1. Increases ROI on all other forms of marketing
2. Directed by the user vs. passive
3. High ROI, organic SEO campaigns can last for years
4. More tools than any other media in history to track performance
5. Enormous audience that can be surgically targeted
6. Often a small budget can beat or compete with an entire traditional marketing budget in terms of track-able leads
7. Most likely to produce a sale because it’s active not passive
8. Most interaction with customers
9. Lowest-cost way to keep in constant contact
10. Strongest loyalty building through social conversation marketing and user generated content
11. Viral effect generates extra and often unexpected activity such as media attention
12. Constantly changeable content at a low cost
13. Laser target by demographic
14. Track results in real time
15. Approximately 85% – 90% of web traffic comes from search engines
16. Search delivers relevant information just when the searcher needs it
17. Search has eclipsed radio advertising
18. Search has eclipsed yellow pages advertising
19. Social media creates a bond with your customers and can solve some of their problems (versus annoying them with ads)
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One of the biggest misconceptions about internet marketing and websites in general is that “geeks” can do it all. After running an internet marketing company for 15 years I have learned that the most successful web projects are done by teams of highly specialized people. As a business owner, when you are looking to get online, rebuild your website, drive more leads or partake in social media, you need to make sure you don’t fall into the trap of thinking that one person, which many would call a “webmaster”, can handle each part of the process properly.
Specialization Is Key in Search Engine Optimization
Generally in a respectable website project there is now at least a separate designer and programmer. The best case scenario has a whole host of people getting involved from brand and competition researchers, usability experts to map out to way users will interact, designers, front and back end programmers and numerous internet marketing specialists. However, this issue, while being solved by the better sites and in tune companies is brand new to many entrepreneurs and business owners, leaving a virtual train wreck of failed development and supposed website marketing projects. If you hate your webmaster it may be that he/she is doing too much and not too little.
Who Should Handle Your Search Engine Optimization?
Unfortunately, the complexity grows by the day and website owners need to think of their websites strategy as they would with any business model. They need to write a business plan for their website and ensure that the goals and tactics are mapped out as clearly as their offline activities. Without this type of thinking and with only a “webmaster” as your army, the battle is already lost.
It comes down to making sure that there is A. a strategist behind your internet marketing activities, B. solid business goals that the activities are enhancing and C. specialized people doing each task. And when hiring in house, the tasks must be documented before starting – not left to discover along the way.
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