|
Essential
Tools
Link
Building Software
Axandra
Search Ranking Study
Free
Trial WordTracker
AdWords
Select Report
Web
Position Gold
Search
Engine School
|
|
SEO (SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION)ARTICLES
SEO versus Advertising ROI
Advertising
Is Dead! Viva le SEO!
by Mike Banks Valentine
The King is dead! Long live the King!
The death of Louis XIV. was announced by the captain
of the bodyguard from a window of the state apartment.
Raising his truncheon above his head, he broke it
in the centre, and throwing the pieces among the
crowd, exclaimed in a loud voice, "Le Roi est
mort!" Then seizing another staff, he flourished
it in the air as he shouted, "Vive le Roi!"
(Yes I know it's French for King, but work with
me here, it works so well for my story!)
Pardoe: Life of Louis XIV., vol. iii. p. 457.
Now I'll be the first to admit that I'm not the
captain of the bodygaurd for Advertising, so the
task of announcing the death of advertising is not
among my responsibilities. Nor is finding a successor
to the throne. No, I do the less glorious task of
search engine marketing. I'm quietly on the sidelines
as Dot Bomb after Dot Gone pass by in a funeral
procession that seems endless. The parade route
marching to the funeral dirge and drum, glumly trudging
through the streets mark the passing of online royalty
on a weekly basis.
Every week we bow our heads in honor of the passing
of another advertising-reliant giant. Today it's
WebGiant, before that it was WebVan and WebMD and
Wine.com -- I'm starting at the bottom of a very
long alphabetical list, as you no doubt know.
The deathmarch itself has been analyzed-to-death
by everyone from network news anchors to newspaper
commentators and pundits.
I won't burden us with another perspective here
other than to say that it's big business that has
it all wrong in a twisted attempt to apply old models
to a new medium. I wonder why it is that each new
technology is constantly wedged into the wrong shape
hole because that is "where the money is".
When television was first developed, we didn't know
what to do with it because advertising was not so
ubiquitous. We had print advertising in magazines
and radio advertisement ruled the airwaves. But
everyone agreed that television was worthless .
. .
Not more than 10 per cent of the population
will take up television permanently. Raymond
Postgate, 1935
Television? The word is half Greek
and half Latin. No good will come of this device.
C P Scott, 1936
Television won't last because people
will get tired of staring at a plywood box every
night. Darryl Zanuck, 20th Century Fox co-founder,
1946
But TV finally fell to advertising and is now fully
one-third ads and very little content, except for
product placement and sponsored content.
But because advertising ruled our lives when the
internet was launched in 1995, we just naturally
assumed that advertising would rule online as well.
But we got it wrong. I spend hours online daily
and do all I can to ignore the flashing, blinking
banners and skyscraper ads and sponsored links glaring
from the top, bottom and now edges, of the screen
in front of me.
How do people behave online? Simple, they search.
They search for things they have an interest in.
They bookmark favorites. Most don't know why they
get the results they do when searching.
It's because the top ranking sites in search results
are very specifically designed by people who know
how to gain those top rankings in the search engines.
Why on earth would anyone spend good money on advertising
when most web surfers seek to avoid advertising
and even buy software meant to block advertising
from their web pages? Why on earth don't more businesses
see that search engine positioning is the number
one solution to visibility and success online?
Here comes another funeral.com march. I'll bet they
had Super Bowl ads and have banners flashing all
over my favorite web site. Oh and look! They have
banner ads on the hearse! I guess they didn't want
to waste the eyeballs attending the funeral. At
least they aren't animated banners. Have some Respect!
Well, I'm going to usurp the job of the Captain
of the Kings' bodygaurd and announce that "Advertising
is Dead!"
"La ROI publicitŽ est mort!" (Advertising
Return On Investment)
"Long live Search Engine Positioning!"
Viva le ROI! Viva le SEO!
---------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Banks Valentine is a Search Engine Optimization
specialist practicing ethical small business SEO
Search Engine Placement, Optimization, Marketing
http://SearchEngineOptimism.com/SEO_Tutorial/
http://SEOptimism.com/
-----------------------------------------------------------
Return
to FREE articles index |
Search
Engine Marketing: Special
Reports from Page Zero Unleash Amazing Profits
with Google AdWords Select! You advertise your
product, service, or cause online. You've decided
to pay for targeted traffic on a "pay per click"
basis. And now you're considering Google
AdWords Select. Great decision. But if you
don't use the techniques taught in this
special report, you could cost yourself a
fortune. Use it right, and you'll clean up.
Limited
time Special
Get a FREE $10 credit toward your PPC campaign
@ Overture!
|
|
Visit Our Sponsor! WebPosition Gold