SEO is DEAD – Long live ADWORDS

[Webjobz]

SEO is dead and the winner is ….. Google Adwords

Do you agree???

Shares in Google inc on October 24th were trading well over $1,000 per share, joining an elite club of super-shares having risen 42% since the start of 2013.

And the reason is in one word ….. “Adwords”

If your email inbox is anything like mine, you will have noticed a change in your “junk” emails that get past your filters. The spammers have given up on targeting “penial-enlargement” products (because every spam filter in the world is blocking them) to so-called-legitimate-business activities like SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) or “How to Get your company to #1 on Google”

The truth is all those thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours “we”, “you” and your company spent on increasing your Google “organic” rankings over the last five years have been a total waste of money…… and Google are totally to blame … and are making a total gain

Once-upon-a-time you could get #1 ranking on google by using clever and current SEO techniques such as link-building, elimination of duplicate content, keyword density etc etc … terms many of you in business will have heard so-called-SEO-experts spruiking too many times and persuading you to part with $$$$ in cash to fix.

How many of those so-called-SEO-experts told you you could save thousands of dollars by adopting a simple a cost effective Google adwords campaign??? Not many, the SEO industry is self-promoting and full of smoke-and-mirror (snake-oil) salesman promises.

In recent times Google have…..

a) Increased the number of paid ads at the top of the page from 1 to 3
b) increased the number of lines their paid adverts take up
c) increased the % of the “above-the-fold” advertising space to paid adverts
d) reduced the distinguishment between paid and organic ads to such an extent that around 50% of us cannot determine what is a paid or organic ad anymore.

Being #1 “organically” (un-paid) in Google will NOW only get you 9% of the clicks on that page. 42% of all clicks goes to the top three “paid” listings (Adwords)

If you want to get traffic to your site so that people purchase your products, move your marketing budget AWAY from SEO and web design and invest in Google Adwords as soon as possible. It is very easy to setup and administer yourself

[staff removed links to copy of blog post]

[jesse-landry]

"Last year I spent over $10,000 on SEO services for the job boards and didn't see any Google increased traffic for my money. In face due to Panda and Penguin our traffic to the job boards has actually gone down by 50% despite throwing all that money into SEO."

Well it sounds to me like you were burned by a blackhat SEO company. It's hard to tell who does it right and who does it wrong and unfortunately I've seen more cases of this than the latter but I like to think that's because  the people that are happy with their services aren't quite as vocal.

In any case, if the SEO company you were working with resulted in you getting hit by Penguin and Panda then they were clearly doing it the wrong way and they should know better. Hopefully as people become more educated and Penguin evolves these types of blackhat spammers will run out of business and disappear entirely, leaving the door open for the real marketers (SEM is the better term) to pick up the pieces and re-claim their name.

Your other friends were burned as well. Again there are a ton of blackhatters out there and it's really too bad. The company I work for in-house was paying thousands to another SEO firm that did the same thing and I've spent almost a year digging this domain out from under penalties. It has been successful, I might add.

You should look into other Digital Marketing firms. Portent, Distilled, SEOAware, etc. There are so many that do awesome jobs. Here's the thing I like to think will help you find a real SEM marketer:

If they promise to get you "tons of links" and improve ranking QUICKLY, they are no good. That's the kind of thing that lands you in Penguin-hell. If they promise to develop a strategy for the long-term and produce content while finding channels and funneling opportunities your way then you're on the right track.

From my experience, the list of SEO firms here at Moz.com is excellent and a good place to start when looking for this type of marketing help.

I'm truly sorry you and your friends had a bad experience. Don't despair, this can be fixed. And the honest-to-goodness fact remains that organic listings get more qualified traffic than paid and ultimately generate more conversions. That's a fact that is backed up by stats.

I wish you luck in the future and appreciate you bringing this conversation to these forums. I know you are not alone, many others have been burned and I hope that those who have can come here to get answers from the good folk of the Moz community.

Take care!

[EGOL]

Nobody has disputed the fact that paid ads are dominating the above-the-fold advertising space in Google Search so even if you are the best SEO expert in the world, in the hard-to-get keywords and phrases eg "Computer Repairs and Services" the best SEO will only ever get you to #3 on the page.

Has been like that for at least ten years.

Are there any SEO experts out there who will stick their neck out and make their fee based on increased traffic or ROI?

My recommendation is to start an affiliate program.  Affiliates do exactly what you are asking for.  Their fee is based upon increased traffic or a percentage of your sales.  You can also offer to dropship orders of your merchandise that process through their shopping carts.

Most of them do their own SEO.  The ones who don't do their own SEO know how to hire SEOs who can perform.

Go to the SERPs for your most profitable keywords and offer the top ranking sites a generous commission.  If you can offer enough to get their cooperation they will deliver the sales at zero risk to you.  The affiliate programs and drop shippers that I work for pay me about 50% of sales.  (not looking for anything in the job space - I make better income there from adsense than any job board wants to pay)

[Webjobz]

Good comments, nice to get some banter going...however.....

Nobody has disputed the fact that paid ads are dominating the above-the-fold advertising space in Google Search so even if you are the best SEO expert in the world, in the hard-to-get keywords and phrases eg "Computer Repairs and Services" the best SEO will only ever get you to #3 on the page.

I run two business,a group of international job boards (webjobz.com) and a small IT Repair business that is very localised and has a lot of competition.

Last year I spent over $10,000 on SEO services for the job boards and didn't see any Google increased traffic for my money. In face due to Panda and Penguin our traffic to the job boards has actually gone down by 50% despite throwing all that money into SEO.

The Computer Repair business would not survive without Google Adwords, I can choose to receive 3/10/20 clicks a day and vary it as I choose and and rarely spend more that $10 per day ... but at least I have customers walking through the door. If I had to reply on great SEO, link-building etc that business would have gone broke by now.

I have two other friends involved in a) "Engineering/Manufturing" and b) a charity. They have both spent hundreds/thousands of dollars this last year on SEO "experts" and you can still find neither site before page 6 of a google search on their preferred keywords.

I didnt expect you all to agree that the whole SEO industry was self-fulfilling and full of snake-oil salesmen but when I regularly wake up to an inbox full of “spammy” emails such as:

from: johnjexon.seo@gmail.com      subject: Website Designing & Development from: refurbishmentproperty@gmail.com      subject: Ethical Practice to Increase Revenue – SEO

from: seospdier@gmail.com      subject: Get Higher Ranked on Google during CHRISTMAS

from: indaseoservies@gmail.com       subject: SEO Proposal*****

from: sitepromotingseo@gmail.com     subject: Organic SEO for miningjob.net

You have to agree that "your" industry has a perception problem. Are there any SEO experts out there who will stick their neck out and make their fee based on increased traffic or ROI?

google-paid-ads.png

[vmialik]

I am glad I didnt miss this comment, really really well said. #Golden

Thanks EGOL

[EGOL]

I run a three-person shop and our retail sites are very competitive in the organic SERPs.  We beat Amazon, ebay, and every site on the planet in tons of different niches and in lots of really difficult SERPs.   We don't have #1 everywhere but we are not embarassed at anything we go after.

But... what I can't do is make a lot of money from adwords.  I am great at runnin' ads, great at getting perfect quality score and great at doing math.  I have read all of the books (some of them twice), and done the adwords training with the Gurus.    The problem is costs.  I don't buy my merchandise by the tractor trailer load, don't have distribution points all across the US to get local shipping costs everywhere.  It does not matter if you have a PhD and can beat everybody everywhere at all of the stuff that requires training, dedication and smarts.  If you don't have the scale there are lots of places where you will not make any money at Adwords.

ADWORDS is DEAD – Long live SEO

   There are a LOT of SEOs who are running adwords for clients, bidding like fidiots and bringing in sales.   The problem is that there is a disconnect between the SEO and the client.  The client has not shared (or does not know) his profit margins and does not understand or the SEO has not shared the cost per sale.   And, so, these merchants are losing their asses and thinkin' that their SEO is a genius both at the same time. 

[jesse-landry]

Dana, spot-on as always.

[jesse-landry]

I couldn't disagree more with this post. SEO is marketing, and marketing is very  much alive. PPC is an aspect of SEO which is marketing. One does not exist without the other. It can, but it doesn't in most (successful) cases.

I have more to say on the subject but I'm attending the Mozinar and distracted. Just wanted to chime in and say an emphatic "NO" as I disagree.

[danatanseo]

As a SEO who also manages Adwords campaigns in-house, I totally disagree with the idea that Adwords campaigns are "very easy to set up and administer yourself." Sure, anybody with a Google log-in and a credit card can set up an Adwords campaign...and go broke really quickly. It takes months if not years of research to successfully administer Adwords campaigns. I'd hate for any newbie to read this post and think "Right, then I'll just go set up some Adwords campaigns and be done with it."

As someone who does both paid and organic search optimization I also completely disagree with the argument that there is no value in pure organic traffic. Really? Do you want your business to be relying for the majority of its business traffic and revenue by renting traffic from Google? What happens when that goes South?

75% of our online revenue comes from organic/direct traffic and sources outside of Google. We do have Adwords campaigns...very tightly targeted, highly optimized and purposeful Adwords campaigns....not campaigns that are just pissing in the wind hoping to grab traffic.

I understand the provocative intention of the question, but I don't think it acknowledges the true depth of what it is to create and successfully promote a business online. I do agree with your hat tip to Wordstream though, love them!

Dana