Comments on: SMBs and SEM Churn

By: Chris Thompson

Chris Thompson — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:17:28 +0000

The “buy in” is one of the biggest challenges of attempting to sell SEO to a given company. Conservative organizations are reluctant to adopt what they feel are “fad” attempts at marketing. Terms like “Google”, “SEO”, “Facebook” and “Twitter” are unfounded triggers to conservative executives that “fluff” is on the way. It may be due to the fact that they have been around long enough to see a variety of trends in the marketplace or maybe its due to arrogance in their own tried and true methods. Whatever the case may be, accessibility is is the key to breaking down the barriers.

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:12:29 +0000

“Not relevant” is a function of a lack of understanding.

By: Cory

Cory — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 16:03:07 +0000

I’d be very interested to know which companies think the internet isn’t relevant to their business - that’s odd.

By: Cory Huff

Cory Huff — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 20:28:57 +0000

Greg, you’re absolutely right about margins being thin. We’ve seen that it is taking acquiring a huge number of clients, operating over time, to make a profit with SMB’s in the SEM realm. One of our biggest challenges is setting the right expectations with clients so that the client understands that this is just one tool in their marketing plan and it takes some time & money to develop.

You’re also right about offering more sophisticated products. Unfortunately for the client, more sophisticated often means more expensive as we become more specialized. It’s a fun industry though, and the challenges are never ending!

By: Mal Milligan

Mal Milligan — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 11:36:55 +0000

“Internet not relevant to our business”. Thanks for the stats, very interesting. I’ve talked with the owners of a number of small businesses recently about SEO and there are so many that just don’t get it. By now they were probably sold at one time or another by one of the big time online listings directories that told them there were “2 million searches a month on our site and for only $59 a month you can have a premium listing”. I wish there were an easy way to convince them that a small site that looked nice and was well designed with SEO in mind could get them real leads from Google and Yahoo and now Bing searchers.

By: Jeff M Howard

Jeff M Howard — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:20:49 +0000

Greg, for a younger guy (25) its interesting to see the evolution of local search, at this point and time I’d have to say a majority of small businesses will benefit the most just by taking the time to optimize their website, and at minimum submit to Google’s LBC. From there, they can move into more complex and time demanding mediums. Again though I guess the challenge of finding a good SEO comes into play.

Of course, this doesn’t apply to everyone. If I’m a small fashion store maybe a more social oriented marketing plan is ideal. Something that sparks word of mouth.

My thoughts are possibly in the future and somewhat now, small business owners may demand a service that gives them the ability to have

1) Access To Trusted Knowledge
2) Support via Q&A
3) Ability to quickly outsource tasks