This week, I've authored several posts on appealing to those folks who provide natural links and those who link due to successful viral marketing campaigns (linkbait):
- The Secret to Ranking at the Search Engines (on why appealing to link-savvy demographics is important)
- Creating Content that Appeals to a Link-Savvy Audience (on topic foci that can draw in links)
- Making a Site Link Friendly (on how to improve a site's chances of earning inbound links)
For my next piece in this segment, I want to emphasize and explain why these tactics are universally applicable and explore some ways to entice natural links. While many marketers feel like they're left out of the linkbait game because of the content focus of their sites, I'd posit that even the most boring, unsexy sites can both appeal to linkerati and create great viral content.
Let me walk you through the process of identifying linkerati in the most link and web-unsavvy market possible. That's right... I want you to imagine yourself as the owner of a new Seattle catering company, let's call you Sally Skibinski's Source of Sustenance (catchy, eh?) or SSSoS.
SSSos is launching a new website to help promote their catering business. As a reader of SEOmoz, you've done your keyword research (yes, I'm shamelessly linking to the paid guide), and you know that the most popular, relevant phrase that you need to rank for is (surprise, surprise) - Seattle Catering. Taking a peek at the SERPs, things don't look promising:
The competition is stiff and the first dozen links are direct competitors - you'll have a tough time getting a link out of any of them (make no mistake, people, catering is a cutthroat business in the Emerald City). But, despite their success, the top ranking sites have made one, fatal mistake - they didn't read SEOmoz (I've always wanted to write that).
So how do you do it? How do you build a site that crushes the competition - one that ensures your utter dominance in the field of baking cakes and shlepping latkes? Simple. You build not only for your customers, but for the linkerati, too.
Step I: Know Your Linkerati
Ask yourself - who are the visitors to a regional catering website most likely to provide a link?
- Restaurant & catering critics working for local media publications
- Local directory creators like Yelp, Citysearch, YellowPages, NWSource, Seattle Weekly, etc.
- Foodies with blogs
- Local message board participants at places like Craigslist, Seattle.About.com, TheStranger.com forums, etc.
- Recipe seekers who tag and share content through social media sites
- Businesses that employ your catering services in a partnership (or just on a regular basis)
Step II: Broaden Your Reach
Just because the catering industry is somewhat boring on the web doesn't mean you have to be - broaden your horizons and imagine some of the most relevant areas your content could expand.
- Recipes
- Food photography
- Food presentation how-to's
- Customer service tips
- Small business & startup tips
- Ingredient testing and comparisons
- Bulk food shopping
Step III: Brainstorm Content Ideas
With your audience in mind and an expanded sphere from which to operate, get to work creating ideas for specific content pieces that your site can support.
- AJAX-driven catering menu creator that provides pricing and photos
- Photography of the incredible meals you can provide, including recipes for how to make at home (in small quantities) and ingredient lists with sourcing (where you get each of your products)
- Directory of the best places in the city to buy food - which farmers provide the best produce during each season, where to buy in bulk, what fishmonger to deal with, which butcher, etc.
- Signature dishes presented in an America's Test Kitchen walkthrough style of how you tested and refined the recipe until it was absolutely perfect
- List of tips for sharpening the presentation of home-made dishes to look like professional quality preparation
- Videos on food prep, recipes, presentation, catering menus you've built
- Interviews with famous chefs around town about their own work
Step IV: Create a Site Architecture that Allows for Inclusion of Your Content
A standard 5-page catering site like most of those atop the current SERPs won't suffice. You'll want a blog, a section for video tutorials, special articles, a directory of vendors, and a recipes collection along with the usual list of services, photography, and testimonials.
Step V: Build a Phenomenal Site
Hire a designer who can make your site look like something that belongs on CSSRemix, WebCreme, or CSSBeauty. Implement your robust site architecture with easy-to-use navigation and clear presentation of content. Read Steve Krug's book and follow his tips religiously. Obey the rules of standard search-friendliness with clean URLs, good title tags, well written meta descriptions, and properly targeted content pages.
