigns to drive targeted traffic to their Web sites -- but according to Cyber-Atlas, 46% of marketers spend less than .5% of their budget on optimization. Could it be because they think traffic from more expensive marketing campaigns is better?
Before you invest in your next marketing outreach campaign, why not start by
grabbing, what consultants call, the "low-hanging fruit" first? Optimize to
get the Internet users who are online right now actively looking for a
product or service like yours.
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