Calgary Web Designer Jenn Armour | Info Architecture + User Centric Web Design + Online Marketing + Social Media + Ideas

Search Engine Mis-Conceptions

// September 24th, 2008 // Strategy

In dealing with small and medium business for over 6 years I am still surprised at the prevalence of search engine marketing mis-conceptions. Here are the top mis-conceptions:

1. Build a web site and the visitors will show up

Consider the web as a big phone book. Many businesses advertise in the phone book, but those that get noticed are those that have large advertisements and a lot of information. That print ad is placed before the eyes of people looking for that specific product or service by way of the organization of the phone book. Online however it is a much more difficult to get the viewership you are hoping for. The reason for this is search engines are complicated alogrhythms and you need to understand how they pull and rank pages. What’s more is SEM/SEO is an art rather than a science – meaning while there are some rules of thumb there exist many elusive factors.

2. I can do the work myself

It’s true that some people are able to get decent results from search engine marketing. However, if you really want to make it on the Internet you should employ the services of an SEO specialist. Yes, you are going to spend money up front, but it’s an investment that will bring in clients who may not have otherwise found your website.

3. If i pay for a website designer I am also paying for search engine optimization

This idea seems to be everywhere. Most web builders are not versed in search to the depth that you would expect unless they have experience in both arena’s. SEO is “BIG BUSINESS”. Building and Marketing a site are 2 ‘almost’ entirely different tasks. Where they tend to merge is by way of content but even still most web builders will not spend time doing the research needed to get serious page rank. Also it is common practice for clients to write the content for their web site. This is generally done before any consideration of SEO/SEM. This is perhaps the biggest mistake of all.

4. The client should decide on information architecture and SEM keywords
Search engine marketing companies are paid well to increase business’s visibility online, increase pages rank in search engines, and match the appropriate visitor with that particular product or service. There is a great deal of research and strategy that goes into this process. So when considering your budget for a web re-design don’t forget to set some money aside for SEM/SEO. It will be the difference between a site that eats up your budget and one that brings a return on your investment.

5. Cloaking and jump pages are going to increase my ranking

The truth is that when you use tactics such as this, you are going to get your website banned. Yes, it may seem like a good idea at the time, but eventually you will get caught and suffer the consequences.