Search Engine Marketing Hype Killing Small Businesses

Think about the first thing you ever heard about "marketing a website" on the web. 99% of the time the first words anyone ever hears are "search engine marketing." Or some semblance of the phrase.

And from that point on, the hammering of misinformation never lets up. You are led to believe that your business will die a terrible death without the search engines. You are led to believe that only people who can guide you through the mine field of search engine optimization are the SEO "experts."

Also you are told time and again that the only way to market online PERIOD is through the search engines. You are conditioned over time to focus most, if not all, of your efforts on tricking the search engines into liking your site above all your competitors for search terms where "there can be only one."

Well, here's a wake up call: The vast majority of small business startups will never have the resources, time, or know-how to turn an idea into a profitable online business focusing only on search engines.

Just look at the deluge of information there is out there on Google and how to rank well with them. People are picking apart their ranking patent application right now to try an glean a website promotion strategy based upon what Google reveals in their application about their ranking system.

Is this information valuable to a small business wanting to sell its wares to a whole market rather than just the part of that market which uses one of the big search engines?

It is in extreme moderation, yes. In a well balanced marketing campaign that focuses on many ways to bring in targeted traffic, search engine marketing has its place. You do what you can, and you move on to all the other ways there are to promote your business.

Yet, so many people are falling victim to the gleam and glitter of search engine riches being pushed on them by SEO firms and people selling search engine how-to manuals.

It is not long before a new business finds itself wrapped up in a game where the only winners are the geeks and deep pockets.

If you do not fall into either of those categories, your business is doomed from the start if you hop right off the porch to play with those big dogs.

"But I hired a 'big dog' SEO firm to make my business stand out and compete with the geeks in my market niche."

More power to you. In actuality, unfortunately, you probably just hired a teenager from India with an internet connection in his parents' house. Most small business start ups cannot come close to affording a major SEO firm. They charge corporate-level premiums to be able to access their services.

Everyone else in the SEO world is practically working out of their garage in comparison.

Scared yet? You don't have to be as long as you are spreading your marketing around to the non-search engine traffic you should be getting.

Writing articles and syndicating them in your market is a direct traffic strategy that has nothing to do with search engines. Except that search engines find your site through those links as well. But you should be doing it solely for DIRECT TRAFFIC from readers on other sites and taking the search engine traffic boost as mere icing on the cake.

You see, as people spam the search engines, they must adjust how they rank sites in order to compensate. This means a lot of good sites take a hit when Google changes the way it ranks sites.

You could have done everything completely on the up and up and gotten dropped in the engines because they made a new rule that everyone who registers their domains only for one year is a possible spammer. There goes your legit site. Hope you weren't planning on search engine traffic for your SOLE source of traffic.

Can you see how dangerous it is to get bitten by the search engine bug? YES you can propel your business overnight from a profitless dead zone to a glamorous profit machine with one top ranking.

Of course that is possible. It is not likely.

People who are turning their small online businesses into success stories are doing one thing across the board: Conducting a multi-faceted marketing campaign that includes search engines along with a good mix of other non-search engine marketing such as reciprocal and non-reciprocal linking tactics too numerous to mention here.

If you want long-term success online, you must be willing to look past all the sleeze merchants selling you dreams of riches through search engine marketing.

Search engines care about one thing: Their own hides. You should care more about your hide than anything else and use a well-planned, disciplined marketing strategy that puts search engines in their place. Not in the epicenter of your marketing campaign, but just another tool in your toolbox for bringing in targeted traffic.

Do this, and you will escape the fate of thousands of startups this year who will realize too late that they hung their hopes on the wrong marketing strategy as their engine for profits.

Copyright 2005 Jack Humphrey

Jack Humphrey explains his proven marketing strategies in the all new Power Linking 2005 at http://power-linking-profits.com Jack is proudly NOT a "search engine expert."

---

Forget SEO ? It?s All About Conversion!

Which SEO hat do you wear? Is it white or... Read More

SEO #2: On-page Optimization

Yesterday you should have read the first course out of... Read More

SEO 101

SEO (search engine optimization) is a booming businees these days.... Read More

5 Simple Steps to Great Search Engine Rankings

Having your website rank well in the major search engines... Read More

World of Website Promotion

Website promotion is a big and ongoing process. Every person... Read More

How To Conceal Your Website?s ?Fingerprint? From The Search Engines

The internet marketing industry is now flooded with various page... Read More

How to Improve Your Search Engine Positioning and Increase Traffic Today

Every website has times when traffic is higher than others.... Read More

Is Google Fair?

If you are the owner of a new website, trying... Read More

Google Rank Cake

6 cups thick content mix 1 jar word of mouth,... Read More

Picking Keywords for SEO ? A Different View

The first step to developing any search engine optimization effort... Read More

How To Get Your Web Site Banned ? or Search Engine Promotion, How Not to do it!

Search engines constantly strive to advance their technology and algorithms... Read More

Basic Search Engine Optimization For Dummies

OK, you published your site, now you just sit by... Read More

7 Simple Steps to Spy on Your Online Competition and Acheive a High Page Rank

My Grandfather ran a small Grocery Store and when you... Read More

Google?s Siren Call ? Is It Crashing Your Search Engine Marketing?

It's difficult to dispute the rational behind the rant since... Read More

What is Google Pagerank?

PageRank is one of the factors that Google uses to... Read More

How Search Engines Work

Before anyone can start optimizing a web site, you must... Read More

Are You Losing The Battle For Search Engine Traffic?

Search engine traffic should be a priority for any online... Read More

10 Basic Rules for Where to Place Your Keywords

First of all, Google and most other search engines do... Read More

Tips On Optomizing Your Website For Search Engines

I wish to give a few little tips, about optimizing.... Read More

Feed Those Hungry WIIFM Monsters, Get Them To Multiply

Everyone packs their website with keywords in order to feed... Read More

Its All in the Title

Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. You may... Read More

The Search Engine Showdown

If you're anything like me, you have a favourite search... Read More

How to Prevent Duplicate Content with Effective Use of the Robots.txt and Robots Meta Tag

Duplicate content is one of the problems that we regularly... Read More

Yahoo Listing Still Worth It?

In October 2002, the Yahoo! portal changed the way it... Read More

How to Improve Your Search Engine Rankings

When people think of search engine optimization, they immediately think... Read More

How To Really SEO Your Site

Search engine optimization is one of most popular online marketing... Read More

The Search Engine Optimization Game Is Getting Tricky

For more than 4 years now I have been modifying... Read More

Screwed: Is this an inevitability in the SEO World?

By about 2pm everyday, each of my team members has... Read More

Search Engine Optimization - Free Tips and Help - Part One - The Title Tag

Search Engine Optimization is a widely misunderstood industry. Many webmasters,... Read More

Going To Market: Keywords and Backlinks, Part 1

As I waded into the 'Make Money Online' waters on... Read More

SEO: When Being Optimized Can Hurt

It's a marketing dream come true: A potential customer, looking... Read More

Guide to Getting Linked

Getting links from other websites pointing to your site can... Read More

Three Search Engine Ranking Gold Tips

Getting a high ranking in the search engines is something... Read More