Step VI: Launch & Promote
When you launch, you should be submitting to those design portals, writing posts about your new site on NWSource and TheStranger.com forums seeking input, connecting with local food bloggers (they have their own get-togethers, for goodness sake), requesting that all the businesses who regularly use your services link to you on their sites and promoting your site to every fan of every bite at every meal you serve - "I'm so glad you like it - the recipe's on our website - sssos.com."
If you can do it for a subject as dry, un-techy and digg-ignorant as catering, you can do it with anything. Don't let your hangups about who the linkerati are or how linkbait works for a site like SEOmoz or Drivl stop you from getting creative, getting inspired, and following this path to search success.
Although I agree with your expansion of the concept of linkerati wholeheartedly, you are also a web design and marketing company.
How much would you charge for creating and marketing the site that you propose? And do you think that this fee would be within the budget of Sally, who has taken her savings, a remortgage on her apartment and some small investment from family and friends in order to set up in business herself. (Sorry for hijacking your fictional character.)
Yes, your points are correct. Yes, they would work. Yes, Sally could do a lite version of them at a cheaper level, and that may work appropriately for her.
But if you are going to write something aimed at SMEs, then shouldn't it be more grounded in the reality of budgets and client constraints (like time, ability and motivation) than the bells and whistles of the new marketing technology.
Whether this is within reach or not its the only way this catering business could crack the top 3 on Google.
If its out of reach then by all means the owner could create a standard 5 page site for a few hundred dollars but it would never ever reach the front page.
Which is why SEO cannot be viewed as the be all and end all to online marketing. PPC, Co-reg, emails, lists... They all need to be used in conjunction with each other for REALLY effective marketing.
Sally could find an investor who could help her foot the bill for everything that Rand is talking about. Also, I doubt, in fact, that this would cost more than the kitchen equipment needed to set up a professional catering service - and she would make it back easily with the extra publicity and customer satsifcation that this would create. In other words, I think this is grounded in reality - if Sally is willing to take the time and effort to make it her reality.
Nonetheless, given that you bill yourself as the Devils Advocate, I think you did well to raise the point. It's not enough to know what to do, it's crucial to know how to make it a reality. But that's true for any industry - to be successful you have to learn how to make things happen.
Absolutely, SEMbasics, she could indeed. And we, knowing what we know, are 100% convinced that it would be a worthwhile investment.
But part of the disconnect in dealing with real-life customers who are not web-savvy is convincing them that this is the case.
It is all very well dealing with Web 2.0 clients with names like Bungo or Flittr because they tend to have funds and the awareness to throw them around (although they may tend to lack the marketing and commercial skills of the more traditional business).
Dealing with a start-up business as Rand described you are often going to be confronted with:
a) convincing them that a substantial part of their budget should be devoted to marketing
b) convincing them that that budget should be devoted to internet marketing, when few of people that they perceive as their rivals are doing so (in other words, Joe's Catering round the corner and not whoever is #1 in Google)
and c) the following questions
And dealing with that, just as much as skill in ranking a site, is part of being capable in small business SEM.
These are great questions that i deal with daily when working with various business owners, small and large.
The clients (prospects) want anwsers before they take action to devote budget to a theoritical camapign, as to them, this allocation of budget has often been expressed as the difference between "eating steak for dinner or not eating at all!"
Stever, I absolutely agree that this can be a challenge selling in or even explaining. I've certainly run into it myself which prompted my writing Drive More Business While Decreasing Your Advertising Costs because I knew I needed to bridge the gap between something clients knew and understood, or thought they understood, with this new-fangled web stuff.
We need to remember that some education will be necessary in almost all client situations, after all, we're talking about an industry that is really a little over a decade old.
If they don't "get" this, then I'd really need them to explain to me how they were going to market. My fear would be that they are really limiting their success potential. We all hope that word-of-mouth will be all we'll ever need, but it rarely is. Even through word of mouth, those people will probably say "thanks, wow, they sound really great, what's their website?"
This is a primary area for the education to kick in...
Such as letting them know how pervasive the web is...
and that search is where most people start...
and the importance of being in prime position...
and the value of being on top...
and that most of the websites in the world are not ecommerce related.
