Ask the SEO Guru

Guruisms for the week of 23-02-09

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards.

Aldous Huxley

 The True Cost of SEO

While there are a great many heated debates regarding the scope of what SEO entails, it is generally accepted, (that means not argued over much in SEO communities),that SEO’s basic function is the traffic generation from organic, (mistakenly used to imply free), search engine results. The truth, while admittedly brutal for some, is that more times than not, traffic generation is more cost effective if you simply buy it. PPC has it’s merits.

That statement may seem odd coming from a man who has capitalized significantly on “organic” placements but it is only because I am one of that small percentage of netizens who actually does know the real cost of those “free” placements.  That voice of experience is telling you the truth now; whether paying for PPC, purchasing  prospects from affiliates, or hiring the assistance of an SEO ---- you ARE paying for traffic. Well, --- If you got lucky and hired the right seo anyway. If not, then you’re just paying.

Would you like to know the secret of figuring out the true cost of SEO for yourself?

 It’s ROI. Return on Investment

THAT is what establishes the value of traffic. Duh! We all knew that right? Then why are there so many really crappy websites all scrambling for top spots?

The truth is that all traffic, regardless of where it came from, is worth something. At the very least, an effort. But the word something is a very broad, very subjective term.

I may be running the risk of a death sentence by the grammar police here but I feel this MUST be said. To me ----

It ain’t worth a squirt if it don’t convert

Your business will die if they don’t buy

If it don’t convert – it don’t work

Learn to convert - It doesn't hurt

Made my point yet?

So I’ve conceded, all traffic, ANY traffic, does have some inherent value. However, if you are  able to use logic to come to a conclusion and are able to rise above the din of the blinded few, then maybe you can agree with me that those 4 grammatically flawed euphemisms above have value as well.

If you can agree that the end goal of any traffic generating strategy should be increased conversions, (hopefully resulting in increased profits), then the idea of increasing conversions has to have at least equal appeal to increased seo, (whatever that is),efforts.

Think about this.

If your site enjoys an average conversion rate of .05%, meaning 1 out of every 200 unique hits converts to a desired action, then which is better in terms of return? Increasing traffic to 1000 unique hits to get 5 sales, OR increase conversions to say 10% or 20 orders out of every 200 hits?

WHOA THERE COWKID, we’re not through thinkin yet.

What would you think the cost of generating 5 times more traffic would be compared to increasing conversions to 10 %?

Now, which approach do YOU think makes more sense?

The reality is that whether you think more traffic or more conversions is better ---- you’re right! I’m not trying to argue or put your mindset into a spin. It’s your site, your business and your money. Spend your time and money any way you feel is best for you and guess what? You’re doing the right thing --- for you anyway.

For me, I’ve found it exponentially less expensive to increase conversions IF you can afford it. Once you know you can convert, THEN spend money on generating more traffic. If you go about it that way, you should actually have revenue to invest generated from your efforts instead of stolen from your mom’s purse. (vague adolescent reference added so you don’t think I’m talking about you . If you don’t have generated revenue from your efforts then you lose more money with each passing day and more traffic is only going to make you lose more money faster.

3 Second Back Button Boogie Defined

When an internet user elects to click a link from a source document, be it a search engine, an email, a blog or forum, it is a conscious act. To use an index finger to push a mouse button indicates a response to an emotional stimulus. It indicates the expectation of finding data related to that stimulus at the destination.

In other words, when someone clicks a link they are expecting to find something that relates to the specific reason they clicked the link in the first place.

  So How Do I Stop the 3 Second Back Button Boogie?

The concept is simple, the application --- ahhhhh, not so much.

If you are converting at 3% or less, you are going to have an increasingly difficult time maintaining your margins for the long term if that model depends on generating more and more traffic.  I know, I know, we all read on seo frogs, (forums and blogs), that so and so has been #1 for years or that the “other” guy just doesn’t REALLY know seo. Well, I DO really know seo, (whatever that is), and I also know that webmasters and programmers no longer rule the cyber roost. The cowboy site jockeys of yesterday have traded in their undershorts and bathrobes for Birkenstocks, (http://www.birkenstockusa.com/), and their khaki colored cargo shorts while punching the clock at their 9 to 5 for the suits. As in all things media, eventually, marketing rules. Maybe that is as it should be. Whether it should or not, it does.

The web is getting more competitive every day and each day we see it becoming a battleground with better trained, better equipped, better financed warriors. AND, the more profit there is in your I-only-need-a-2%-conversion-rate-to-make-a-profit web service, the more that targeted traffic is going to cost AND the cheaper your corporate competitors are going to be selling the same goodie as you. YIKES! Not a pretty picture huh?

So what are we to do? Hire the next SEO who talks about metrics without telling you what to DO about them once you analyze them?  Hire $500 an hour consultants to tell you to post more on twitter? Give up and go back to environmental engineering?

HERE’S AN IDEA. WHY NOT LEARN HOW TO INCREASE CONVERSIONS?

All is not gloom and doom. Yes it is going to get more and more competitive and you are going to have to learn to figure your ROI to know how far you want to go and in which direction, but it’s not that hard.

I know you don’t have to look very far on the net to find articles and posts, (or if it is an seo community, childish name calling and circle jerks of the textual persuasion), extolling the virtues of metrics and analytics. AND they are virtuous indeed. The problem comes in when asking, “ok, I see I have 9% of my hits coming from Zimbabwe, and 22% of those come in between 1400 and 1700 hours, soooooo now what”? It’s the now what that doesn’t get talked about too much.

Well, I’m going to talk about the now what. Figuring out how to use ANY information you can get to increase conversions doesn’t have to be that hard. It CAN be as hard, (and as in-depth and expensive), as you let it be and the more you can afford the better, BUT you don’t have to be a MNC,(multi national corporation), to be able to analyze data to develop a strategy and then execute effectively. Worried about doing it right? Don’t worry,#1. You can’t do it wrong because if you do, your numbers go down. #2. If your numbers go down stop doing that  

The great thing about the net is that those kind of numbers used to cost a LOT of money thereby raising the cost of the service or product being sold. Corporates still spend a GREAT deal of money on those kinds of numbers, (but it is changing), which gives you at least a small advantage.

Now it is so cheap that any single mom sitting in her underwear, (ummm, give me a minute here until I get this image out of my head), at her computer can compete with all the money and power any corporate can bring to bear when it comes to research, data organization and analytics within her market. Again, the trick is what to do about the numbers you get.

You can trust me when I tell you, If I can do it, ANYBODY can do it.

In my forthcoming blogstallments, I’ll tell you how I use referrer based ad delivery, subliminal messaging, learning curves, superstition and religion to increase conversions at a minimal cost and without needing another four years of college.

Kem cho Y’all

(I’m an Okie learning to speak Gujarati)

MAJAMA

The Guru

I’d like to leave you today with some wise words my Mother told me as a young boy. I hope it serves you as well as it has served me over the years.

Boy, if you don’t stop flipping that gawddamn clicker I’m going to slap your ears off!