The SEO War

[JasonR]

I thought this article was interesting, and highly relevant here.

Instead of launching headlong into a flurry of competitors with the aim of emerging the victor, be the entrepreneur who does something different and provides something different – the entrepreneur who creates, as opposed to emulating other businesses and expecting to succeed through SEO tactics, marketing and methodologies.

Take a look: http://thoughtist.com/the-seo-war/

 

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[lilyhollies]

Interesting article! SEO is really tricky isn't it! SEO is always one my top considerations/priorities.

 

[lilyhollies]

By the way @JasonR, have you had any experience with negative SEO?

 

[XOthermic]

I started my online business focusing on SEO. Shoot it was all I really knew how to do. I was NOT a huge social media guru.

Anyways

Long story short is that SEO drove about 3-4K (maybe less) viewers to my website/month after spending hella time on it. I started to do social media (FB, IG, TW) and got over 7k visitors at times with out the tedious effort and more customer interactions.

Social Media > SEO IMO any day of the week and twice on holidays/current events.

 

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[MakeItHappen]

Social Media > SEO IMO any day of the week and twice on holidays/current events.

Nice to see you have decent success with social media but imo it depends A LOT on your niche if SEO or SM is better for you.
If I have an online shop that is selling toiletries or sex toys i bet SEO is a lot better because that's nothing people would share with there friends on FB lol. Also SEO can get you targeted traffic from people who are ready to spend money. On the other hand there are niches where SM is awesome and the better way to go.
What is your niche btw?

 

[Lauryn]

I think the problem with SEO is when people rely on SEO alone as a marketing strategy. SEO is a segment of marketing tactics, but it's not a strategy in and of itself.

Every site has its own needs. Content is highly relevant, but not every site or business necessarily needs to churn "fresh content" to drive readers. Over the long term, strong content can reinforce roots, but it's going to be a combination of name, brand, product quality and customer experience overall - enhanced with a strong digital strategy - that will help sites make it over time.

 

[royalasg]

Thanks for starting this topic

I think the problem with SEO is when people rely on SEO alone as a marketing strategy. SEO is a segment of marketing tactics, but it's not a strategy in and of itself.

and I agree that is a part of online marketing strategy.

 

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[tycoon7]

I started my online business focusing on SEO. Shoot it was all I really knew how to do. I was NOT a huge social media guru.

Anyways

Long story short is that SEO drove about 3-4K (maybe less) viewers to my website/month after spending hella time on it. I started to do social media (FB, IG, TW) and got over 7k visitors at times with out the tedious effort and more customer interactions.

Social Media > SEO IMO any day of the week and twice on holidays/current events.

It's really depends on the niche.

For example if you are in fashion, jewelry niches social media works great.
However if you are in service business -> movers, plumbers, etc - nothing can compares with SEO.

 

[JasonR]

service business -> movers, plumbers, etc - nothing can compares with SEO.

Sure about that? PPC?

 

[Tom.V]

Sure about that? PPC?

Oftentimes the PPC cost for high competition service industries make it difficult to turn a positive ROI. It can be done, but for a service based business (which I have done the SEM for over 20 in the past year) SEO is where the money is. The customers love it because they get leads and sales several times per day, without having to worry about a sliding bidding scale that increases with the amount of competition. SEO on the other hand, often considered black magic, is a very methodical marketing method after you develop your "secret sauce" to rank sites. It can generally be better for the business and also better for me from the perspective I am speaking from.

Just saying, do it all.

 

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[JasonR]

Oftentimes the PPC cost for high competition service industries make it difficult to turn a positive ROI. It can be done, but for a service based business (which I have done the SEM for over 20 in the past year) SEO is where the money is.

So what does that tell you?

Hint: would you really want to be in a business this commoditized?

 

[Tom.V]

So what does that tell you?

Hint: would you really want to be in a business this commoditized?

Yeah, try to explaining that to these guys that have been doing the same business for the past 20+ years. It's like trying to tell a rock to transform into a puddle. But, it is a marketing opportunity for me to swoop in, and differentiate their marketing approach from the competition. There are other possible interpretations here which can be extrapolated upon, but that's it for me. Easy money with scale.

 

[Travis Jamison]

Long story short is that SEO drove about 3-4K (maybe less) viewers to my website/month after spending hella time on it. I started to do social media (FB, IG, TW) and got over 7k visitors at times with out the tedious effort and more customer interactions.
Social Media > SEO IMO any day of the week and twice on holidays/current events.

Totally depends. You have to remember user intent. As a rule of thumb user intent is incredibly poor with a lot of social media. There is a reason that big brands stop using facebook advertising.

Someone on facebook is there looking at pictures of their ex. Someone on Google is searching for something specific, and with SEO you can target exactly what they are looking for. Social media trumps SEO with some niches no doubt, but the majority of the time the intention is much lower with social media.

In order of commercial intent:
Amazon > SEO > Social Media

If you choose to dive in deeper with SEO, you can learn about targeting the more profitable keywords. I highly recommend learning about "buying keywords". I don't care about the 1,000 random people strolling through my websites, I care about the 5 coming in with their credit card in hand.

I think the problem with SEO is when people rely on SEO alone as a marketing strategy. SEO is a segment of marketing tactics, but it's not a strategy in and of itself.

Yes x 100. I build lots of businesses around SEO, but it is only one piece of the marketing puzzle. Not utilizing other marketing strategies is leaving money on the table, and increasing your businesses volatility to black swans. Diversify enough and nothing can hurt you.

 

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[harerace]

Just Do what RapGenius did lol