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SEO is not a "fix-it-once" task

Manoj Aravindakshan, Director, On Target Media

Singapore, November 1, 2006

In a recent article titled "Troubled Times for SEO firms", Dave Pasternack, President of Did-It.com expressed a few thoughts on what could be "ailing" the SEO industry (that inference on the state of affairs of the SEO industry is based on slower-than-expected growth in spend on organic search engine marketing as per a recent study by MarketingSherpa).

While I have no doubts that SEO companies will face great challenges moving forward considering the highly volatile nature of search engines and the growing realization of the importance of search engine optimization by "in-house" marketers, one of the thoughts mentioned by David in his article stirred me to write this piece. He says, "Marketers are realizing that SEO is a Fix-it-once task, not an ongoing service."

I couldn't disagree more. Looking at SEO as a "fix-it-once task" is grossly narrowing its scope and utility. Do companies execute a one-time marketing campaign on another medium (say, in print or television), completely forget about it and then expect the target audience to respond to that campaign long after it is over and generate the same results? If not, then why expect something along those lines from a SEO initiative?

The point is, SEO cannot (or rather, should not) be viewed separately from marketing; look at SEO as beyond just another task and treat is as an integral part of an broader marketing strategy; SEO is about making the most effective use of this marketing medium/channel called search engine results pages.

Irrespective of whether a company chooses to outsource its SEO activities or carry those out in-house, it would be a folly for a company to think of SEO as something that can be done once and forgotten.

Catering to a constant called "change"

When we hear that SEO is a "do-it-once" job, it is clear that we are ignoring that huge factor called "change". In fact, I believe that monitoring and responding to change (and thus bring about a positive change in results) is the main value proposition of search engine marketing firms that focus on paid search marketing. It can't be too different with SEO, can it, when the medium and the market (user base) we are dealing with is the same?

There will be changes to any of the four components of a SEO effort: the marketer, the target user, search engines, and competitors. While trying to battle changes in search engine algorithms may be losing proposition, at least having a very good understanding of the changes and their implications can only be helpful. Some changes may necessitate action and some may not, but that is a conscious decision that will have to be taken.

Likewise, there will be changes in the marketing priorities for a company that will need to be addressed. For example, a different set of products or services may need to be promoted. Or, we find that there is a shift in search user behavior in terms of the search volumes for certain keywords and the keywords driving traffic to a site. Not to mention, changes in strategy by a competitor who has, say, adopted an aggressive online PR approach that is contributing to greater visibility and traffic to their site.

As a marketer, can one afford to be indifferent to these changes, because a site had been "optimized" once?

Answering a simple question: who can do it for the best return?

Lastly, there is ample truth in David's statement that "SEO is not rocket science". For that matter, most things around us that we engage external specialist consultants for would not fall in the category of rocket science. Yet, companies seek help from these external parties for various reasons, none more so than realizing that the third-party is best equipped to perform that task for best return.

The decision with SEO should be no different: does the SEO firm provide the client with more value (ROI) than what they'd have gotten by doing it in-house? Of course, the client needs to be able to accurately identify and list all costs when doing a cost versus benefits analysis or projection; in-house costs more often than not get undercounted (except when pitching to prospects!).

The onus is on the SEO companies to show prospects and clients the value of engaging them (or may be, even the cost of not engaging them), while clients need an honest appraisal of their own capabilities, resources and commitment to determine if they are better off doing or managing SEO themselves.

To conclude, let's take another snippet from the same study that David's article is based on that just shows how statistics and research reports can be interpreted completely differently. Excerpt below:
"According to our 2005 data, marketers who outsourced SEO saw a 110% lift in overall site traffic within six months, whereas marketers who handled SEO in-house saw a 73% lift. In short, if you hire an expert for SEO, you tend to get significantly better results."

Manoj Aravindakshan is Director of Singapore online marketing company On Target Media & Marketing. On Target Media provides offshore SEO services & paid search marketing, web content writing and online PR services. On Target Media also helps Singapore SMEs with their international marketing needs with a combination of powerful Internet marketing techniques, including SEO, PPC and online PR. Contact us today to discuss how we can help meet your marketing goals.