Looking at the tongue-in-cheek MindMap document "Internet
Marketing Made Easy," which prints out at about five feet
long, we decided to do the research to discover the links
to these resources. Why would someone publish a directory
and not provide the information? That is an old way of
thinking, where a vendor only has value if the prospect
cannot have access to the information. Since the open
attitude and source citing of Web 2.0 is the new norm, why
not help people who are newbies? The funny thing is that
search marketers did this--don't they think people will
just do another search to find the link?
It's a great tool, organized around the process of
developing an effective website, from getting customer
feedback and understanding what is going on currently on
your site, to installing analytics, understanding the
buying cycle and tracking your conversions. A more useful
version of the task list would have live links to connect
you with the sources and resources. Unlike a lot of
practitioners who want to keep you in the dark about how
SEO is done, and what tools the pros use, we believe that
the more you know, the better. Why?
It is true that search marketing is complex. Keyword tools
give very different answers on what terms have what
traffic, and it takes some digging (and usually, shelling
out some money) to get access to enough tools to piece
together a realistic approximation of what real people are
searching on, as opposed to search marketers checking their
rankings. However, just knowing more about site
architecture, keyword selection, pay-per-click advertising,
site analytics, market research, web design, usability,
on-page SEO strategies, link building and social media
makes you a much better prospective CLIENT, at least in our
self-centered view. If you have a small site, or are a sole
proprietor, then why not share the information to help you
to have a site with a richer customer experience, and the
favor of the search engines? After all, we are prospects
too, and we might be looking for what you sell. If we can
just teach you how to rank well, it makes our search so
much easier!
I guess the idea of having educational web resources is to
get people's interest and attention, then move them along
in the sales process. However, we try to educate people
about the complexity and cost of the process, because we
want a prospect who really wants our help, not someone who
is expecting a quick boost from SEO pixie dust. On your
site, can you educate a prospect and gain the leadership
position of being the source of their knowledge? This is
one of the most expensive things to do with traditional
media, but a real advantage of web marketing.
It's important to keep in mind that search engine
optimization is all about understanding your prospect and
making iterative change to your site, to get closer and
closer to meeting the needs of the market for information.
It's hard work over time that pays off. It may take a year
or two on a large site to develop enough content and links
to get top rankings, but whenever you achieve "authority
site" status on your main keywords, you begin to own that
real estate at the top of the search engine results pages
(SERPs). That pays some nice dividends.
----------------------------------------------------
Specializing in marketing technology-based companies since
1987, and active in Internet marketing since 1992, John
Rasco's skills as a marketer, team leader and strategist
are key to successful client engagements. Founder of Brand
X Austin and RefreshWeb, John has an entrepreneurial gene,
a creative bent and a passion for challenging projects.
More at http://www.refreshweb.com
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