DISQUS

Anthony Bloch · 1 year ago

Lee,
Your article couldn’t come at a more opportune time. In the past few months, I’ve been revaluating my site’s SEO and web development (I still have a ton of work to do).
In the past, I was able to receive decent amounts of traffic, largely because of certain relationships that I had with some other sites.
Unfortunately for me, I wasn’t considering SEO and receiving natural search traffic. I was happy with the traffic that traffic that I was receiving. What about the long-term effects of not taking the time to really work on SEO?.
Well, due to repositioning my website, some of those relationships had to be terminated and I was looking for quality traffic that would yield a good ROI.
I’m an affiliate marketer and we sometimes disregard SEO. We think we can slap a few banners and text links on a page and “Presto…here come the commissions”.
Like any business, you have to work on marketing and branding.
While I may not receive the huge traffic of a year ago, I have been doing better with organic search results and my ROI is increasing.
This year has been a good one on the commission front and my CTR is above the industry average.
The only problem is that I’m now playing catch-up.

Another fact is true. If you have the budget to outsource your SEO to a professional, you will be far ahead of the game.
I know first-hand the benefits that companies receive by going to companies like TopRank.

Garrett Pierson · 1 year ago

Loved the article Lee! There is never a quick fix for anything in life that is worth it.

Russ Page · 1 year ago

It reminds me of the quality/cost/time triangle

Mario Bonilla · 1 year ago

Lee, solid thoughts that we can learn from. I speak to many people that think they can will the search engines to find them relevant. And even after I tell that it cannot be done I know they do not believe me.

On another note, will you be attending SES San Jose or Blogworld Las Vegas? If you are please stop by our booth and it would be my pleasure to meet you.

mario

Bart Gibby - SEO Project Manag · 1 year ago

Lee! I have clients trying to rush things all the time. "Where are those title tags?" they ask. I say you just signed up yesterday... lets 1st see if you have indexing issues. no point in optimizing title tags of pages that are not or will never be indexed.

I loved your comment about "The best source for that information is through testing and measuring the performance of company online marketing campaigns."

I personally beleive its the only truly valid source. blogs and forums, even some conventions propagate old "wives tales" about SEO.

The only way to be sure is to test and test again. And while your waiting for those test to finish, do some more testing.

Properly done test with valid current data beats any ones opinion, even my own opinion. Keyword verticals are not all created equally.

-Bart

Adam Singer · 1 year ago

great points lee, i think you're spot on (as usual)

Lee Odden · 1 year ago

That's a great story Anthony, thanks for sharing. Thank you also for the kind words about our agency.

Thanks Garrett and Russ, I agree.

Lee Odden · 1 year ago

Hi Mario, we're sponsoring both Blog World Expo and SES San Jose so I'm sure I'll see you soon.

Lee Odden · 1 year ago

Hey Bart, we are very much on the same page regarding testing. It's the first and the last thing to do with any online marketing campaign. Cold hard data cuts through irrelevant and outdated opinions pretty quickly.

Internet Marketing Joy · 1 year ago

It is always important that in all things we do..we are always careful..although slow but sure is most most important.

John Gillett · 1 year ago

Even a rudimentary A/B test can provide incredible insights about a site and about your testing approach -- the more you test, the more information you gain about your site and the more you are able to fine tune your tests to gain even more detailed info.

Dana Lookadoo · 1 year ago

The first comment is a fantastic testimonial and almost worth a blog post in its own right!

Highlight: "...there is rarely a quick fix."

And to Lee, Happy Birthday! Thanks for writing content that's not "dangerous!"

Brian Carter · 1 year ago

"I would rank the periodic or ongoing consultation of an outside agency higher than many other sources since it’s their job to test and measure online campaigns for a multiple companies on an ongoing basis. The cumulative knowledge, experience and insight that comes from working with many different web sites and their associated challenges is of benefit to each web site client individually."

Amen, brother! Also, though an agency may have less time to work on a client than an in-house might, that means agencies have to focus on what works best- most efficient use of optimization resources. We keep track of all changes so we can see what worked and what didn't. We can't afford not to learn from everything.

Bart Gibby - SEO Project Manag · 1 year ago

Brian,

I absolutely agree in most cases. The issue I run into as a consultant is often times implementation of the consulting advice.

Sometimes just getting a client to install simple website analytics can be a trial.

Sandi Gauder · 1 year ago

Wow - so true. One our mantras is "if you don't measure, you can't manage". As a web design firm, we get asked on a regular basis (often within days of site launch) by clients "why is my site not on Google?".

From the initial meeting with our clients we start asking about the search terms they want to be found on, counsel them on writing copy that supports it and use basic analytics tools to get things started.

When the stars align and the clients work with us on the content, we've had good results (SEO is not one of our core offerings - yet). The challenge always comes with the clients who assume they'll be found just because they have a website.

Mark · 1 year ago

Thanks Lee, its true, SEO takes time and proper understanding of how it works.

Great article.

Thank you.

Vamsi · 1 year ago

Thanks Lee, Nice writeup. Especially your un-biased comment.

Sonali Sengupta · 1 year ago

Nice post. It's true that SEO plans take time to draw and deliver results slowly, which could vary anywhere from 6 months to a year.

Hamilton Wallace · 1 year ago

I agree. Many mid-market companies don't see SEO in the same light as offline traffic generation. They buy ads and send direct mail every month, but "did some SEO last year that really worked well." Makes no sense.

Then there are those of us who think people exist only online, perhaps because they do. I don't care what you sell, people look for it off and online. You need to be both places!

Brian · 1 year ago

Nice post Lee, you bring up alot of good points