I hate to be a buzz kill, but I say no, SEO doesn’t work for everybody. I’ve designed over 150 business websites with Richmond Media, and probably 100 of those had some sort of SEO package.
And no, some of those businesses are probably not good candidates for extensive search engine optimization.
Since I do a lot of work on the Hampton Roads and Richmond, Virginia markets, I do a fair amount of local business websites. I have built websites for timeshare companies, restaurants, hardware rentals, churches, nonprofit groups, HVAC contractors, financial advisors, national and local e-commerce, real estate companies, massage therapy, sports rentals, music stores, construction firms, landscaping companies and more. I am not bragging, just showing the scope of work I’ve done.
Does SEO work for all of them? I don’t really believe that it does, at least to the degree that it’s worth paying for a ton of SEO work. Don’t get me wrong, every site should have at least a basic SEO package. Google needs to see unique, well written page titles (the page’s title on the top of the browser window), meta descriptions (this is also what Google will display when it shows your site) and good keywords throughout the text on the pages. But as far as going all out with expensive SEO, I am not convinced that it will work perfectly for every business.
CASE STUDY 1: A local contractor had a budget site with very little SEO (now obsolete, of course…), built in 2007. He was getting around 60 visits a month, which is terrible. He spent over $6,000 on a brand new, state of the art site, a blog, an embedded promotional video and a full SEO package. Six months later, he’s getting around 150 visits per month. Why? What happened? He blogs regularly, the site is SEO’d within an inch of it’s life.
I can only conclude that for this particular industry, spending a lot of money on SEO is simply not worth it. Although part of my standard pitch is not to worry about Yellow Pages or newspaper ads, maybe they’re more important for that particular industry.
CASE STUDY 2: A large allergy practice paid us $4000 for an SEO package, including a new website. They are getting over 5,000 visits per month during allergy season, up from around 1,200. But a local financial advisor paid us $900 for an SEO upgrade (not including a new site). A year ago this month, they had 38 visits. This month they had 54. Absolutely horrible. Why? Maybe a business like that needs to go more outside of their website to promote visits TO their website. Now I must say that the traffic they DO get is beneficial to their business. But that $900 didn’t do much good in that regard.
Here’s the question; who should NOT invest a lot of money in SEO? I would say that businesses who used to do well with Yellow Pages ads for starters (and I know, there would be a LOT of exceptions here), like local appliance stores and repair businesses. If you’re a used car dealer who is not going to spend a lot of money on a database for people to see the cars you have in stock, don’t spend a ton of money on SEO. I have also found that businesses that use their website to show the expertise of their employees and don’t have physical products to sell don’t do much better with great SEO than they do with basic SEO.
So if you’re one of those businesses, what should you do about getting your website found? As I mentioned above, using unique, well written page titles, meta and good keywords throughout the text on the pages are essential, and not terrible expensive. Think of your site like a 24/7 brochure, where people can come to look at your expertise and your products and services. Put your web address on your business cards, on the side of your trucks, splash it on the walls of your business, and consider other forms of advertising to increase your traffic.
And definitely, if some web designer starts talking about guaranteeing a spot on the first page of Google, be very, VERY skeptical.