Web Design: 10 Steps to Web Design:
9. SEO - how important is it for you to be at the top?
How important is it for you to be top of Google? Obviously it would be nice if you were one of the first names that came up when someone entered your chosen key phrases in a search engine - but is it essential?
For some of you it will be. In which case, you should hire the services of a specialist SEO company - but make sure you are confident of getting a return on investment when doing this.
SEO can be an expensive business. If you anticipate a top 10 Google ranking will generate £100,000 a year for you, then an investment of £30,000 a year in getting there is well worth it. If your anticipated maximum income is £29,000 though, its time to think of another strategy.
Beware of companies offering to get you to "the top of Google" for next to nothing. Google can be "tricked" into putting your site on its front page - but the trickery usually involves butchering your site's usability to the extent that your Google placing is little more than an exercise in vanity publishing, because no-one will by buying from you. Google also doesn't like being tricked, and will probably catch you out - at which point you won't even be on the last page of Google.
For many smaller companies, particularly in competitive fields such as tourism or property, it makes more financial sense to drive traffic to your site in other ways. Sponsored links (otherwise known as pay-per-click) on Google, Yahoo etc can be a good investment, as can joining good paid-for directory sites.
Off-line marketing and promotion of your website - even something as simple as putting the address of your site on the back of your car - can help get people on your site.
Again, try to work out how much you could realistically make and how much relevant traffic you need coming to your site to justify the cost before deciding on your SEO and promotional strategies.
Even if you successfully bring in visitors to your site using SEO or pay-per-click, constantly analyse whether you are getting a return on investment.
We know of one company whose pay-per-click strategy was bringing nearly 4,000 people a month into their online store. Unfortunately for them, nearly 3,500 of those visitors were from the United States - a region they didn't ship to. Successful SEO can only be measure in terms of return on investment.
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