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I had a conversion with someone this afternoon who suggested we should not rely on google in order to sell our servies/products. What makes me MAD is that people jump on the bandwagon and say that people should find alternative ways of advertising
My answer to people that make this type of comment is that the know nothing about e-commerce. There are businesses that would probably fold immediately if search engine traffic tried up whereas some businesses can live with or without search engine traffic, i.e. Banks will still exist whether google survives or dies. I would like your opinions on this issue
The things that would happend if SE came to disapear, is that it would be harder to do 'fast and easy' business with people across the globe.
But there's still the old marketing ways: specialised literature, press, cold calling words of mouth (very important) etc... one shouldn't have his whole business future relying only on SE and SERP.
I believe that SE is just another way to market your company ant to get people to know you and your products -definitly not the only one.
Leo
OK!
Free search engine listings are insignificant as a part of e-commerce. They used to be. But that was when e-commerce and search engines were immature and developing. That time has now passed.
The cold hard truth is that regardless that many sites are absolutely dependent on free search engine traffic does not change the fact that they are doomed if they are. Slowly and surely serious commercial plays are abandoning the spammed out commercial qury sets in the main index and are migrating from the main listings to Adwords, which is more likely to attract the motivated-to-buy prospect. Others will follow.
I would like your opinions on this issue.
Being in business involves taking calculated risks in all areas of your operations.
As a businessman, you are entitled to take a calculated risk that for the time being you think you _can_ rely on Google in order to sell your products and services.
That risk could well pay off big time for you, by saving thousands on alternative advertising costs that your competitors may be making because that have chosen not to take that risk.
But as a businessman, you should be continually assessing this risk, and as soon as you feel that you cannot trust Goole to be an integral component of your business goals then you must look at alternatives. And in good time.
Free Google and Yahoo listings consistently outperform any kind of paid-for schemes (ppc and affiliate schemes) on my sites.
Also as a potential customer, I click on the main listings a lot more than the adwords (I have no prejudice against them, but the search results are usually more relevant).
The fact is there are many Internet business that could not compete or simply are not viable outside of the virtual arena, therefore it should not be frowned upon or dismissed but simply taken for what it is, warts and all.
a webmaster should look at FREE traffic as a pure bonus, nothing else.
times they are changing, and $$$ talks, simple...
Shak
as the "free" effective space becomes smaller, and more and more valuable competition for it likely goes up and becomes much more intense. those the rely on free listing rankings for their enterprise, or as an SEO, or likely to feel the heat more and more as time goes on.
clearly, niche quality indices with the cost/benefit ratio there to justify the costs of the advertising, will become ever more enticing and part of the puzzle to effective online advertising.
that free free listing might go the way of the dinosaur seems to be anybody's guess. however while effective affordable pay for placement becomes every more prevalent, plausible, and even necessary for webmasters, it also becomes harder and harder for the search engines to justify it economically at the same time, is a guess.
It used to be the case (before the internet) that business was done on the back of reputation and brand image. That was by word of mouth and advertising - basically the concept of getting your brand out there and in the public eye with a good reputation.
The internet has allowed us all to operate a business solely on a "keyword" concept. So, I sell widgets but my name and reputation are less important than my brand and reputation. If I'm top of the SERPS for "widgets" I can have customers from day one of getting there.
Whether or not it's a business model that will survive long term remains to be seen but, so far, it has.
We may end up going full circle though. Personally, I think if you have a good internet business, use it to establish a good "real world" brand image and name, just in case.
TJ
how people did before search engines and on a further step without internet?
Internet and SE's have changed our marketing instruments. In some businesses it became very easy to promote and sell products / servíces with low expenses.
It's comparable to other inventions in communication: navigation, newspapers, phone, fax, to name a few.
It was always risky to be based on just one medium.
Can't see any diffenence, so far.
But their function will continue to focus in on drawing users in for the quality of their 'Informational' or 'reference' listings - and from there to sell them off the side to the PPC and ads listings.
Search engines will continue to get better at making their main index an uncomfortable and uneconomical place for sites that are basically just ads or ads masquerading as fair dinkum "web sites". Free listings are no basis for a sustainable business.
