Making Better Decisions

Through 11 years of working with clients, I've seen the long term results of some former client's decisions about using SEO. Many have used it well while others just didn't have the conviction that it was the best use of their financial resources and time. If they had been fully committed to it, you can imagine how much business they could have generated for free throughout the years.

It may all boil down to SEO not being sexy enough but business people should be able to get beyond that and find ways to make it sexy themselves if necessary. Why do clients lack commitment and not make the right choices in their particular situaton? Each business person has their own reason.

Here's a couple of scenarios:

1.    Phone conversation

Business Owner: "We've had no success with 2 different SEO providers so we're looking for a new one. Do you have your office in our city?"

Bay Street SEO: "We don't have an office in your city, however we have clients across the country. Distance isn't normally an issue since we've been successful with their SEO projects."

Business Owner: "Actually we're looking for someone local."

This is a very common scenario where a business owner isn't focused on what really matters --- success and the SEO's performance record. Instead, his focus is "someone local." He was eager to make his third bad decision.

2.   Budgeting

Business Owner: "SEO has generated significant sales revenue and has made our online marketing effort one of our best business achievements, however the budget is frozen and what is there is being spent on PPC."

What could be more typical than this today? Management has decided to minimize risk and keep the status quo when the company actually has the funds (a drop in the bucket for them) to dominate organic search rankings. SEO is ruled as risky and uncertain even though it has already shown to be powerful. Further, research marketing statistics clearly show SEO is where big companies need to be headed and are headed. Why is management ignoring the trends when they have an opportunity to lead and corral the market? CEO's and CFO's are under a lot of pressure and are perhaps confused about the route ahead. Right now, with the economy recovering, it is an ideal time to plan search marketing and rearrange the company marketing budget to create first mover advantage and build a dominant presence for the years ahead.

The Big Picture

Executives who make good decisions have a positive outlook and a good framework for making them. The framework seems to keep them focused on the right actions. Those who make mistakes have distractions and preconceptions that prevent them from starting with the big picture. Without the BIG picture vision of improving business and sales guiding them, their framework becomes distorted and their judgement skewed.

When you start with the BIG picture, the decision factors are viewed in proper context, that is, how they serve the BIG picture. In a book called The Right Decision Every Time, the author emphasizes clarity. Clarity comes from a larger perspective and aligns with the desired outcome. Hiring local doesn't coincide with the larger perspective and doesn't align with the key outcome. Defining the outcome needed and finding the very best solution is how you achieve clarity and success in todays competitive marketplace.

1. What Outcome do you need? (Big picture: Sales)
2. Is SEO the best solution for that problem (Constraints: does the research show SEO has the market reach and top ROI?)
3. What is stopping us from committing to SEO? (Do we want our success to come from somewhere else? Will it come from somewhere else? Who is the best provider; do we have underlying doubts about our company, products and value offer; is our web site awful; perhaps no one can help us. Will the cheapest local provider really make us a big success?)
4. Who could provide the best results and responsiveness to our particular needs? (A dedicated specialist who can research, write and communicate our unique value proposition while simultaneously give the search engines what they so we're ranked high. A trainee from a big firm probably won't work and a web designer offering SEO services probably isn't credible)
5. How do we move forward (good research and a reliable plan of action is needed - a professional SEO can provide a custom audit and strategy based on the situation, needs and the opportunities possible).

Once you've answered these 5 questions, you must return to the question about who will provide the SEO services. Here are some things to think about when deciding on choosing an SEO consultant.

Take a Good Look at your Potential SEO providers.

• do they have extensive experience?
• do they have the dedication and in-depth knowledge?
• do they have a record of success on numerous projects?
• does their website give you a true impression they are truly excited about SEO?
• do they specialize in SEO?
• have they communicated your situation and what is needed?
• are they innovative, versatile and write interesting, compelling and persuasive copy?
• is the specific SEO person who will be optimizing your site a true expert or just an inhouse person assigned to your project?

Making decisions is the key task for executives and business owners. Achieving clarity can be reached many ways yet clarity and focus always arise when you stay true to the big picture and find solutions that align with your objectives.

Do you have any questions or comments? Leave your comment on the Bay Street SEO Blog.

Case Study - Full Commitment to SEO

A client choose Bay Street SEO to provide full SEO services for their search engine presence. We prepared the plan, built inbound links, created hundreds of pages of original content. It tooks many months for the new site to appear in the search results, because at the time, the Google sandbox was of course, delaying new websites for 6 months on average. The long wait was excruitiating however we achieved top rankings on all the relevant phrases. This was in a highly profitable sector where PPC clickthrough prices were well above $20 per click. Their PPC campaign was eating up $400,000 per year, yet SEO was generating 4 times the paid ppc traffic. This was business with a limited product life span however it was well worth the effort to implement SEO. A courageous and intelligent client.

Decision Difficulties

A study of 115 CEOs revealed their decision making process was negatively affected by these factors:

A clear perspective: seeing through the trivial, ineffective, and inconsequential to see those solutions that will generate top sales results.

Focus

Search engine traffic is the best quality source of sales leads possible. Google makes billions every year because businesses are clamoring for a spot on their pages. It's important for you to maintain your focus on that fact. Don't stray from it, and find ways to make SEO a priority for your company.

SEO does not detract from other marketing techniques - it feeds them. The job of converting visitors to customers will always be there from sales meetings to customer service. Your leads from the search engines just get the sales ball rolling. Good SEO gets the ball rolling fast from the outset and that momentum can greatly help everyone in your organization.

A smart move is to have us examine your website and give you some ideas on what you can do to improve it.