Why SEO May Be Wrong for Your Business

By Dustin DeVries
June 4, 2016

As a business owner, you probably get bombarded all the time by companies providing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) services. But did you know SEO is a long, arduous process with almost no guarantees?

When it comes to marketing, there are literally dozens of channels. Whether you’re looking at PPC campaigns, social media engagement, or offline marketing strategies, there are a multitude of options at your disposal.

Since SEO is just one of many options, why do so many businesses look at SEO as the be-all and end-all of their digital marketing strategy?

Top 10 reasons to not SEO

Here is our list of 10 reasons why you might want to focus your marketing efforts elsewhere instead of SEO.

It takes a long time.
It’s costly to do it right.
You’re putting all your eggs in the Google basket.
Your customers may not even be searching.
You’re in a competitive space.
By itself, SEO is a one-dimensional strategy.
There’s no gaming the system.
SEO needs constant nourishment.
It makes redesigns stressful.
There’s better value elsewhere.

The short and sweet of it all is, SEO is a long term play. If you focus solely on SEO, you may be spending lots of money and waiting several months to see results

And again, with SEO, there’s no guarantee, since SEO depends on so many factors.

Common problems with SEO:

Are your customers using search engines for your products or services?

Are you competing with other well-established businesses that are already successful at SEO?

Better value elsewhere

Every business is unique. Some businesses convert most of their business offline. Other businesses do 90% of their sales during a one month period (think HoneyBaked Ham, for example).

As a result, we recommend that you start with a marketing plan unique to your business and industry. It’s difficult to start prescribing solutions like SEO when you haven’t even effectively identified the problems in your business.

That said, even if SEO isn’t at the top of your marketing strategy, it doesn’t have to be at the bottom either.

Hedging your SEO bets with other marketing channels

Many marketing efforts rely on great content. For example, Facebook advertising often results in ads that link back to your website or blog.

Since SEO is largely based around great, keyword-rich content, this is good news for those aspiring to one day rule the SEO realm in their industry.

Effectively what this means is, even if you focus on another marketing channel like Facebook, you’re still getting the inherent SEO value of all the great content you’re generating.

Examples of other marketing channels that reinforce your SEO strategy

Writing great, keyword-rich content is at the heart of many digital marketing strategies. And, surprise surprise, it’s also at the heart of many marketing strategies.

So instead of leading with SEO and effectively cutting off other immediate marketing opportunities, you can lead with these shorter-term marketing opportunities while still fostering a long term SEO strategy. That’s huge!

Get started with your marketing plan

If you’re ready to lead with the problem rather than the solution, your first step is to develop a marketing plan.

Whether you’re focused on social media engagement, pay-per-click advertising, or SEO, we can help you develop a marketing plan specific for your business.

After determining your strategy and budget, we can work with you to implement your marketing plan.

If you’re interested in taking the next steps, please click the “Start Your Project” button at the bottom of this page, or give us a call at (512) 387-5793.