The thing about search engine optimization firms is that everything looks like an SEO project to them. But in reality, each search marketing project is a little different. There are many times when SEO is appropriate, but many where it is not.
We've recently been seeing clients who are interested in ranking on long tail terms with their city name in them. We can understand why this is attractive. It's fun to say that I own the top position for Toyota Tundra Chattanooga. But what good is that really? There is no search volume on that term at all. I mean zippo. So is it just SEO vanity?
This is why we are really bothered when search engine optimization firms suggest clients go after low volume terms and then claim big victories when they rank. This does not help business. And in the end, the only reason to pursue SEO is to increase your search engine presence, with the assumption of customer conversion.
As we've said many times, we like to start with a paid search campaign in Adwords. After a month of running paid search ads, we will know what keywords are performing. This is the best possible pilot data you can collect before starting a big SEO project. In fact, we launched another lawyer website marketing project recently where we are doing just that. So as you listen to your next SEO pitch, be sure to ask the difficult questions and don't just follow along with anything they say. Better yet, contact us and we'll have an intelligent conversation about it.