Web Site Marketing or Search Engine Optimisation is it all worth it?

I have been in the IT industry now for over 20 years I am employed by a company that looks after high end IT needs of medium sized Australian companies. Over the years I have been appointed the manager of many companies and IT divisions.

Now that consumers are starting to trust the internet for the purchasing of household goods hundreds of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) companies have come on to the scene to promote corporate web sites to the top of the search engines. My company has had an SEO division for the last 10 years although we would much prefer to call it "Website promotion".

Over the years I have over scene the management, training and success of this SEO division. We have promoted hundreds of corporate web sites on search engines, Pay Per Click advertising and other industry advertising pages.The system works by optimising the pages increasing the "Hit Rate" and continue to keep the presence of the site in the forefront for as long as the company employing our services requires. What we sometimes find finding is companies stop this line of advertising after approximately six months.

Why is this?

Quite simple really, this advertising does not always work.

So why doesn't this type of advertising always work?

Just because people are coming to your site doesn't mean they are going to you're your goods. For a start a lot of SEO companies just want their clients to receive hits as proof they have performed their roles. This can easily be achieved simply by finding some keywords semi relevant to your business that receives thousands of searches each month, scatter these through your pages and hey presto traffic. Not sales. Just a heap of mislead Internet users. If you are interested in your keywords you can check them with one of our online analysers on our tools menu. In reality all you want is traffic to your site from people who are interested in your product this may only be 5 visits a month but if 5 visitors are converted into 2 follow through sales then we have success.

The second and most common down fall are the web sites themselves. Rarely does an SEO company say to a client "Your web page sucks, come back when it looks like you might be able to sell something from it." Let's face it, competition for most products on the web is fierce. It makes no difference if you are number 1 or number 5 on a search engine if your web page is not inviting, well laid out and easy to navigate. A web site is no different to a physical store. If when you enter it you are bombarded with offers or can't find what you are looking for quickly and easily, you leave.

The bottom line, of course there is a place for Web Site Promotion and SEO techniques. We have increased the sales of hundreds of companies over the years by using Internet advertising. The trick is to make sure it is an appropriate advertising medium for your company and product and then make sure you're "Online Shop" is neat, tidy and inviting.

Brad Dixon

World Domain