SEO-Organics

When working in corporate america, I couldn’t believe how many small business owners had not done anything about increasing their internet presence.  Maybe it was that they were afraid of letting go of the almighty Yellowpages.  Maybe it was because they didn’t know exactly how to market online.  Maybe it was because they didn’t have the time. 

I always was astounded at just how many small businesses didn’t have even a website!  So, I was absolutely delighted when I came across this wonderful post by Greg Sterling from http://www.localsearchnews.net  about why small businesses haven’t engaged more on the internet.

Do any of these excuses sound like you?:

Breakdown:

Confusion – 25%

Lack of Budget – 24%

Internet Not Relevant to their business – 19%

Lack of Time – 15%

Have enough business already – 10%

Skeptical of Effectiveness – 7%

In this article Greg also made some good points about how Yellowpages have adopted the SEM model and tried to push it into the small business advertiser channel:

In late 2003 or early 2004 BellSouth (now part of AT&T) introduced a product that offered to put SMBs on search engines in addition to the publisher’s own yellow pages site. It was in essence a simplified SEM offering geared specifically to SMBs who wanted to “be on Google,” but didn’t know how. That became the template going forward.

Search engines, unable to acquire large numbers of SMB advertisers directly through self service, turned to established “sales channels” such as yellow pages publishers that could use their “feet on the street” sales reps to reach local businesses. Yellow pages publishers, seeking more traffic than their sites were generating and to prevent potential advertiser defections, all developed similar products: local SEM offerings.

Rather than explaining keywords and bidding strategies, the sale to the SMB was simplified by offering “guaranteed clicks” for a fixed price. That original model has evolved in most cases. But what it permitted was an easy “close” by the sales rep. The complexity of search marketing — setting up and managing a paid-search campaign – was totally outsourced and hidden from the local business. The search engine got ad dollars it might not have otherwise and the publisher kept the advertiser. The publisher-partner/vendor got the headache of fulfillment and managing the campaign itself.

To read the full article: http://www.localsearchnews.net/smbs-and-sem-churn/comment-page-1/#comment-2205

Now, most of you reading this article know how I feel about the above tactics.  I felt as if this strategy hasn’t paid off because the yellowpages industry doesn’t quite have a handle on how to run a Google Adwords campaign effectively enough and the products seem to be suffering in my eyes.

There is a ton of opporunity when it comes to small business advertising.  The world is in your hands! 

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