So, why do I use the word Search Engine Optimization to describe Connors' online reputation enhancement services? The term is so late-90's. At the very least, we should be calling it Search Engine Marketing, right? Actually, I was one of the few voices arguing that what we are doing when influencing the genuine results (not the sponsored keyword bidding) is optimizing the search engine itself. It is a technical view, but so long as the engines use a database index as opposed to real-time spiders and agents, then we are at least indirectly optimizing the index. Therefore, SEO is a perfectly accurate term.
What about SEM? It's a broader term that includes managing sponsored keyword bidding campaigns, popularized by GoTo.com, which became Overture, which is now Yahoo! Search Marketing. Combined with Google AdWords, there is now competition between two surprisingly popular ad outlets, and within each outlet, there is competition on each keyword. The bidding frenzy and competitive paranoia is driving up online advertising budgets and Google and Yahoo profits. But all this energy being funneled into transient campaigns that end when you stop bidding. For a litany of reasons, I view SEO as a better investment than the broader SEM. With properly performed SEO, you are building a true company asset that long outlives advertising campaigns.
And finally, the topic has broadened yet again as people realize that with online environments, the concept of word-of-mouth promotion scales! Yes, promote something once in a word-of-mouth fashion, and the message resonates on the Web 24/7, reaching out to influential advocates who hang out in core communities in message boards and blogs. You are hitting the people who are the hubs in six-degrees-of-separation theory. Of course, this can backfire because these advocates groups consist of the elite of their trade, with particularly sensitive bull-shit radar. If you want to go the word-of-mouth route, you had better be ready to invest some real money into an advocate who knows your industry every bit as well as you. All communication should be open and honest; with the readiness to engage in discussion should the situation arrive--a scary prospect for some.
For the money, the best deal is SEO. Even though it takes some time to build up the momentum of an effective SEO campaign, the results begin to compound and become almost like a permanent company asset, and fuels the word-of-mouth process. If there is not something to find and talk about, word of mouth is much more difficult. But if you seed the Web with plentiful, topical and compelling content, word of mouth will happen. Better yet, your own word-of-mouth campaign becomes that much easier, because when people turn around to validate what they say by searching in Google, Yahoo and MSN, all roads lead back to you and your client.
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