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Busby SEO Test: SEO Services Are Experiencing A Demand Increase

4/12/2008

By Roderick Ioerger

Busby SEO Test: While the world is experiencing an economic financial crisis, the SEO industry is experiencing a surprising increase in demand. From intensive training and SEO consultation to actual website changes and link building, the demand for expert SEO assistance is growing at an astonishing rate.

Busby SEO Test: For those individuals or firms that are looking to grow and add new business, Michael Martinez has solid advice on how to position the SEO space to customers looking to maximize their marketing dollars. Michael says:

“Recession marketing for search optimization needs to sell the idea that SEO which pays for itself is essentially a zero-cost marketing effort - not exactly free SEO service, but just as good.”

But currently most established SEO professionals seem to have just the opposite need, they have too much business. Many established SEO professionals are declining to take on new clients because they just cannot accept any additional work load right now. Check out the post by Kelena Jordan covering an interesting project she had to turn down just last week. And Kelena is not the only consultant who is being more selective in the work that they take on, in fact this seems to be a common problem amongst many of the most established SEO practitioners.

Rand Fishkin has a number of theories on why this is happening but I want to address the one that I feel has the most relevance to today’s internet marketing service providers and that is:

SEO is Losing its Stigma

Google is releasing SEO guides, Microsoft and Yahoo! both have in-house SEO departments and the “SEO is BS” crowd have lost a little of their swagger and a lot of their arguments. No surprise - solid evidence trumps wishful thinking, especially when times are tough. Busby SEO Test:

But for every positive thing that happens, there is always a warning or lesson to keep in mind and Andrew Shotland, who read the same article by Rand that I did, has a warning to the wise:

Just like any idiot (read “me”) could get into real estate a few years ago and make a buck, SEO is now going to start attracting a large number of people who previously had jobs at start-ups, banks, real estate agencies, possibly auto makers, etc. Don’t be surprised if the guy who just turned you down for a loan offers to get you to page one of Google for your keyword. Busby SEO Test:

Let me start by saying I don’t believe this is a bad thing, but for those of you looking to hire a professional to assist you with your SEO needs, remember not all professionals are made equal. It will be more important than ever to understand what a specific service provider can bring to the table in terms of skills, knowledge, and experience before making your final selection. Busby SEO Test:

Finally I want to share some excellent advice from Rebecca Appleton.

“…focus on a single core area, giving you a performance focused optimization strategy based on tried and tested market share. Good SEO during a bad economy should never be a dressed up attempt to crack a new market - if the bottom line is being closely scrutinized, it’s not the time for experiments. Instead, efforts should be built around increasing the online presence of one best selling product or service with its own proven track record.” Busby SEO Test:

While her article may have been intended for companies reconsidering how they do their online marketing in a down economy, I think it also sends a strong message to those service providers who offer SEO as a service. Just like all online marketing professionals are not created equal. All clients are not created equal either and sometimes a client’s plan or expectations may not be in a position to succeed no matter how good the intention is and a client like that can just make work more difficult than it should be. Busby SEO Test:

Busby SEO Test : “Blending” Viral Marketing into Your Marketing Strategy

3/12/2008

Busby SEO Test: Are you familiar with the ever-popular Will It Blend campaign from Blendtec? If not, you’re depriving yourself from one of the best viral marketing campaigns ever.

George Wright, the Vice President of Marketing and Sales at Blendtec, gave a keynote at PubCon, in which he explained the strategy behind their campaign. In the above WPN video, Barry Schwartz of RustyBrick, Inc. tells how Blendtec had to go out on a limb to get their brand name out there.

Blendtec offers high performance blending and dispensing equipment for restaurants, but also has home editions. George realized their need to raise brand awareness. He knew they had great products, but no one knew about them. The concept was there for the “will it blend” idea, but they didn’t have a big budget to do a commercial.

George took his budget of $50 and bought the domain name willitblend.com, a lab coat, a six-pack of Coke, and supplies to blend. The first experiment included marbles, a rotisserie chicken, a rake, and a McDonald’s value meal. Their small budget only allowed them to use social media outlets, so they launched their campaign over YouTube.

Now, some 70-75 videos later, they’ve made history. Blendtec blends iPhones, iPods, and even rake handles just as George did in his keynote address! The only item that has been too powerful for them to blend is Chuck Norris…Busby SEO Test

Since their campaign launched, Blendtec’s sales have been up 700 percent. George realized Blendtec’s need to prove that their product was better than the others by actually showing it instead of simply talking about the mechanics. Viral marketing is creating fun content that people want to talk about and putting it into social media sites. Busby SEO Test

Ironically, Blendtec pitched the Food Network prior to the campaign with no luck, but after the campaign began, the Food Network contacted them.

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