Are Search Engine Optimization Services Worth It?
07/17/2006
Just a few short
years ago, search engine optimization was considered something of a black
art. Few companies realized the
financial impact of high search rankings and even fewer knew that there was any
way to affect their own rankings. Not to
mention, it was so much easier to gain high rankings that most knowledgeable
search engine optimizers were perfectly happy quietly profiting from their own
sites’ high rankings.
Now, with the high-profile
success of online advertising, and Google specifically, many companies are
realizing the significant impact that good search rankings can have on their
bottom line. Of course, where there is
new money, there is also competition, and hundreds of search engine
optimization (SEO) firms have popped up in recent years as a result. The question is:
Are SEO services really worth the price?
The simple honest
answer is: usually, but not always.
Everyone’s business model is a little different and companies need to
consider the potential impact of ANY service before purchasing it. Deciding whether you should invest in SEO
services is a simple cost vs. benefit comparison:
COST - How much will it cost to
achieve the rankings you desire? Not all
websites are equal. If you have a brand
new site, or one that has been severely neglected for a long time, it will take
more time to achieve high rankings than a site that has been around for a while
and is already somewhat established online.
Google in particular protects itself from search engine spammers by heavily
favoring websites that show several months of steady incoming links and useful
content. Only then does it trust that
site enough to rank it highly for competitive terms.
New sites can and do rank well,
but depending on how competitive your industry is online, it will take more
resources to get the ball rolling and break through the competition than an
established site would require. If your
site is relatively new, a smart SEO company will find relevant keywords that
are less competitive and go after those initially to start building traffic to
your site right away.
BENEFIT - What do you have to gain
from more website traffic? Unless your
company sells very low margin products, it’s usually pretty easy to justify an
investment in attaining high search engine rankings.
One needs only to start an AdWords campaign to get a reality check on
the value of a lead. When some companies
are willing to put $10 or more PER CLICK on their ads, you know you’ve got some
competition. The true power of SEO is
that not only will you get MORE clicks from being listed highly on the organic
side, but those leads are completely free.
That’s a huge savings each and every day that you have those high search
rankings. A good SEO company can
provide you with search volumes for relevant keywords to give you an idea of
how many potential new leads you may gain by using their services. This will greatly help you to determine the
actual monetary value of achieving high search engine rankings for your
company.
Finally, even after
determining that SEO services are worthwhile for them, some companies have
trouble committing to a search engine optimization contract primarily because results are rarely immediate, and there are no guarantees that the site will
rank highly. You need to understand
that no one can directly manipulate the search results, so if you are
guaranteed high rankings, you will probably end up paying to rank for keywords
that are not being searched for at all.
Hire a quality SEO company that is very transparent in what they are
doing, so you can see what terms they are optimizing for and how much traffic
those terms could potentially bring in.
The bottom line
with SEO services is that they can be very valuable for most companies, but not
all. You should do your own cost-benefit
analysis, possibly with the assistance of a helpful SEO firm, to determine just
how profitable improved search rankings could be for your business.