Marketers Reject SEO – Again!

Sep 29, 2004
by

So why is it that major online retailers do not care about SEO? Could it be that they’re tired of trying to dance with Google year after year? Might they be fed up with paying SEO firms who, in the beginning, say “our relationship with the engines is why clients do business with us – come, let us help” yet, in the end, report “well, it’s really just a never-ending dance” – all while cranking out more invoices?

Again, we see rather self-serving studies being released by the likes of OneupWeb, a moderately successful SEO shop, telling the world “hey, you guys don’t care – buy you should!”

Well… I ask, should they really? Moreover, I suggest that SEO shops stop arguing with the market (telling them to stop “neglecting” it) and start listening to the deafening din of marketers saying, “we really don’t care!”


Concurrently, paid search is zooming forward and what about the promise of “contextual” and/or “behavioral” advertising?

Could marketers be waiting and/or testing the waters in hopes of more accountability from their vendor / strategy?

Industry veteran John Battelle continues to crank out the good stuff… and offers insight on such questions. Don’t miss his entries Toward the Endemic: What’s missing in PPC/Behavioral/Contextual Ad Nets where he points at an obvious but rarely discussed viewpoint: From AdSense to Claria, Revenue Science, Tacoda and on… none are “driven by an understanding of the give-and-take that occurs between all three parties (consumer, advertiser and publication) in a consensual relationship mediated by the publication” as takes place with, as an example, print magazines. I’ll leave the rest to John but don’t miss his enlightening perspective.

… and…

Fathoming Context: Much More to Come where John points at “a whole new landscape to navigate, a landscape opened up by AdSense, but which, to date, has yet to benefit from the full attention of the market.” He points out that “Kanoodle, Quigo, and many others are beginning to play there, offering solutions which, at first blush, are performing far better than AdSense, and for far less cost than AdWords.” He goes on to discuss his interview with an agency pro who claims that “Quigo was his best performing network last month.”

Could it be that those with online advertising budgets are re-thinking how they invest and are un-willing to make educated guesses at their return on advertising spend? John seems to think so and I agree with his statement that “within 3-5 years, we’ll have ad networks that combine the best of CPA/PPC networks with the best of CPM/Endemic buys. We really are in the early innings.”

About Jeff Molander

Jeff Molander is the authority on making social media sell and corporate trainer to small businesses and global corporations like IBM and Brazil’s energy company, Petrobras. He’s an accomplished entrepreneur, having co-founded what is today the Google Affiliate Network. He’s adjunct digital marketing professor at Loyola University’s school of business and author of Off the Hook Marketing: How to Make Social Media Sell for You.

Website: JeffMolander.com

Blog: Off the Hook Blog

Answers: AskJeffMolander.com

You can find Jeff on Twitter @jeffreymolander.

Filed under: Search Engine Marketing
  • http://www.the-mba-way.com Michael Fowler, M.B.

    CPC is killing the small guy and it's an abomination that defeats all the objectives of the Internet business model. In the same way that the giant corporations are taking control of where we shop, the big names in search engine provision are also dictating where we search. What we need is something like the mergers and monopolies commission, who can dictate just how much of a share each company can take. In foresight, I can see just two players in this field emerging and they are already starting to dictate terms and conditions. That is not a good thing for anyone and will destroy the dreams of millions who can't afford the fees to advertise.