Now, today I want to address one simple question.
A question many marketers face when it comes to launching the SEO channel.
A question often pondered across the C-suite.
A question that has no-doubt left many unconvinced about organic acquisition.
Is it worth investing in SEO.
Yes!
OK, that’s it, guys. Thanks for listening. I’ll be with you next week.
OK, let’s talk about this.
I’m sure you’ve seen it in your business metrics. SEO is amongst the top 3 best performing channels when it comes to digital marketing.
This is consistent. This is a sure thing. This is without you having the channel active in your business.
So you conclude: if I get this much business through SEO and I don’t do SEO, maybe I should do SEO to do better with my business!
You’re not wrong, my marketing friend. You’re not wrong!
You see, when it comes to digital marketing, SEO is THE most powerful channel you can invest in to grow your business.
It is one of the best assets you can have. I dare say, SEO is too important for your business for you not to invest in it.
Now, you may be aware that, unlike other channels, SEO is not instant.
This is true.
Even as an SEO guy, I can say, yes, SEO takes longer to benefit from than, say, PPC.
However, investing in SEO is a venture that pays compounded dividends in the years ahead.
The longer you are invested in SEO, the more you will get out of it.
In the beginning, the channel will require a lot of time and energy to be consistently successful.
However, over the years, operating the channel will become considerably easier.
And it will require very little effort to wield it to increase revenue.
Why is this?
Let’s look at it this way. How old is marketing? Hundreds and hundreds of years old, right?
SEO, as an industry, has been around for about 23 years.
The industry as a marketing channel is super young!
So young that some people in marketing are not familiar with the channel.
And, hey, to this day, when I tell non-marketers I do SEO, they don’t even know what it stands for.
So it’s new to marketing. It’s a young channel!
How old is SEO in your business?
If SEO is new in your organisation, it is going to take some time for employees to be familiar with the channel.
Why do employees have to be familiar with SEO?
Because every single employee that has a touchpoint with your website affects your SEO performance.
As SEO, as an industry, is still very new, it’s not uncommon to have a workforce, and indeed, hire new employees that are unfamiliar with the channel.
If you are to launch the SEO channel, there will be a certain amount of firefighting that SEOs have to do until employees become familiar with how their activities affects the performance of SEO.
If SEO is new in your organisation, employees are likely to be unfamiliar with the channel until it becomes firmly incorporated in your organisation’s marketing process.
Accomplishing this, in the beginning, requires a lot of time and energy.
You see, this is the more important optimisation to make – not of your website – the optimisation of people working together. Going from storming to performing.
Once departments are performing with SEO, the effort required to improve the website’s performance in organic search becomes scaled down.
This is because, fundamentally, you’ll be optimising as you go along. Rather than retroactively trying to amend the foundation of what has been implemented.
As a result, your website will be able to rank quicker.
As a result, your website will be able to consistently generate the traffic you target.
As a result, your website will be able to grow your business with the SEO channel.
And I tell you, there is no limit to the growth you can attain from SEO. No limit!
You see, the inability of a business to have unlimited organic traffic growth has very little to do with the website, and plenty to do with the state of SEO in the business.
So, I ask you, what is the state of SEO in your organisation?
If you are ready to invest in SEO, are employees ready to receive SEO?
Not just on the business level, but operationally, as well?
A major pitfall for a business activating the SEO channel is thinking that that is all that’s needed.
Commit to activating the SEO channel. Hire SEOs. Now watch the money roll in, baby!
No, no!
This is simply the beginning of the journey.
A journey that should always be on, as long as you have a website.
Investing in SEO is not enough. You have to have employees committed in helping to drive SEO to success.
This is essential. No! This is a must!
In order for you to be successful with SEO, the strategy MUST be implemented.
This implementation requires a variety of departments to be willing to enable SEO to make progress.
This is why a process of SEO evangelism across your organisation is necessary.
Hey, want to know a well known trade knowledge?
Most of the issues with SEO are caused by non-SEOs.
Not through a deliberate act, but by a lack of understanding of what one’s actions has on the performance of the SEO channel.
Isn’t this something?
How would you mitigate this?
When you invest in SEO, how would you go-about making it a success in your organisation?
I tell you this, in 2020 and beyond, simply having an SEO team, whether in-house or external, is not enough. I’m sorry to say!
Simply committing to SEO and forming an SEO team is not going to cut it.
This is the reality of investing in SEO. It needs to be managed, and the management of it needs to be supported.
Supporting SEO is evangelising it across your organisation so that it performs with the different departments, rather than left to firefight with them.
Is it worth investing in SEO?
When you’re prepared to nurture SEO in your organisation, it’s worth investing in SEO.
When you’re prepared to have a world class website and maintain it, it’s worth investing in SEO.
When you’re prepared to treat SEO as THE most important marketing channel for your business, it’s worth investing in SEO. Look –
You’re aware that traffic is the life-blood of your website.
You’re aware that organic search is consistently the top 3 drivers of traffic to your website.
You’re aware that the traffic potential with SEO is unlimited.
Failing to invest in SEO is failing to improve your website, it’s failing to grow your website, it’s failing to grow revenue with your website.
Is it worth investing in SEO?
Can you afford not to invest in SEO?
