So I did a search the other day( don’t we all do searches?) on the term, “search engine marketing” and the results blew me away. The tool, said that it had been searched upon 33,000 times! Oh and not in one month, that would be per day, on average. PER DAY!! Someone grab a calculator and do the math real quick. 

Ok so, if we go by that stat, and for the sake of error we cut the number in half, that’s only a term that was searched upon 5 and a half million times in one year.  Ok I have some questions…

What the hell is going on out there? Are there that many people who need help? Are there that many web site owners who have no clue what they are doing and thus are looking for search engine marketing professionals? Or are there that many search engine marketing professionals out there, that DON’T know what they are doing and are ALSO looking for help? OR, do the SE’s change so much that web owners and search engine marketers alike are constantly in search (pun intended) for help, a leg up, or any and all information that can push their site onto page one on all SE’s? (Notice I said, page one. I think getting on page one, let alone the top 3 should be most people’s goals.)

So anyway, what is it? Why such a huge number of searches on that term? Chances are the answer is all of the above. Which leads me to the premise of the title. You just really do not know what you might be getting when you hire a search engine marketing professional. But the easiest way to check their work is verify their work. But that might be where it gets dicey. I could tell you that some of the sites that I have worked on are Amazon, E-bay, and E-trade. Then I could tell you they are number one for their primary key words, and there would be no way for you to dispute it. But what you may really need to know, is what has this person done with “other” keywords and second tier keywords and phrases… what have they done to a sites overall structure before and after? and what were the immediate and noticeable results?

But this is where you can truly find the proof. Work with individuals who have actually worked with “other” companies that they don’t own. Where the relationship is strictly employee/employer. That way you can ask, What was your site PR before they started working on it? Where could you find the site before they came aboard? What is your ROI like now?  Are you satisfied?

The questions are really quite simple, but some site owneres are just dazzled by the BS that these folks can throw, and they are obsessed with a high ranking and traffic and a Top 3 or top 5 rankings in 48 hours (those are paid inclusions) or better yet straight PPC rankings. If someone does not know the difference between an organic ranking and a nonorganic, it will appear as a if it is a top 3 ranking, won’t it? The fact of the matter is that the job of a SEM professional should be to educate and counsel, so that a site owner can truly appreciate what goes into a top 3 ranking. The difficulties, the challenges, and the constantly changing landscape. The space (search engines) changes so regularly that it’s almost as if someone comes into your clients office in the middle of the night and re-arranges everything and changes your passwords their passwords and logins and hides everything, and it’s up to you to put it all back together again before 9am. Then explain to your client, why they(the search engines) did it, when for all practical purposes everything you have done has been A-1. Try explaining THAT to a non-hip SE person!

I know thats a loosely based definition, but you get the point. And maybe that is why deep down, the number of searches done on “search engine marketing” is so insanely high. Because the rules of engagment change so much, we all must keep looking for the latest information to help us, to give us an edge.

Just beware of the snake oil salesman and the old adage, “if it’s too good to be true, it prolly is.” Because chances are, they might actually know less than you.

So you want to grow the site and you don’t want to spend money on pay per click. Ok so now you also know you need backlinks as well. What to do…Well you need to create some buzz with the site and one of the best free ways of doing that is….drum roll please.  How about a blog? They’re free, user friendly, and you can fill them with content till the cows come home.

If the content is worthy, then other blogs and websites start to carry the feed because you are saying something other than blowing your own horn. Now thats content. Don’t steal or borrow someone else’s content either, unless you have their permission or you give them their just due or mad props.

By creating a content worthy site or blog, the links/back links will happen. The old adage if you build it, they will come…doesn’t quite work in the cyber world. You have to lift a finger so to speak to let people know you are out there and that you have something to say.

Now if you have  strictly a commerce site, then you probably are going to have to break down and use ppc to drive traffic. because chances are you are selling a product that someone else is selling and thus, they may be more settled in with backlinks, keywords, pages and general content. With commerce sites, people are not looking for content, they are looking for deals and there is a lot of competition.

But this doesn’t mean that you ignore your natural ranking as some site owners are wont to do since they are pouring substantial dollars into their pay per click campaign. On the contrary, their biggest mistake is not to continue to optimize the site with the SE’s in mind. You have to strike a balance.

So in order to get a high Page Rank, not only do you optimize, optimize, optimize, but you must also have people linking into your sites, as well as developing pages of content. Remember, it’s not a sprint, it’s a marathon.

For those of you who have read about back linking in regards to the “this is what you need to do” to grow your website traffic and have wondered what is the best way to do this, welcome to the biggest challenge facing newbies, novices, and even experts in the SEO/SEM arena: Acquiring good strong quality back links. The reason it is such a daunting task is that, if we are to look at Google for example, and their algorithm, it frowns on quantity or lack of quality of back links.

Why would that matter? Because of the advent a few years ago of link farming services, programs and software which allowed websites to jump in Page Rank quickly without really “growing naturally”. the farms could grow the number of inbound links they had on their sites fast. In short, Inbound links are back links. What the link farms did and do is allow website owners to add links to their sites as quickly and as impersonal as possible. So site owners added quantity fast. Google realized this and decided to take steps to stress quality inbound links and penalize sites that used automated programs to “farm” inbound links. These programs, would and do send out automated emails that ask if you, the site owner would like to exchange reciprocal links.

 I use Google as the primary example here but it can and does stretch across to Yahoo and MSN search engines as well.  But Google also is the example because of another primary reason. Page Rank. Google has a toolbar that website owners can load onto their computers that allows a user to see what the Page Rank is of a site.  Page Rank, according to Google, is the relevance or the importance of a website in the wild wild web. The higher the Page Rank, the more important the site. Take a look at Amazon of Ebay for an example of a site with a high Page Rank.It has become so important and such a focus for SEO experts that it drives the premise of website marketing: Increase your page rank= increase your natural or organic ranking= increase your sales or traffic. In other words, High page rank=relevance. 

Since web marketers are so obsessed with what Google does and what a high natural ranking in Google can do for a website, it has created a cottage industry in and of itself.

Now the rub. There is an old saying that applied to recent college graduates that goes like this: In order to get a job you need experience but how do you get a job if you don’t have experience….? Ok so now let’s apply that statement to Back linking.  I need a good page rank but how do I acquire good back links if I don’t have a good page rank? Why as a site owner would I want to exchange reciprocal links with you if you do not even have a page rank? There is the challenge. 

You can’t use an automated program to acquire your links because quantity is not the goal and thus you have thousands of website owners out there swimming around looking for sites with page rank to latch onto.I’ll give you an idea that harkens back to the earliest days of business ownership. If you want sales or customers. Go get them. Go to work, call them, email them personally, and show them why exchanging links with you would be beneficial for both. Be honest and show them that your site is actually worthy of their link and vice versa. It’s amazing what can be accomplished the old fashion way.  Sure it goes against the grain of how impersonal the web has become, but it also speaks to one of the key components to any successful website. Personalization.

You are humanizing your website by showing other website owners who you are and what you’re about, and what you’re trying to achieve. Instead of hiding behind an automated email try and go after quality links by approaching website owners whose reciprocal links actually make sense for both of you. It’s amazing what common sense can achieve. Why then, is it called common, if everyone doesn’t possess it?