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SEO and the ROI Debacle

What If Your Website Is Deficient? SEO Worthiness and Readiness

Every website will have some issues. Even if many keywords rank well, they'll never be perfect on all of the major search engines. In other words, there is room for improvement.

We usually discover one of the following problems listed in order of their common severity:

  • Limited links
  • Poor keyword selection
  • Ineffective title tags
  • Sparse content
  • Site architecture defects

Four Faces of Search

The search engine optimization landscape often has four faces that confuse people. Marketers dont know whether to regard SEO as easy ("hardly rocket science" they say) or joke that it's a bizarre operation akin to Willy Wonka's Oompa Lumpas. Some may approach SEO as a soothsayer who knows 82 secrets few people possess.

The confusion stems from the manner in which influential search engine algorithms and website elements come together. SEO mood swings are possible, but SEO stabilizes as website ranking factors mature.

Depending on the severity, there can be any number of options. Let's look at a few scenarios:

Smart Web Design
With keywords in page titles and content, some websites are succeeding without much help from employees or consultants. Quality links, clean website design, a reasonable amount of text on the pages and website age can go a long way.

Support for Tough Keywords
For competitive search terms, businesses typically need someone on their payroll or an SEO consultant to pull a program together and make the most of keyword and search term themes. They can have slight problems in any area, but usually more than one element needs to be strong. For example, great links and average content can do wonders if the specialists are given time to test out different scenarios and tactics.

Limited to Full Support for Easier Keywords
Useful but not intensely competitive keywords can succeed for a website burdened by design, content, website age and link shortcomings (although those limited links may affect Google in particular).

Worthless Struggle, No Support
SEO firms and company staffers really do spin their wheels to no avail when a website has a lot working against it, including a new domain, new pages, limited content, few incoming links, etc.

Limited Budget? Do It Yourself.
We recently heard twice from the same golf website over six months. Our minimum $600 a month fee was way too high for the prospect looking for a $100-a-month solution. Unfortunately, that breaks down to little more than one hour's worth of work.

What can they do? Obviously there is an education/appreciation deficit. Money could be allocated from another source, but that would take a new way of thinking. They could train a staff member (or maybe a volunteer in this case) and make the most of it. It doesn't sound like they would want to hire someone in-house or an SEO firm.

Search engine optimization takes some know-how. If they don't rank high, maybe they shouldn't because they either refuse to make the effort or can't afford to make headway. Maybe they can train themselves. We've met more than one small business owner who thinks nothing of working past midnight to play with SEO.

Biggest Barrier: New Website

It's one of the most common problems we encounter. We applaud companies that embrace the Internet. If it's a new enterprise, it's understandable if they're just launching a new website. If they've been around awhile, they really don't have an excuse. Search engines, especially Google, reward longevity.

Patience is the best solution.

As with wine and cheese, website age has benefits and can do a little SEO magic. At the same time, a marketer should go out of his or her way to ensure that the website is as user-friendly as possible, with several paragraphs on each page (including text headers). Link building is another key.

Best Hope: Established Website

If the link reputation is sound, usually it will help a great deal to insert better keywords into the title tags and content. Large companies do have a significant edge because it's easier for them to get even more good links, update content and have many website pages - critical factors in rankings.

"The number of clients who are willing to pay for top-of-the-line services is still increasing, but smaller clients are not increasing," according to the MarketingSherpa "Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Firms Buyer's Guide 2007." We suspect smaller clients may not be educated enough to realize SEO exists or that it's important (if not more so) than PPC ads for their sites."

Read excerpts from this SEO study online: