The
Dallas Business Journal recently ran a story on one of our clients,
Wasp Barcode Technologies, describing
how they went from spending enormous amounts of money on PPC to focusing more on
traditional SEO and link building. The strategy paid off -- Wasp spent less and
got better results. These are the kind of results every small to medium sized
business would like to enjoy.
Wasp cut its external spending by 13% and reinvested the funds into in-house
personnel, who "re-architected" the site so users would find it easier to use
and more relevant. Those steps meant optimizing the site for specific key words
such as "asset tracking" and "inventory control" and continuing to add richer
online content, including slide show presentations, Webinars and YouTube demos.
This strategy also including increasing the link popularity of the site by both
natural and aggressive means.
The efforts are paying off in a multitude of ways. In 2007, the company's Web
hits grew by 60%, topping 600,000 visits. "The added visibility makes the
company appear large and established, and bodes well with resellers such as
Fry's and Staples who rely on brand awareness to sell Wasp's products," Wasp
President Steve Coffman said. "It also helps Wasp reach small businesses, which
often turn to the Web for technology guidance."
While a PPC campaign can deliver traffic with relative ease, it can be very
costly and has no real longevity -- once you stop shelling out the cash, the
traffic goes away. SEO and link building require a lot more creative effort but
can have more sustainable results. It also allows a business to target a larger
base of users as most studies reveal that 75 - 80% of searchers click on organic
listings as opposed to paid listings.
Wasp learned this after spending considerable funds on Google AdWords and other
PPC programs. That is not to say that they did not learn from the PPC
experience. They most likely were able to gather intelligence on specific terms
searchers were looking for related to their products. They also very likely
learned how to improve conversions for each keyword search they attracted.
So the lesson to learn here is to lay your foundation with SEO, link building
and maybe even some social media marketing. If you have additional budget,
incorporate the PPC as well. However, don't overlook the potential that a
strategic SEO and link building campaign has to offer in your web marketing
efforts.
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(Unpaid placement - FreeFind is a Search Engine Guide partner.)