And sullen, with respect, the question referred not to your sites and your individual behaviour but to all sites and searchers as a whole.
[edited by: chiyo at 7:58 pm (utc) on May 14, 2003]
The internet has allowed us all to operate a business solely on a "keyword" concept. So, I sell widgets but my name and reputation are less important than my brand and reputation.
Name and reputation are becoming more and more important, because the internet is stuffed with "keyword" concepts.
People want to know who's behind a site selling product x ...
And here's also one big advantage of free listing SE's: you can find that guy telling you about his experiences with product x
Every receptionist or office admin that I've spoken with tells me that they hit google before reaching for the Yellow Pages.
But, because people at work "should" be working and not reading or playing online, SE's are the only way to get in front of them.
Pre-2000 I know many local companies that based their business on the YP's. In the same token there will now be many companies that base their business on SE's. The key is that if you get dropped from the free listings you've got to pony up for the PPC...
Search engines will not go away. How else will anybody find anything in the sea of web sites.
Yes, you do other marketing approaches but the fact is searh engines are a very effective method of marketing.
I'm sure we'll see them change as the years go by, we may even end up paying per URL to get a commercial site listed on Google like some of the others.
We all will adapt and do what it takes to get listed on what ever happens to be the flavor of the hour.
The Internet unleased a very powerful tool that we are just now understanding how to effectivly use, and one thing is certain, it will change so we will have to change with it if we want to survive.
Sure some major companies might not need to go on search engines, but they still do need to....
Existing customers might bypass search engines, but where are new customers who dont know there brand and products, that is the point of the search engines, without search engines new customers would be hard to get it.
That is why search engines are so important, link exchange usually has same traffic base, while search engines more likely to have new ppl to the net.
Those new people are the ones you , me and all other organisations out there want. People are getting more bored with existing products and will continually look to the internet.
Im sure if debit cards with visa facility were available to most consumers, im sure sales would increase by 10 times, but thats another story.
Search engines = sales , i dont really think big companies care about the internet anymore anyways, besides online banking, porn, gambling with ebay and amazon will more likely rule the internet.
it's not as if it's free either. say you own a business. you can promote your service/product in many different ways. you can get a billboard on a major interstate, buy a superbowl tv ad, advertise in some trade journals, whatever.
You can also advertise by creating business relationships with others and cross-marketing your product. Those can be traditional "free" advertising...barter-like.
much like a link exchange. "free" listings are not free...they are work, it's trite - but time is money. I think it's just pick the battles you want to take part in. there are always going to be ways to create free visitors to your site and it's up to you to convert from there.
However, once I have people coming to my site I then use my site to generate more business and thats where the real returns come in. It's always cheaper to get repeat business than it is to generate new business so that's where my focus is.
A few techniques I use to lessen my reliance on search engines and on PPC programmes:
- the e-newsletter. Once people have come once then I encourage them to sign up for this and then send them a relevant newsletter every so often. Not a load of junk that is just advertising, else they unsubscribe in a heart beat. I also ask them to send it on to others.
- the word of mouth (email growth). Any site that does not have "email a friend" etc is leaving money on the table.
- constant innovation. generates a buzz.
So in short a business that is RELIANT in google I would see as bad. However, using the service while it is there is a cost effective and proven method of at least jump starting and growing your business.
What a good businees should be doing to ensure stability is to work on their repeat traffic. This is once again all about content. Newsletters are a great way to remind your users that you are there on a regular basis. Give them special deals, and they will usually toss in a few extras into their orders.
And if you depend on free listings you'll have to live with the risk of loosing a lot.
With every new site i create, i'm happy that my main income isn't based only on free se listings for these sites. Without my ole shool marketing (a lot of print advertising) i'd be condemned to die earlier. I don't want to die earlier than necessary. Allthough i would loose all my nerves if my sites would disappear from search engine results, it wouldn't hurt me much (max 10% lost business).
Name and reputation are becoming more and more important, because the internet is stuffed with "keyword" concepts.
I totally agree - and quite right too. I think we'll start to see some changes over the next few years.
At the moment though, I still see business at the top of the SERPS with absolutely no brand image other than their domain name.
