There are many marketing blogs, courses and companies that would like to convince you that Search Engine Optimisation is absolutely key for all businesses these days, but in my experience that isn’t necessarily so.
Here are some of the reasons you may not need it.
- People just are not searching for what you offer in search engines. Whilst it is true that people use search engines A LOT, not all services are searched for like that. This particularly applies to consultancy services. These are usually something that people look for referrals for, they want someone else to recommend someone they can rely on. There is still plenty of marketing you can do to tap into this opportunity, but SEO isn’t it. How do you know whether people are searching for what you do? Ask an expert for the actual number of people searching per month in Google. If they are good, they will be able to tell you
- You cannot afford to compete. This is a big problem in the creative/marketing industries. As I mentioned in my FAQ What’s the difference between PPC and SEO? It could cost me up to £6.17 per click to use Google’s Adwords to promote my business and this is an indicator that competition is high for the term ‘Web Design Bournemouth’. I’m sure if you’ve been to an open networking event you’ve met at least half a dozen people who are ‘Web Designers’. Unfortunately there are a lot of us and we actually know how to do SEO, so they are all out there optimising their websites like crazy. Unfortunately this can be a problem for many businesses, especially if you have just started out and the competition has been optimising for years!
- You offer a very personal service and people are buying ‘you’ rather than just a product. This is something that is very difficult to sell over the internet. This is not to say that you shouldn’t have a website, but your personal connections are what will get you business rather than an impersonal search
If you are not sure if you should be spending your hard earned cash on SEO get in touch and we can have a look into it for you – I can tell you the number of people that are searching for what you do and what the competition is like.