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The Biggest Lie You Were Told About SEO

Author: Charlie Cook   |   May 8th, 2012

The truth is we’re all lazy! Me too!

If I could take a pill and instantly be as strong as superman, and avoid having to spend hours working out at the gym each week and could avoid curtailing my urges to eat cookies all day long and still stay svelte and healthy, hey I’d go for it…The same is true with marketing your business. We all want the lazy way to riches.

Which is why almost every small business owner buys into the big lie about SEO and their online marketing.

You read it, or an SEO firm calls you and wants to sign you up, and they tell you that with a top position in the search engines, your business will take off. You’ll be making so much you’ll be paving your driveway with gold bricks.

Right!?

Everyone wants to believe that SEO is the magic pill for your business – that if you could just get a top listing, that’d solve all your problems.

But what happens if you actually get a top ten listing on Google? Does it really translate into more leads, more prospects contacting you and more profits?

Whoops!

Each week, I get a handful of inquiries from smart, hard-working business owners who got sucked in by the big lie about SEO. They’ve often spent a year or more, slaving away to do everything they’ve been told about SEO. Or they’ve paid an SEO firm big bucks to help them get top listings.

Last week, these included a small business consultant in San Diego and an assisted living facility in Connecticut. Both made it to the first page of Google for their keywords only to find that they were hardly getting any more new leads or business than before.

What?

How is it possible? How is it that top rankings don’t equal more business?

The simple truth is that SEO, search engine optimization, is a good idea, but it won’t remedy other more critical marketing problems.

Imagine for a minute, you were trying to sell your house and you lived in a great town, had a great location and that buyers were out there. I know – a bit of a leap of faith in some parts of the country. But just for a second imagine your could attract a steady stream of prospects to at least drive down the street to view your house.

What do you think would happen if your lawn hadn’t been mowed in a few years, or the façade was faded, the doors locked and the shades pulled so no one could see inside?

Obviously traffic alone isn’t going to help you sell your house nor is it going to help you make money with your website, unless… your site is set up to convert traffic into leads.

But whoops! Most small business sites don’t convert traffic to sales for a simple reason.

They haven’t taken the time to clarify their:
– Brand Identity – what differentiates you from the competition
– Value Proposition – the prospects’ needs you meet and the value you provide
– Marketing Message – your client centered promise
– Primary and secondary Headlines that give prospects a reason to learn more.
– Compelling offer that gets people to email you or call you.

And that’s just for starters…

Yes, putting all the above together takes some time and some thought – but who do you think your clients are going to buy from, the business whose marketing isn’t clear, the one that looks like everybody else or the one that makes it obvious as to what they offer and how it can help their clientele?

How about you – did you get sucked in by the big SEO lie, wishing it was the magic pill for your business?

That’s okay, you’ve got lots of company, and it’s spawned a whole industry of SEO services that preys on people like you. But, now that you know the truth – the more important question is what are you going to do about it?

Looking for help growing your business – from getting attention online to getting prospects to getting sales?

Get started >>

To your success,

Charlie

P.S. Trust me, if I had a magic pill I could sell you that would instantly transform your business and your life, you’d be the first to know. Instead I’ve got a team of twenty experts, ready to do all the hard work for you, which is almost as good.

Talk to Charlie >>


One Response to “The Biggest Lie You Were Told About SEO”

  1. Richard Monssen Says:

    Awesome Post Charlie! You are absolutely correct that SEO is not the magic pill that small business owners need to fix their online marketing activities, it’s only part of the solution! Small business owners should be looking for their “local Expert Internet Marketer” for advice instead of some SEO Company or Design Company.

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