Proclaim!SEO Blog

5 Mistakes Business Owners Make in Search Engine Marketing
by Brian Marsh

1.  Not realizing they’re in a race with their competitors.
Here’s the deal Mr./Mrs. business owner: you have competitors, and now, they’re from all over the world.  And all of them want to be #1 on Google.  But Google only lets say..10 of them even be on the first page.  So you have to be one of the top 10 companies in the world in search engine ranking prowess to rank on the first page of Google.  Tough, huh? Well get this…Google looks at things that take time, money, and strategy to obtain as significant factors in search engine ranking.  So, if your competitor hired a SEO a year ago and you didn’t…guess what?  You’re in a race.  Sooner or later most of your top competitors will hire SEO guru’s to aid them in their ranking.  They’re running, their posting, they’re getting links, they’re building content, their site is optimized (and being optimized).  They’re climbing up the mountain of Search Engine Rankings…hugh, puff, climb, it’s hard, but they’re making progress.  Where are you in the race? Have you begun?  Do you think having a website is enough?  If you aren’t gaining ground you’re loosing it my friend (John McCain lingo).

2. Hiring a big company to do their SEO.

Now, I know, this doesn’t seem to make sense.  Obviously a big SEO company got big because they were doing something right…right?  Well, no, not necessarily.  P.T. Barnam said “There’s a sucker born every minute.”  If you’re a big company, at this point in the internet world, the quickest way to a buck is through deception.  And, lets face it, most people don’t know they’re being deceived.  And, the ones that do, have spent far too much time studying SEO.  This is a tough scenario, huh? How do you know who you can trust?  Well, the truth is you don’t. But with a smaller SEO company and especially a small SEO company, you can talk to the owner, not a sales rep.  And a small company has something to lose.  Sure, there are lots of SEO clients out there, but sales takes time, and a small SEO company needs referrals.

3. Not paying attention to on page factors

I’m constantly amazed at how many sites I see with a large number of links that have no on page SEO, or, so little it doesn’t matter.  Look, your on page SEO tells Google what you’re about, and that you’re a real company, not some fly by nite spam site or some mom and pop website with nothing significant to offer.  Yes, with enough links and anchor text you can rank a blank website, but often I can rank a website with on page SEO alone.  You need both.

4. Leaving their SEO to their employees. Sure, your programmer or marketing manager may know something about SEO.  Heck, they may know something about brain surgery too. But do you want to hire them for either one?  For that matter, why are you distracting them from what they specialize in?  Don’t hire a criminal lawyer for your divorce; don’t hire your dentist for psychotherapy.   SEO is complex, it’s specialized, it’s constantly changing.  I spend several hours a DAY learning and keeping up with the changes.  You can’t expect your employees to suceed in SEO.

5. Not paying enough / Thinking they can stop

Yea I know, I’m an SEO guy giving you advice to pay more…not exactly objective, but it’s true just the same. Let me explain.  I’ve owned several small businesses and have been in sales and marketing for more than 25 years.  I understand cash flow.  Really, I get it.  Cash and profit, cash and profit, cash and profit.  But you probably know by now that no sales = no cash and no profit.  Period.  That’s why good sales people get paid a LOT of money. That’s why Google is making a LOT of money.  If you want to make a LOT of money, you’ve got to invest in SEO for your company.  And often, the small expenditure hurts you the most.  Why?  Because it doesn’t produce much.  I mean, sure, I can help you make sales by on page optimization and some mimimum monthly maintenance alone.  But in most cases, you’re not going to get to the top page of Googe.  Maybe on some “long tail” words and phrases.  But the fact is, the business from search engine rankings (and it’s not even so much rankings any more, but that’s another post) exponitionatly increases as you climb to the top.  Most experts say that the #1 listing on a Google page gets 40% of the clicks from that term or phrase.  #2 and #3 maybe 20%, etc.  You do the math..how much is a 3rd page ranking on Google worth? How much is a #1 spot worth?

Need a competent and trustworthy SEO expert on your side?
Contact Brian@ProclaimSEO.com