TJ
But, when you've tasted the "free" traffic from SEO (and I use the word "free" loosely since it costs us a ton of time and money to optimize) it's hard to watch it vanish as it is threatening to do.
Yes, you could return to the "olden days" before you were placing high and spend big bucks on PPC, but who wants to go backwards?
The argument that 'SEO is a lousy way to build your business' continues to annoy me as well.
It's like old timers shaking their heads at these new-fangled machines called computers..."why back in my day, we TYPED things and made carbon copies"
Ask yourself:
COULD you make it without your computer?
Of course you COULD! You could go back to the IBM Selectric like the days of old....
but who would WANT to?
Once you've tasted the "FREE" traffic that comes as a result of following the advice here on WW, it's equally distasteful to even THINK about going back to the old days (of last year) when we did PPC only!
that's only if a company is adept and forward thinking enough to evolve when there is a better way to advertise on the internet.
i'm part of a business where we rely on new leads for our revenue, not repeat leads. we do some traditional advertising, but search engines by far comprise the majority of our eventual customers.
i do agree it's not for the faint of heart...
Consumers looking for productA will get in the habit of typing productA.com in the address line of their browser first to see if someone has gone to the trouble of setting up a dedicated Search Engine or at least a dedicated website about productA. I know I have quite a number of times. C'mon admit it, you have too when looking for a specific product's website. Same with TopicB, or EventC, or NameD.
Call me a dreamer, but I think at some point the Googles and Yahoos of the future, if they are in fact even still needed, will simply index these "upper level" vertical SEs based on high level topics and leave the finer levels of indexing or organizing a specific product or topic to them. Actually eventually I see them as more of a heirarchical DMOZ type category based than necessarily full search. Thus you end up with a heirarchy of Google pointing to vertical SEs (pointing to maybe more specific SEs) pointing to individual product or producer sites. Ultimately EVERY link or association will bear a price. A final producer may need to be linked through more than one or many such SEs as appropriate for his product.
Therefore (internet) business success in the future means, be an upper level SE. Buy the most common worded, domain names you can afford (ones that people would think first of typing in), now and set up your own SE. You can make money either by charging others to be included on your list (like most of the SEs do now) or charge sales commissions to producers to promote their product or if you ARE a producer stock and sell them yourself at the lowest possible price, or all of the above.
I predicted in 1998 that middlemen like real estate agents, travel agents and car dealers will become extinct(okay maybe car dealers will devolve into small testdrive showrooms with internet ordering kiosks) as soon as everyone gets used to using the internet. Likewise (non-value-added) resellers of products will probably one day become obsolete as I think it is just a matter of time before producers realize they can sell direct to the consumer and make more money, so the number of websites to index will be far fewer to link and index.
Part of my current business involves the travel industry and we have already seen this buying migration, of the consumer turning from brokers to the internet, very significantly in this area particularly. Fewer people are buying vacation packages from agents like they used to. Consumers are carefully searching and comparing prices on each aspect, hotel, air fare, etc. and the money is going more and more DIRECTLY to the absolute lowest price, which usually ends up being the original provider/producer (airline, hotel), rather than a local agent or reseller, especially in these depression-like times. Tangibles will be going the same way with gas prices going up and things like SARS becoming a concern to keep people home more. The only things that won't will be those too cheap to manufacture locally and too heavy to be worthwhile to ship (bricks, food staples like flour, gasoline).
Not Likely you say? I remember some e-mail discussions I had in 1996 with a number of some of the most famous technology and internet writers and "experts" of the time and I insisted that most search engines would never stay free and fair due to the greed aspect and the prospect of being able to actually CHARGE for preferred (closer to the top) listings and advertisements. They ALL dismissed me and insisted it could NEVER, EVER possibly happen, one quote I got was: "they'd be immediately driven out of business by the users [i.e. lack of users] if they did that"...
Does anyone else remember the uproar when Yahoo was the first search engine to start displaying banner ads - and how quickly it died down? I understand Overture is making tons of money these days. How long until all the others jump in and, like Chiyo said above, make it a less comfortable place?
Mike
What a good business should be doing to ensure stability is to work on their repeat traffic.
