by Kyle Getson

Created on: March 01, 2009   Last Updated: May 16, 2009

First and foremost SEO is about keywords. If you've selected the wrong keywords, you can do an amazing 'SEO' job, getting HUGE amounts of traffic, and watch your stats/logs grow exponentially, but if you sell nike shoes and your #1 for the term 'Shoe Repair New York' because an 'SEO guy' told you that you'd get better results going to the 'long tail' and 'less competitive keywords, then you'll never notice any positive effects from SEO.

Any SEO person should first identify the keywords, and go over them with you. If you are currently staffing, hiring, or have an SEO person on staff, and you don't know what your keywords are, your wasting your money. If the 'SEO' person picked the keywords that have less competition because it would be easier to rank #1 for, then your SEO person doesn't care about your leads, sales, or anything else. They want to point to google and be able to say look, your #1 on google, which is probably what you are paying them for... but it may not do you any good.

I am an 'SEO' person, and I see this alot. People, even my own customers don't take the time to hash out what it is they want to get out of SEO. So the keywords I go for, are what I 'think' are useful to them, and what I 'think' should help their business, but what I think isn't always true. I don't know anything about most of my client's business'. And to tell them what they should advertise for is ridiculous. I may have incite in specific areas, or have ways to help them pick, but I cannot pick for them.

Another reason SEO fails is because your audiance needs to be #1 on your mind. Just because you pick the right keywords, and you've got the right traffic, doesn't mean the SEO is worth while. For example, I have some clients that want to drive traffic to their website to show off their products. The problem is, their competition is selling their products online, while my client isn't. They want to drive foot traffic in the store. So all those people I send to their website, just get a better idea of the market before finding someone online to purchase from. Now this obviously isnt the case for local search traffic, using local keywords is very beneficial, but if you've got a national store, or lots of stores in lots of areas, and don't have the time and money to advertise and market each location, then local keywords aren't going to work.

Generally, SEO can help you. But also, generally, most SEO people want your money. They don't really care about the service they provide, which is why the 'big guys' will charge thousands of dollars for a 'consultation' which, to them, means free money with no strings attached. Because they can say whatever they want, get your money, then they are out. You can argue with them, but you got what you paid for.

I suggest doing your own research before hiring an SEO person, or firm. There are good ones out there, you just have to find them. Google isn't always your friend.

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