Don’t Waste Your Money On SEO

Okay, so right now I’m sure every Digital Marketer and SEO agency reading this is probably super triggered right now.

Slow your rolls bro

Let me clarify something here.💁

SEO is definitely an important part of building your business online. However, it isn’t the one and only thing that’s going to do it. It’s all good and fun to please the Google gods, and nothing is nicer than appearing on the first page.

But as someone who does this kinda thing for a living, I will tell you that SEO is not the magical unicorn that is going to make your business take off. 🦄

As you know, there are a fuck ton of articles out there that talk about why SEO is really good for your business. And that’s all fine and dandy.

But I want to talk about some of the reasons why you SHOULD NOT invest in SEO.

Long story short: You’re just not ready.

Who am I talking to?

I am mainly talking to people who have consulting businesses, blogs, or sell a product or service that isn’t focused on one central location. If you have a small business and you want to rank for your local area, investing in a local SEO strategy and can get you quick results in some cases. But that all depends on the area and the competition for the key phrases you want to rank for.

Know what people are searching for in your niche

Investing in SEO will do you no good if you have no idea what your ideal customers need to search for in order to find you. You may think you know, but there’s a good chance you don’t, especially if you just started your business. And there are plenty of marketing agencies that are very happy to take your money and not do this kind of research for you.

For example, if you’re a life coach specializing in neurolinguistic programming, your first instinct would be to put all your efforts into ranking for that term. But in reality, your ideal clients probably aren’t searching for that in Google. Instead you would likely want to rank for terms like “how to treat depression”.

It’s always best to figure out what your personal customer base is searching for before you start investing money into SEO. You can do this buy surveying your current customers and asked them what they used to search on Google before they found you. You can also use Google Analytics to monitor what key terms users are searching for to find your website.

If you can’t get this kind of information, you’re just not ready for an SEO campaign.

Results don’t happen over night

When you invest in SEO, you are committing for the long haul. It could take several months for your website to rank in search engines, sometimes longer if your key-phrase is very competitive. Hiring an agency to handle your SEO won’t make it any faster either.

Google determines your rankings based off of relevant, quality content, as well as the number and quality of backlinks leading to your site. This is not a quick process, and it shouldn’t be rushed either.

If you’re website or business is new and you’re still trying to figure things out, you should not rush into making this investment.

There are better options to get a quicker ROI

If you’re looking to get leads NOW, SEO is not going to do it for you.

If you want the biggest bang for your buck, you just need to get your feet wet with Facebook Ads.

Sometimes all you need is one really good ad with great copy and a landing page to get things going.

Now, if you’re not a social media guru I totally know how you feel. Facebook ads can be really intimidating. At first glance the ad manager looks like a monster with all those metrics! But I promise you, once you get your feet wet and just start posting shit, you will start to see results.

I would also reccomend, if you can afford it, to hire someone to handle your Facebook ads for you. Having someone who lives and breaths Facebook ads can help you get the best bargain for your ad spend. In the beginning, this is going to help you build the authority you need in your business and build up a large enough customer base to collect data from.

Final Thoughts

Before you spend any money on SEO, ask yourself “Am I really ready to wait for the results?”
If you know exactly what to rank for, and you’re ready to put in the time, go for it! Otherwise spend a little more time growing your online presence

Please don’t hate me SEO experts! There is a time and a place for it!

Originally published at Marketing Mochi.