14 June 2010 | The Business of SEO | Josh Garner | No Comments

With so many service providers out there, I’m sure you’ve been told several times that you need an Internet marketing service on some level. Check your email. How many times has some SEO company sent you a “free analysis” in the last month?

And with all these companies out there telling you how much better their site is doing because of some other company they hired, it’s easy to begin to wonder if you need SEO too. But, it’s important to understand what your business needs, when it needs it. Yes, you need SEO (or PPC, or SEM, or whatever term it is that’s creating buzz these days). But do you need it right now?

SEO Needs Are Relative

If you were to run into me on the street and ask “does my business website need SEO?” I would reply with “yes. Yes it does.”

I would give this same reply every time regardless of who asked the question. I don’t need to see your site or know anything about your or your business. I know you need SEO because there isn’t a site on the web that wouldn’t benefit from a proper online marketing strategy. But I warn you, the answer is almost as vague as the question itself.

Let’s say you’re a 10 year-old boy. You come up to me on the street and ask “do I need a prostate exam?” I would reply with “yes. Yes you do.” The answer I can give is only as good as the question asked. A 10-year-old boy, barring some medical oddity probably doesn’t need a prostate exam. But, that boy who will one day become a man surely does.

He doesn’t need it now. He probably won’t need it for quite some time, decades even. First, he has quite a few other items to check of his list of “things to do in my life.”

Take a Look At Your Business

You need to take a good look at your business before you start spending money on Internet marketing. I won’t lie, our services aren’t exactly cheap. Justifiably so, we garner some pretty hefty checks. For a business to pay us such fees without a return on investment would be…well…just silly.

I don’t write these tips for the sake of a blog post (though we could obviously use it). I write this in response to a growing number of requests for services that simply aren’t ready for us yet. We don’t sell to just anyone. Rather, we make it a point to partner with business owners where we know a relationship will be mutually beneficial.

Would you believe that we’ve had 2 people contact us wanting to compare our prices to another firm; only to be told that we wouldn’t offer our services in the first place? After a few years of doing this stuff, you can start to pin-point problems before they happen. One problem is that of offering a service when the business just isn’t ready for it yet.

So I give you 6 questions to ask before you decide you need SEO services.

1. Is my Business Ready?

We can’t even talk about bringing traffic to you before your business is ready. Can you handle a sale? Do you have the write paperwork in order (corporate filings, etc.)? If you plan on selling locally, do you have a store-front? If you’re a service provider who’s work requires insurance or a permit, do you have those things?

2. Do I Have a Website?

This may sound odd, but we’ve turned several potential clients away because they don’t even have a website yet. We can’t promote something that isn’t even there. Instead, we had to build a site and are working with them to create the perfect strategy (2 of which won’t require SEO services for another 6 – 8 months).

It’s something like buying gas for a car you have yet to purchase.

3. Is My Website Representative of My Business?

Sometimes, having a poorly designed site is worse than having no site at all. In the last year we’ve taken SEO off the table 3 times due to a poor website. This can be anything from the quantifiable use of parameters in URL creation (usually associated with a content management system) to the subjective “that’s just ugly.” Either way, if your website doesn’t properly represent your company, what good is it to drive traffic there?

4. Have I Employed Any Other Marketing Efforts?

Though not a show-stopper, the answer to this question has the potential to get my attention. If you don’t have any other marketing efforts going, you’re missing quite a bit of information that could be used with your Internet marketing efforts (like demographic information, past clients you can use to spread the word, etc.).

In any event, we don’t normally shun at providing our services to businesses who haven’t explored other areas of “traditional” marketing. But just so you know, a lot of what you learn from those efforts can translate into Internet marketing in some fashion or another.

5. Do I have Goals?

Again, not something that will stop all further conversations, having a clear goal is extremely important. In fact, I would bet to say that having a goal is even more important than the act of pursuing that goal. Most often when someone doesn’t have an answer to that question, it’s simply because they do have a goal, they just haven’t taken the chance to articulate it.

Without knowing what your goals are, there is no way to achieve them.

6. Is SEO Going to Save my Business?

This one is a show-stopper. It doesn’t happen as much as it did a few short years ago; but we used to get this call all the time. “My business is drowning. I need more traffic to my site or I’ll have to close it down for good.” I’m sorry to say, we can’t help you.

The only difference between Internet marketing today and the T.V. and magazine ads of the 50s and 60s is the medium. The messages, goals, and strategies are more similar than they appear at first. If your business isn’t doing so well (to the point of closing for good) then it’s time to re-evaluate other aspects before you look for a silver bullet.

Take away the fact that most online marketing efforts take a lot of time and money. A failing business with increased exposure will be just that; a failing business with increased exposure.

So there you have it. If you can get the answers to these questions in line, then you are probably ready to start learning more about how SEO and other forms of online marketing can help your business. There’s still more to talk about, but this should at least keep you from spending money on something that won’t work.