In this article I want to have a closer look at SEO. It’s a subject that takes a lot to get your head around, especially if you’re not familiar with internet marketing. People often say to us something like, “I want to take the number one position for “massage” in Google.”
To which I reply, “Okay have you got the right kind of business model in place to get a good return on investment?”
To which is often replied to with…. blank stares, or silence.
I’ll explain what I mean. With a keyword like “massage” there is a fairly large search volume, and a large amount of competition. According to Google there is over 20 million searches per month, and over 302 million competing pages.
To go for that keyword would not be viable for most people.
So a keyword like “remedial massage” still has 27,100 searches per month, and only 628,000 competing pages.
Now this keyword would be more viable to rank #1 for.
Still, you need to understand your business model well enough to know if it’s worth going for a keyword like this.
So for example you might be selling a $12 e-book about remedial massage. Now to take the #1 spot in Google for “remedial massage” is possible, but it could take months, and the cost will be quite high. It will either cost you time to build enough links to take the #1 spot (if you’re good at SEO). OR, it will cost you money ($1000′s) to pay someone to do it for you. So it’s either going to cost you time, or money.
Once you do take the #1 position, you would have to sell perhaps 250 or more of those $12 e-books just to break even, before you make any profit. It may not be worth the investment.
So you can see how important it is to understand your business model first, before undertaking an SEO campaign. On the other hand, if you were selling remedial massage as a service to customers who might pay $300 per session, you would recoup your investment much faster, and be more likely to profit.
One example I have used in the past is that of the painter. This particular painter understood his business very well, and knew that his average customer is worth $1400.
In his local area there is 880 seaches per month for “local area painter”. And there is only a relatively small level of competing pages – 32,900. So with an investment of $3000 for a few months of SEO, he was able to take the #1 position in Google in 58 days.
When the website had reached #4 position in Google, he already had 5 jobs generated from people finding the site in Google. Within 2 months, he had made just under $15000 from those 5 jobs. Giving him a 500% ROI.
After taking the #1 position there is no need to keep on building links, so there is no ongoing cost. But the business keeps rolling in. This is awesome for business owners. When you compare SEO to TV advertising, the ROI can be much, much higher. Don’t get me wrong, TV ads are great, but when you stop paying… the ads stop getting air time, and…the phone stops ringing.
Hopefully this will give you a better understanding of how SEO can work for you.
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