What is SEO?

“Suppose it’s got something to do with when doing a search, getting the most and best hits back, i.e. no crap.”

“A practise that improves performance and relevance of result sets for search engines. Never heard of it as a service.”

“No understanding at all…is it something that makes Google work better?”

“My guess is that you pay for a good position on the search engine.”

That is how 4 of 33 respondents in a closed study defined SEO. This very basic study was conducted among tertiary qualified professionals to provide a snapshot of the ‘general public’s ’ understanding of search engine optimization.  All respondents were asked not to perform any research prior to answering the questions.

Interestingly, quite a few people (30%) considered SEO to be a practice performed by the search engines themselves, such as changing the algorithm to improve performance and deliver more relevant results.

In addition, a surprisingly high number of respondents (42%) had a basic idea of the practice of SEO, citing that changes would need to be made to a target website to improve its ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Putting a PRICE on the SEO service was a problem

There was a very wide gap in pricing expectations:

• 46% of respondents had ‘no idea’ how much they could expect to pay for search engine optimization services

• A collective 21% expected SEO to be either FREE (9%) or to cost less than $1,000 (12%).

• 21% proposed a performance fee structure based on increase in bottom line generated through the SEO. Notably these were professionals from tertiary service industries such as banking, public relations and consulting.

Observation 1: If most people have no idea what to pay for the SEO service while a proportion would hand over potentially $1,000s in percentage based fees this indicates a significant gap in client expectations.

A website offering services at $200 is as believable as one providing the service for $2,000, because people literally do not know what to expect.

For SEO to be considered among other professional fields such as law or medicine, the SEO industry has to deliver its services at a certain benchmark standard in order for those services to be valued at a particular price.

Searching for SEO
Overwhelmingly, most respondents would use Google (64%) or a search engine (15%) to find out more information about SEO.
So, if people are using Google to research SEO, what do they find?

Sample of some of first page SERP results on Google.ca for phrase ‘search engine optimization’:

- Guaranteed Page 1 or Pay Nothing, Page 1 in Seven Days $69.95/Month
- Search engine optimization is the way to pull massive amounts of free traffic
- Get listed on 200+ search engines in 8 hours!
- 300+ Top 10 And Top 3 Rankings In Every Search Engine For $179.95

Observation 2: Guarantees! Promises! Refunds! First page Google rankings for a $100 per month! Free search engine submission to hundreds of search engines!

Search for a lawyer or dentist online and you will not see this type of price undercutting. The focus is on quality, expertise, value and years of experience.

The SEO industry is diluting the value of its own service with this type of advertising. Searchers form the opinion that SEO is a cheap; easy-to-implement service offering that any SEO business listed on the SERPs can perform.

Cognitive dissonance begins to form between client expectations and perceived value of the service. Clients expect top rankings to be delivered at a low price point.

Final Thoughts
Though the basic study that has been discussed was small and from a statistical perspective has limitations, the insight that just 33 respondents provided is significant:

- If most people would search on Google for SEO, where can searchers find quality information that will assist them in developing their expectations of SEO services?

- SEMPO does feature in the SERPs for some search terms and though the website is a valuable resource, does it adequately help shape a searcher’s understanding of why they would pay $100 for one SEO service and $10,000 for another?

- A standard definition of SEO would help the public understand what to expect from SEO and more effectively find services that suit their business requirements and budget.

- SEO standards would assist in setting a minimum benchmark for SEO service delivery, which would ultimately increase the client value perception of these services, and so many SEOs would no longer have to feel like they are working for FREE!

In the words of Ian McAnerin: ‘Standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards. But the public does. I think it’s time we grew up and took responsibility for our own profession, before someone does it for us.’

Originally published as an entry in Marketing Pilgrim’s 4th Annual SEM Scholarship Contest

Most SEO companies still talk about rankings as the first measure of SEO success, but is this really the best measure of their clients’ success?

Surely, clients would rather receive a monthly report that highlights the ROAS (Return on Advertising Spend) of the SEO investment, instead of a ranking report with arrows pointing out whether organic rankings have dropped or increased?

According to a 2007 iProspect and JupiterResearch study, 58% of search marketers’ job performance was evaluated on the amount of traffic driven to a client website. This was the leading metric used to evaluate how successfully search marketers were doing their job, on the traffic generated to a site. Similarly, in 2005 the same metric was the lead indicator of success.

Two years later, it would be interesting to see comparative figures for 2009, but even without this, it still appears that many SEO agencies shy away from solid monetary business metrics in the evaluation of SEO campaigns. Perhaps this trend would be more prevalent among smaller businesses and agencies targeting the SME market, because the top tier agencies have bigger client budgets, larger campaigns and more demanding corporate metrics on which to deliver, but it remains a serious problem.

Poor measurement and reporting of key metrics is a concern because the majority of businesses fall into the SME category, which means that apart from multinationals that have the budgets to commission top tier agencies, most businesses are being fed these non-monetary metrics, that do not offer any accountability, as measures of SEO success.

A ranking report and traffic volume chart do not tell a meaningful story unless they are backed up by conversion metrics, sales figures, customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend calculations and ROI percentages from the search marketing efforts.