I'm participating in Microsoft's online Small Business Summit this week and watching a seminar on adCenter... they just threw out some data that the average cost of direct mail campaign per lead is just under $10, yellow pages over $1, search less than $.30 (I will assume they are specifically talking about PPC here).
But what I think really helps is their own experience, which is why I'd ask Sally when was the last time she used the yellow pages, when was the last time that she heard a radio commercial or TV ad that she acted on, and when was the last time she searched for something and went to a website that she found and acted either in setting a bookmark, signing up for a list, sending an email, or literally buying if it was an ecommerce site.
I'm not saying it is an easy process... some people will get it, some won't. But I can tell you that I have a client who is in a traditional industry, the type that it isn't just a matter of having a yellow pages ad, but great position and bigger ads, and being in every yellow pages directory in your area.
I thought he was going to scale down his ads (costs were through the roof with so many books and large ads), but found out about 6 months or more ago, he didn't just scale down, he is completely out of them. Along with repeat business and referrals, his website is the primary driver for new business... and his business has not dropped off, but he is about as busy as he has ever been.
I think having stories like that to share and helping to educate clients is a big key.
identity, I agree with you, and my point was not that it was an impossible situation, but that this is a vital part of the job if one is working with SMEs.
Especially if they are starting a new business, many owners feel intimidated by "the internet" and by the stories they may have heard or read about designers/marketers (many of them, I will say, which are extraordinarily justified).
Add to that the fact that they have tunnel vision on production (whatever form the production might take) and regrettably little time for strategy.
The example of your client is a great one, and, to be honest, what I tend to do with new clients who are hesitant about "things web" is to give them a little taste of success by taking them on "baby steps". So I might well start out with a small project for their site which might not be so time- or money-intensive, but will be able to show results in traffic and conversions later.
Once you have one small success, they are happier (and hopefully more able!) to take the next step.
I'm with you and you do bring up valid points.
And yes, unfortunately, most horror stories do have at least some basis in reality... if for no other reason, because the designer/marketer didn't do a good job of educating and explaining things to their client.
I think you've found a great way to wade them with little investment/risk on your or their part while also helping to get them excited in an understanding the value.
stever the one small success at a time is the approach I've been taking with my clients as well. In some cases it's worked well and in other not so much. I still think it's the right approach though for many small business owners.
Often then case isn't that they are unwilling to spend, but that they are hestitant to spend a lot up front while being unsure of the results. I think this is especially true given there are unfortunately some horror stories of people paying a lot for nothing in return.
One potential benefit of this approach is that you can build a very loyal client and over the lifetime of the relationship you can earn much more than it might have seemed in the first few months.
Two points:
1) Rand's post is about whether or not it is possible for a small, local company to create compelling content and that I think he showed is quite possible. We can't even begin to worry about whether or not Sally will go for the plan if we don't first have a plan that WE believe in. The second that we know what's possible then we can start working on the education necessary to help clients actualize that possibility. That is what Rand's post is about. Rand has aptly shown that there is link bait possibilities in markets that we might have written off.
2) Sally may or may not go for the program. But there is also Jon and Susan and Barbara, etc. One of them may be saavy enough to realize the importance of marketing. You can lead a horse to water... In the real world there are all sorts of people who don't realize fully what it takes to succeed in business. It'd be nice if we could help those people, but that's not always possible. Business is a risk, and there are multiple areas of risk. At least now Rand has shown that this is a risk worth taking.
All the best,
Moshe
3:1
1 for the investor
1 maintain current financial gain
1 to generate income growth
Thats a 200% increase in business over the investment needed, and that does not even count interest or a % of the business.
Still not practical for many small businesses.
If the SEO working with Sally really is committed to helping her catering company reach the top three results, they would have to teach Sally to supplement their work with her own part time work. For companies that can't afford the continuous SEO maintenance services, it is important for them to take initiative and learn what they can do.
Sally might have the advantage... while she is new in the biz she might have the time to write all of these recipes and take all of those photos.. all investment for the future.
It takes ambition to succeed in any business.
