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You Have No Choice But To Suck in Search Engines  

:: Tuesday, January 10, 2006 ::

One thing that stuck out from Mike Grehan's Clickz article, Goodbye, SEO Push. Hello, SEO Pull, was when he talked about the "buzz factor".

"Marketing equals buzz, which equals awareness, which leads to consumer demand."

Creating buzz doesn't have to cost a lot of money, nor take much talent either.

For example, when I mentioned the garlic BBQ sauce sold by a client, his traffic and sales soared. He didn't have to pay me $50,000 for marketing or to play pin the tail on search engine algorithms. In fact, he hired me to help with conversions and he had the brilliance of mind to send me his product to sample. (Something I love when clients do, by the way! I'm crossing my fingers on the gazebo and massage chair next.)

Money shouldn't matter from the perspective of WANTING to help the client succeed. I, personally, put in as much passion and effort for a "mom and pop job" as I do for the top sites on the web.

Anyway, like I said, the money you are paid "shouldn't" matter to the results, but as evidenced by his article, blog and the various blog discussons elsewhere on it, money and skills matter a lot.

Mike noted in his blog piece, Not the sandbox, again!

"How could anyone in this business take on a client, tell them not to expect any results for a possible nine months AND expect to be paid?"

I laughed out loud. All I can think of is Yahoo!.

I clearly recall the dinner meeting with a book author client who wanted a brand new site built and registered with Yahoo!. She was clueless about everything Internet. I explained to her that I would be submitting her site to Yahoo!'s Directory (this was a few years back), and though I knew what I was doing, there was still no guarantee her site would be accepted and if it did not, Yahoo!'s policy was such that she wouldn't be getting her money back!

If looks could kill, I'd be dead right now.

But this is what Mike's remark reminded me of. We expect immediate gratification and we'll pay handsomely for it.

A company like the kind Mike is Director for can do a lot. They have more resources, more staff, more expertise. They can wield the Golden Sword because they know how to ride a horse and fling that thing without killing anybody.

However, I came away from Mike's Clickz article with a concern for those who work for small businesses on much smaller budgets. I'd hate to say to someone, "Sorry, you can't afford me. You have no choice but to suck in search engines."

The skillsets needed to do the job have changed. Mike has been saying, all along, quit whining and learn them.

And all I'm saying is, "Apply these skills in good faith to anybody who hires you."


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:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 1/10/2006 10:43:00 AM

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