Why SEO Is A Waste Of Time
Traditionally SEO was all about putting keywords into key areas that Google would look for and be found by those searching the internet for your services but since every man and his dog has a website now a days; getting onto the first page of Google is getting more and more difficult.
Gone are the days that anyone could spam Google, using Black Hat SEO to add loads of keywords, lots of local towns, get found for everything like “SEO Brighton” and not just because there are millions of websites but just that Google is getting more intelligent – not that it was dumb before! Google is just trying to provide its customers – YOU, me and everyone else – the best service they can, the best UX (User Experience) and to provide the information then, there, now and FAST.
There are many many SEO agencies in the UK, the World – all trying to get their customers onto the first page of Google and the more advanced agencies know that this is not the best option or even if its viable now a days – the Holy Grail of SEO – “First position on the First Page!”.
SEO is in my eyes, all about optimising the website to be found, so it’s about getting the right keywords, the right content, the look, the speed and much more RIGHT. It’s all about getting found – search engine optimisation not Google optimisation and that article really hits the nail on the head – it’s all about getting found on the internet, yeah, mainly in Google but there are other places too – read the article!
Costs are a major contributor, and time to how successful a SEO campaign can be – I saw one agency on Twitter today promising SEO services at £50 a month – really? Seriously, ask yourself, what a professional person can do for £50 per month on a SEO campaign – what return on investment can that seriously bring? I would consider asking Watchdog about them!?
So, why is SEO not worth doing?
Well, it is worth doing but not as one farmer’s wife would do – not to put all your eggs in one basket, and see that SEO is only part of the equation. Outbound marketing, like traditional marketing, is all about putting content out there, hoping that people will see it, read it and then the 1% of those visitors will be in a position to BUY what ever it is you are selling. So 99% of outbound marketing is a waste of time.
Or is it?
99% of anyone’s time is a lot of effort, time, and as time is money – EXPENSIVE.
So consider SEO as part of an Inbound Marketing strategy, optimise your site as per Google’s guidelines and advice, using keywords, long tailed keywords, make the site FAST to load, give users the experience they want, Responsive websites (mobile friendly) and make sure Google sees it as mobile friendly, providing bespoke original and informative content, promote across social media and more ….. but then once your content is being read by your target audience – NURTURE potential customers until they are ready to buy from you.
How can you do this – use Marketing Automation.
Using a tool like Act-On or Hubspot (there are others) to automate your marketing – this is not a get rich quick type of tool – thee is a lot of setup, content provision, learning etc. but what this software or service (we offer!!) does is to help you attract potential customers, and then automatically nurture them into becoming customers.
When a target reads your content, and downloads extra information, usually a white paper, article or guide, they provide an email address and then we can continue the marketing directly to this person by auto response emails, providing more relevant information. The software can monitor individually, the emails opened and then the journey the participant takes – visiting individual website pages, downloading content and leads scores them so that once they reach a certain score, we can pass the lead to sales, as a warm to hot prospect.
SEO is powerful — use it!
SO we are now using SEO as a powerful tool to target potential clients, to provide them with content and then not let them go, nurture them with more content until they are ready to purchase.
Inbound Marketing is just like old fashioned SEO, long before the days that everyone had a website and Google started playing tricks with Panda or Penguin; it’s like SEO as we knew it but on steroids. It works. It’s powerful and you need it.
Download our What is Inbound Marketing article