Question for the SEO/SEM experts.....

[5hummer]

(not sure if this belongs in the business section)

I'm a small business and I want to enlarge my online presence. I know Google is pretty much the monopoly on search engines, so I was thinking why go to a digital agency and get them to do my SEO/SEM stuff when I can let Google handle it?

Does that make any sense -- why don't I just go to the source to do this stuff for me?

 

[lomotil]

(not sure if this belongs in the business section)

I'm a small business and I want to enlarge my online presence. I know Google is pretty much the monopoly on search engines, so I was thinking why go to a digital agency and get them to do my SEO/SEM stuff when I can let Google handle it?

Does that make any sense -- why don't I just go to the source to do this stuff for me?

Google will not help you with your " Google ranking" .

 

[5hummer]

Google will not help you with your " Google ranking" .

For argument sakes:

What if Google offered their services to you?
What is your reaction?
Would you accept?

 

[andydude]

hey hummer

SEO/SEM are very generic terms now being thrown around by every web designer/marketing firm out there.

I could talk your ear off about this but to give you a general summary:

1) Increasing your online exposure takes work, including: content creation and distribution, website optimization and strategic thinking. Depending on your goals, you could just buy adwords, but are better suited to take a multi-prong approach that includes beefing up your website, creating a content stream (blog post,articles, social media channels) and sticking to them.
2) some changes are quick and painless, for instance, identifying keywords you want to rank for and re-inforcing your site with them, setting up a google analytics account/webmaster tools profile (this is a very quick way to get a better ranking) submitting sitemap,etc.
3) some are tough, depending on how crowded the space online is for your company/keywords, you could be looking at setting up a simple blog with a post every month, or setting up multiple websites and deals with other sources to get your content distributed and viewed. there are some grey area's here you can use to get to #1 or #2 for a search result, but it takes time
4) yes adwords is EASY, BUT , google will charge you based on your websites rank, so if youve got a crappy rank on search, you're going to pay a premium, thats why all the organic changes are recommended first, and then afterwards you can pay google to put your site up top on page 1 (and pay for the pleasure)

I could really talk your ear off, and while i dont specialize in seo, i create digital businesses for a living so i have alot of experience with this.

feel free to PM me, happy to give you a rough plan on what you should do but need to understand your goals better!

 

[detonader]

hey hummer

SEO/SEM are very generic terms now being thrown around by every web designer/marketing firm out there.

I could talk your ear off about this but to give you a general summary:

1) Increasing your online exposure takes work, including: content creation and distribution, website optimization and strategic thinking. Depending on your goals, you could just buy adwords, but are better suited to take a multi-prong approach that includes beefing up your website, creating a content stream (blog post,articles, social media channels) and sticking to them.
2) some changes are quick and painless, for instance, identifying keywords you want to rank for and re-inforcing your site with them, setting up a google analytics account/webmaster tools profile (this is a very quick way to get a better ranking) submitting sitemap,etc.
3) some are tough, depending on how crowded the space online is for your company/keywords, you could be looking at setting up a simple blog with a post every month, or setting up multiple websites and deals with other sources to get your content distributed and viewed. there are some grey area's here you can use to get to #1 or #2 for a search result, but it takes time
4) yes adwords is EASY, BUT , google will charge you based on your websites rank, so if youve got a crappy rank on search, you're going to pay a premium, thats why all the organic changes are recommended first, and then afterwards you can pay google to put your site up top on page 1 (and pay for the pleasure)

I could really talk your ear off, and while i dont specialize in seo, i create digital businesses for a living so i have alot of experience with this.

feel free to PM me, happy to give you a rough plan on what you should do but need to understand your goals better!

All of these are very good points. However, I thought Adwords worked based on a bid system whereby the campaign owner set a bid price for keywords up to a maximum price? Depending on your industry and the keywords you are competing for, this can get expensive as andydude stated.

Also, If by your "Google ranking" you are referring to your ranking in the organic search results, then you should be aware that SEO development on your site (adding content, changing and adding keywords etc.) can take upwards of 3-6 months or more to show any changes in your organic search rankings depending on the industry your business is in.

Google ranks sites based on how credible and how much of an authority your website is on the particular keywords being searched for. So it is kind of a cycle of getting people to your site, keeping low bounce rates (people coming to your site and leaving immediately), and then as more people visit your site, your ranking increases, and the higher your ranking, the more people visit.

While I wouldn't suggest a longterm Adwords campaign as it can get costly like andydude and I previously mentioned, it might not be a bad idea to implement a short campaign once you have updated your site with some SEO friendly content just to boost your awareness of the new site and content.

 

[andydude]

Detonader, valid points. Generally what you see is the following: Company selling X product with a generally well defined CPA goes out and buys adwords. I would definitely support that even just as a test. You already know your margin and what youre willing to spend to acquire a customer.

Company X, sells X product/service and doesnt have a CPA = this is where it can get expensive, as you dont have a defined $ youre willing to spend for new calls/customers and so your test doesnt really help.

NOw the last bit, i would definitely advocate for adwords BUT GOogle discounts your bid based on the SEO value of the content your pushing towards. IE: its cheaper to buy ads for a website with good SEO vs. a brand new web page.

So i hope that makes sense!

 

[lomotil]

For argument sakes:

What if Google offered their services to you?
What is your reaction?
Would you accept?

Yes but it is impossible since Google ranks us against each other for their monumental profit.