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'Why Aren’t This Site’s Visitors Buying?' is the Wrong SEO Question
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Graphics people love graphics. Marketing people love to discuss marketing. The New York Times loves to get us to discuss and discuss and discuss. Without a more systematic approach to Internet marketing we are doomed to a never-ending and non-productive discussion. First things first: why aren't people coming to your website?
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By Jason McDonald
Senior SEO Instructor - JM Internet Group.
Posted: March 3, 2011
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Contents:
'Why Aren’t This Site’s Visitors Buying?' is the Wrong Question
A recent Who's the Boss article in The New York Times By GABRIEL SHAOOLIAN is a great read, as much for what it really gets wrong as for the (very little) that it gets right. You can read the article at http://nyti.ms/fbWIRV.
The article (and the endless comments) go on and on and on and on about the look and feel of the website, and has the common error (in my humble opinion) of starting website promotion with AdWords. For example -
The site provides a great example of just how far you can go on the Web with a minimal budget — if you approach the site thoughtfully and creatively....
Mr. Watine seems to be using the tools that his budget will allow. The main focus of the marketing is a Google AdWords campaign that has targeted keywords pertinent to plants and plant maintenance. With a budget of less than $150 per month, he isn’t getting a lot of traffic — but the traffic he does get appears to be targeted and motivated.
As you can see below, Mr. Watine’s AdWords campaign landed him a No. 1 ranking in the paid results for the search “Houston office plants.”
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh! So he has a small budget, and rather than start with the free stuff (SEO) he starts with AdWords. And the Times encourages the myth that it's somehow impressive to get to the top of Google AdWords? Eee gads. It's really pretty easy: just pay Google a lot of money.
Now getting to the top of Google's free listings - that would be impressive. But the article, and poor Mr. Watine start with the wrong question. They ask why customers aren't buying, when the right question is Why aren't the customers coming?. His (and yours) first priority has to be getting customers to the website, which is the job of SEO (free stuff, first) and AdWords (paid stuff, second).
If you ask the wrong question, my friends, you will get the wrong answer.
The Google Document
As anyone who has taken our classes, or at least our free webinars, knows, there are many, many secrets to SEO. One, in particular, is the Google SEO Document, more info here.
Download it, read it. Our Houston plant owner would be better served starting with that document than with the New York Times and its readers unending critiques of the look and feel of his website.
First Things First, Second Things Second
Suppose you were going to have a beautiful party. You went out and ordered the food, you organized your house, you planned a beautiful music agenda, you decorated and decorated and decorated...
But, you forgot to send out the invitations. The party was beautiful, but no one came. That's the tragedy of one Patrice Watine, the owner, who built a Web site, houstoninteriorplants.com, spent money on AdWords, got featured in the New York Times, but never did the most basic invitation on the Internet: search engine optimization. Help her out. Send her an email with the Google document and suggest she read and follow that, first. First things first.
Second things second? Once they land on the website, THEN worry about the user interface, landing page design, etc.
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