A little over a year ago I developed the concept of Destination Search Engine Marketing as a way to transform traditional, rankings based search engine optimization into a service that seeks to fully meed a clients online marketing needs. While SEO itself is really not much more than the manipulation of a site to achieve better search engine exposure and rankings, SEO as a service should be much more.
Search engine optimization should be about how helping businesses succeed online with search engine exposure being a component to achieve success, but not the measure of success itself. After all, running radio and TV ads isn’t just about getting airplay, but it’s about running ads that will be effective at driving traffic and increasing business. But where SEO and other forms of offline advertising differ is that SEO cannot stand alone from the core business. It is intertwined.
Unfortunately, in the past, SEO campaigns were run as if they were simply radio or TV spots. They were either effective at driving traffic or not, but what happened after the ad ran (or the rankings achieved) was up to the business. While this is still partly true in that the business owner does have to take responsibility in converting their traffic to sales, SEO that is solely focused on achieving top search engine rankings can actually conflict with the goals of the business. The result is the reduction of conversion rates and loss of sales.
The “rankings at all cost” mentality needs to be thrown out like last month’s leftovers that’s made its way to the back of the fridge. It’s a stale and moldy strategy that simply stinks up the web.