Why you might consider a search marketing strategy before an SEO campaign

I am often contacted by small businesses inquiring about SEO services. In most cases, my initial look at their site tells me they really need some guidance on a search marketing strategy, not SEO services.

I'm not against SEO. I completely agree they could benefit from search engine optimization. I have been a hard-core SEO guy for nearly 10 years, and I know very well the value of SEO. However, successful SEO achieves rank in search engines, and draws targeted traffic to the website. If the website (and the business behind it) is not prepared to manage that traffic well, that inefficiency will manifest in exhorbitant costs for SEO services. It can also cost them their rankings, as search engines are increasingly monitoring the quality of the destinations of their referred traffic. A web page that ranks well but is perceived to be of low quality by the search engine, will not rank well for long. you don't get your SEO money back -- you simply have to pay again.

Also, the very nature of SEO ensures that higher rankings costs more to obtain. Each incremental improvement in your site's ranking for target search terms actually costs more than the previous incremental improvement, since it is harder to compete and win the top spots.  So if your are inefficiently handling the traffic you get at a lower position, that inefficiency will be even more costly once you are at a higher ranking position. In that case, your money would have been better spent improving your site and business than increasing your spend on SEO services. That is where the search marketing strategy comes in. A search marketing strategy shows you how to run your business in alignment with search marketing, to improve that overall marketing efficiency. It helps you prepare for SEO.

When your site is prepared for SEO, or in other words, when you have a strong search marketing strategy in place, the more you spend on SEO the more you make in profits. Properly done search engine optimization builds organic momentum over time all by itself. You work hard in the beginning, and reap dividends from that effort over a long period of time, contributing only maintenance work unless you want additional boosts. In that case, the more you put in the more you get out. The SEO costs associated with moving from #2 to #1 can be high, but if you are properly monetizing your traffic at the #2 spot, you wil probably be very eager to invest that money. You'll be properly positioned to benefit from the SEO efforts.

A search marketing strategy requires consideration of your website's ability to perform, the quality of your content, your ability to  deliver content or resources, the market (including the competiton), and your unique value proposition, as well as other factors related to these and related to SEO. A good SEO consultant knows this. A good SEO consultant includes search marketing strategy development in the SEO services package, or assumes a model for search marketing strategy based on your business type and apparent resources.

Sadly, many many SEO firms and consultants ignore this and simply package a link building plan or a web page adjustment as "SEO".  In that case, SEO efforts are out of alignment with business success. The SEO is likely to be the only one getting richer as you increase your SEO spend.