Keeping the Waters Murky
It would appear that most companies are reluctant to make web traffic and search engine ranking secondary measures of success because this would make them far more accountable for the work they do. The SERP positioning for a particular keyword does not actually mean anything. A keyword’s positioning only begins to have meaning when incorporating further metrics relative to this positioning.

A number one ranking in the SERPs that does not deliver traffic because the keyword is not searched, is like no ranking at all. The same goes for a keyword that receives traffic but does not convert – whether this is because the page to which searchers are taken does not satisfy search criteria or because of the questionable credibility of the page to which traffic is driven.

By focusing on monetary metrics, companies could more easily justify a higher spend on SEO to their clients, especially if clients could see positive ROAS figures. In this way, SEO agencies could grow client spend from the existing client base rather than aggressively hunting new sales.

Unfortunately, a certain stigma appears to linger in the SEO industry, that the lowest hanging fruit is the easy money. It’s not the smoke and mirrors of the past, in which anxious clients were stalled by the mystical ‘sandbox’ but the SEO relationship still seems to be built on a ‘need to know basis’. This usually translates to keeping the client in the dark because from the reporting that is done, it does not seem that the client needs to know much!

If the client knew how little value those rankings were actually driving, well, that would create more accountability and work for the company, wouldn’t it?

Ironic though that companies choose this path because this creates agencies that become like factory lines, doing the same thing for every client, not pushing the status quo, bringing in more clients but generating minimal growth in the existing client base. The great companies will always rise to the top, but unfortunately, not every business has the budget to work with the top agencies. What this means is that clients need to become more educated and accountable for the types of SEO agencies with which they choose to work.

Next time you receive your monthly SEO reporting, ask yourself what it’s really telling you. Does it share ANY valuable data? If not, it is up to you to do demand the monetary metrics that speak to your business bottom line.

This year I have decided to add my voice to the writers who have come before me and put forward a piece in the SEM Scholarship contest which is now in its 4th year!

On Thursday, the first round of entries were posted so the excitement of the competition begins!

My piece, Oh, That’s Right, We Don’t Need SEO Standards focuses on the continued lack of understanding that the ‘general public’ has of SEO. I take some stats from a closed study I did among service professionals to identify where some of the SEO misconceptions lie.

If more industry professionals enter the SEO standards debate, perhaps the industry itself will move forward in setting the benchmark service standards and definitions that we so desperately require.

Jump on, read the article, have your say. Take a moment to peruse the other entries – you may learn something new!

A strong prospect calls your Search Engine Marketing agency and as a Business Development Executive, you take the call. The client asks you what the difference is between SEM and SEO. He also enquires what the most important on-page elements of an SEO campaign are. After you have answered, the prospect responds that of the four agencies with whom he has conversed today, every single one, has responded differently to this question.

Strike #1: If there is no accepted standard definition from which the client can develop an understanding of the terminology used in the conversation, this creates confusion and hurts industry credibility. It is like going to four dentists and being given four different solutions to numbing a tooth ache. You will ultimately not know whom to trust and will question each recommendation.

The client agrees to go ahead with the SEO proposal that your company has presented. You begin implementing the work and four months later, you get a call from the angry client because he had interpreted that monthly SEO included comprehensive link building and article creation, but you’ve only added a few links.

Strike #2: Unless both you and the client are clear on the definitions and parameters of the contract, this affects the validity of the contract and creates miscommunication & confusion.

The client refuses to make any further monthly payments until all the definitions of service have been clearly outlined.

Strike #3: This is detrimental to the trust that you have built with the client and creates a hurdle in the relationship. It creates a disequilibrium in the expectations the client had of your service offering.

You define each of the terms and clearly outline the definitions in your contract, but the client believes that these are not representative of what was agreed to during discussions and as the client had understood the contract. The client decides that he does not wish to do business with you any further and unless you refund all their money, a lawsuit will be filed against you for misleading conduct.

Strike #4: Now you have a problem, but do not wish to refund money for work that you believe was delivered. If you take it to court, the Law in your state will determine whether your contract is valid. Are there any legal loopholes? Could a court find that you as the Professional should have known better and through your actions, you inadvertently misled the client?

Without any standards to guide the courts, the courts only have the Law to decide who is in the wrong. With no guiding principles or ‘generally accepted standards’ in the SEO industry, the client may well have a strong case for being misled and cheated.

No Standards – And You’re Out
The SEO industry, like every other professional industry, from lawyers to doctors, requires standards to protect the public.

Doctors do not take the Hippocratic Oath for their own benefit, but rather to practice and prescribe to the best of their ability for the good of their patients.

In the same manner, SEO specialists should be required to adhere to certain principles that protect the client and decrease their likelihood of being cheated or misled.

Every single SEO agency may claim that they strive to keep the good of the client as the highest priority…. Yet, the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Without responsibly practicing in the SEO profession, with official principles guiding the field, the cowboy industry where ‘everything goes’ will not mature.

As Ian McAnerin so aptly put it in his blog:
Standards? We don’t need no stinkin’ standards. But the public does. The SEO community needs to deal with the fact that they and the search engines are not the only ones involved in this issue. That’s part of the process of becoming mature: becoming aware of the needs of others. Joining the larger community. Practicing responsible behavior. Caring.

I think it’s time we grew up and took responsibility for our own profession, before someone does it for us.