SEO Isn’t the Secret Sauce

Three Reasons Why SEO Isn’t the Secret Sauce to Marketing Your Local Business Online

The big obsession for businesses on the Internet today, including local ones, is for their Web site to show up on the first page of search engines when prospects are searching for a product or service they offer. This requires Search Engine Optimization, or SEO.

Even though there is no shortage of Web companies offering SEO, there are very few companies that know how to make it work for local businesses. And because of the constantly changing dynamics of the Internet, and our friends at Google, I will show you three main reasons why traditional SEO isn’t the secret sauce to online marketing success because the methods simply don’t work any more for local businesses.

But first, it’s important to understand the purpose of SEO.

The Purpose of Search Engine Optimization

According to Google, 97% of consumers search for local businesses online. Basically, the object of the game is to be listed in the highest position possible on a Search Engine Results Page (SERP). And for purposes of this example, we’ll use Google, since, at the time of this recording, it’s the #1 search engine.

Reason #1 – Google Places Takes Precedence. Google Places beats out your traditionally optimized Web site. Google Places is a FREE platform that gives a small page to every business they find, even if you didn’t directly sign up for it. If you have business phone number that’s listed, more than likely, you have a Google Places page. (Parenthetically I want to note that at the time this video was recorded Google Places is currently in transition to be called Google+ local.)

When your prospects search Google for a product or service within their local area, Google now returns between one and seven local business listings from Google Places, which are typically listed ABOVE what’s called the ORGANIC listings, or those businesses are there as a result of traditional SEO.

Google Places listings can easily be identified by a maps marker, which is right beside the business listing.

So you must understand that the businesses that are listed in the search results from Google Places did not necessarily HAVE to use the same keyword phrases as those businesses that were listed beneath them in order to end up on the first page. This means it’s now critical for your Google Places page to be optimized, along with your Web site. And since the rules of optimization are different for Google Places pages than they are for Web sites, many SEO companies don’t optimize the Google Places page because they just don’t know how.

Reason #2 – Highly Optimized YouTube Videos Beat SERP. Incidentally YouTube, which is owned by Google, is now the Internet’s SECOND LARGEST search engine. And although users typically don’t search for local businesses on YouTube, since Google owns YouTube, they obviously have a financial incentive to promote YouTube and the videos that are listed there. So, if there’s a video on YouTube which has been highly optimized for a keyword phrase, it’s highly likely for that video to be listed above those business listings that appear on page one. And with a video thumbnail, listed right beside a listing, your prospects are naturally attracted to video, and they tend to click on that listing FIRST. The YouTube video is usually only listed there if it is highly optimized, which does take a lot of work, but can certainly be done because we do it for our clients.

Reason #3 – You Still Have a Marketing Problem. This point is actually the most poignant and the most profound. Consider this: Even if you do end up on page one of a search engine, you have as many as 25 other businesses around you—when you consider Google Places, YouTube video listings, organic search listings, and the pay-per-click ads that appear at the top and sides of each page. As a matter of fact, Google is almost equivalent to an online version of the Yellow Pages. But the point here is even if you do land page one of the search engine, you’re still not in the clear to get the business because of all the other businesses that are there also. And this is a problem that no other SEO company is going to fix for you.

When a prospect clicks on your link, and the links of others, if you don’t demonstrate quantifiable value or superiority, the prospect will naturally assume you and your competitors are basically the same. And they’ll pick up the phone, call around with the same leading question: How much do you charge? This forces you, the business owner, to enter the ring and be judged the winner based on price. As far as Omni Marketing is concerned, that’s NOT a good situation. But it’s a situation that the majority of businesses are dealing with, and no one knows how to fix it…except us!

Omni Marketing Has the Secret Sauce

Here’s what we know for sure…98% of the marketing and advertising efforts of businesses, including yours, suffer from the same 3 problems REGARDLESS OF THE INDUSTRY: NO DIFFERENTIATION, NO CONNECTION WITH BUYERS, and NO MEASURABLE MARKETING STRATEGIES AND TACTICS. You can get more details on these three problems by downloading our FREE report, Most Marketing Sucks: 3 Ways to Ensure Yours Doesn’t.

And these are the three problems Omni Marketing will help you FIX. When you fix these three problems, you’ll open the floodgates to profits! And as icing on the cake, when you use fix two of the three problems…differentiation and connection with the buyer…you’ll completely ELIMINATE the need to compete for business based on PRICE. As a matter of fact, your marketing will be so effective that your prospects will say, “I’d have to be COMPLETELY NUTS to do business with anyone else…regardless of the cost!”

I’ll give you tip: Call up as many SEO companies as you’d like. Evaluate their quotes and their guarantees. Once they guarantee your site will land on the first page of Google, follow up with this powerful question: How can you assure me that prospects will choose my business instead of the other businesses that are also on page one? 

Here’s the answer: They can’t. And they can’t because it’s your CONTENT, or your STRATEGIC MESSAGE, that will. And Omni Marketing Consultants is the only company in the Chicagoland area that not only does effective SEO, but most importantly, focuses on your strategic marketing messages.

Our SEO and message creation strategies are so powerful, that we believe it’s ethical to ONLY provide these services for ONE business in any local market. So you definitely want to contact us before your competitor does. Call us right now at 888.639.5680. We’re looking forward to helping your business grow.