The Value of SEO in Your Marketing Budget
Let’s talk about value first, so we’re going to go back to Dictionary.com to get a definition.
Value: relative worth, merit, or importance
I just read a post by Chris Silver Smith discussing Print Yellow Pages vs. Online Yellow Pages, and he makes a point I strongly agree with: People are leaving the phone books and going to the internet to get information. The phone books have been a prime source to provide information to consumers in the past, but is not the only one. The main marketing medias in recent years have been:
TV
Radio
Newspaper
Billboard
Direct Mail
Magazines
Phone Books
Online
So what medium has the best value for your business? Depends on your business. Each marketing option has it’s own strengths and weaknesses. I found a profile of the major media types on www.iesbdc.org which was very interesting. They listed the advantages and limitations of each media type and only listed two of them as having low cost in the advantage category: Online and Billboard.
The report goes on to say that for a billboard the cost are- “$3,000 to do artwork and install media on billboard; rates depend on impress level, ranges from $5,000 to $500,000 (the higher the qualify of the artwork and the larger the demographic group, the higher the price); minimum contract is 16 weeks”. So lets simply say the low end of $8000. $8000 divided by 16 = $500 a week. Other costs were as such:
*Newspapers- $1300 a week for 2′ x 2′ ad
*TV- $200,000 for 30 seconds of prime time
*Direct Mail- $1500 for 1000 standard postcards including postage
*Radio-$90-$120 a week on a rotator
*Magazine- $1200 to $5000 per month or issue
*Online- $.60 PPC or $1200 to $1800/month for aggressive PPC campaigns
These numbers seam fairly accurate (depending upon several different factors) to me, but what disappoints me is the fact that the report actually excluded SEO efforts. What is the value of being the #1 natural ranked result for targeted keywords on search engines such as Yahoo, Google, or MSN? Of course the exposure alone is worth it’s weight in gold, but also consider the credibility factor. Do you want to use the company that finished in 1st place or in 10th place? It’s a little simplistic, but people have been naming their companies “ABC Whatever” just to be listed 1st in the phone books for years.
It’s difficult to establish an average cost of SEO because their are so many different levels of effort and needs, but for companies that do not have geographical boundaries for their product or services, online marketing is the most cost effective and controllable media type available. Geographically defined companies can’t overlook the need for SEO though, because it has been estimated that between 25-50% of searches done are local in nature. If someone goes online to find a mechanic they will search for one near them.
Of course the biggest disadvantage to online marketing is skewed demographics- if the consumer doesn’t own, use, or have access to the internet- you won’t reach them. The other ongoing debate between push vs pull marketing was recently reviewed by Blog Bites Man. While you must evaluate all marketing avenues to find the right mix for your specific business, it seems that many companies are overlooking this extremely cost effective and valuable form of marketing.
In an age where domain names like www.business.com are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars, it’s still hard to evaluate what the value of being ranked #1 for your industry specific keywords is. Many people ask “What will it cost to perform SEO for my website?”, when the real questions is how much you want to make? The reason companies are willing to spend $200,000 or more for only 30 seconds of TV air time is because they believe it will create a positive return on the investment. For many companies, proper SEO will maximize your expense-return ratio better that any other media type.