I think you said it best - business takes ambition. Maybe Sally should partner with some people who are saavy in search marketing - maybe her husband or children have the skills necessary to pull this off. To succeed in business you need to be creative, think out of the box - make it happen. The real issue is whether or not Sally responds to this by asking - How am I going to make this happen or by stating It will never happen. Both are self-fulfilling prophecies.
I think your points are valid, but I think this also illustrates one of the breakdowns in search marketing.
Unlike nearly any other medium, anything could be had on the web, and at a much broader scale in terms of budget and in the ability for do-it-yourself.
But there are also limits to what can be achieved. In that way, online is no different than the other mediums. You can't expect to get the best "location" in town that provides the most visibility and the best traffic for the least investment.
From an advertising perspective, it would be hard to say that any other medium could deliver as targeted an audience as online for the budget.
But a site is also more than just advertising, it is an extension of the business, able to provide sales, marketing, customer service, PR, etc.
I think one of the biggest challenges is that a web presence is too often and after thought, or secondary in the plans... okay we've got our business all setup and ready, oh ya, we should probably get a website as well, however we didn't really budget for it so we'll have to work with whatever is left over.
I can't speak for SEOmoz, but realistically, I don't know that Sally is their ideal client. Sally probably won't have the budget for an SEOmoz caliber company, but that doesn't mean that she couldn't find a company that meets her business needs and budget.
And unlike other mediums, she may be able to take on some of the tasks working with her web presence firm to help reduce the costs.
That's a really good analogy for diffusing the "price shock" some business owenrs get when they hear the cost of a project. I think I will use it in my practice. Thanks, identity.
That's exactly why I've tried to draw the comparison to traditional advertising in the article on my site as well as in presenting to clients.
They generally understand or are at least somewhat familiar with newspaper, TV, outdoor, magazine, or radio advertising... pick one, any one, and some are familiar with more than one of those channels.
You are typically looking at several thousand dollars a month for any one of those channels, and in most cases, all of that value is gone immediately once the month is over.
Yes, a website may be a sizable investment, especially up front if you they are starting from scratch or starting over. SEO may also be a sizable investment up front. But depending on your market, either of these may be less expensive than these traditional channels initially, or at the very least, provide more long-term value and overall lower lifetime cost.
Talk to them in a language and in examples that they can understand and help them see the value. Most see it as expensive because they have no frame of reference and don't understand the value yet.
I agree and apparently so do the thumbs.
Rand, you should rename this post "Every Site that has a ton of money is LinkBait Worthy".
Money is not the key element.... an intense desire to share information on the topic - backed by genuine expertise and a willingness to work. That will beat money in a slam-dunk.
To illustrate my point I want you to consider the website that you are currently reading.
This is the reply I wanted to give all day, but couldn't think of how to say it. Thanks EGOL.
In reply to the first comment, and from a SMB owner and someone who is bootstrapping an internet retail site from scratch I have to disagree here. All of the above is very achievable by any company starting out. Yes, you may not be able to have the ajax menu creator (unless you have the skills already) but it does not negate having the content and functionality available in another form. I sat down with FreeMind and mapped out a 30 or so article based content section, but what's limited me in implementing it is just motivating myself to sit down and write, not the lack of potential content.
Website design does not have to be anything fanciful, but it can be appealing to the target customer. Worthy of submitting to a CSS site, maybe not, but depending on your bartering capability it just might (Sally offers some sample dishes to a hungry web designer????).
Even if Sally was not on the internet, she still would have to be looking at a marketing plan, and how she was going to generate business. Even in the B&M world it's more than build-it and they (the customers) will come.
Is doing all of the above easier with money, absolutely, and I now can see how a company like Amazon can go years without generating a profit. However, plan and it is all easily achievable. The best advice I can offer the SEO/M that is approaching a small business owner is to recognize that it may take time for the Sally's of this world to fully utilize your services. Don't make the big-bang offer up front, but approach them honestly and in the gist of building a 'partnership' with them, and you may find you have a long-term fruitful relationship (for both parties).
Isn't that an example of redundancy? ;)
FreeMind is great! I use it for sitemap drafts for future clients and existing projects all the time.
In the last week I've been approached by three small businesses each with varying levels of financial resources and I found myself looking for how I could help each one now for an amount that would fit with their budget instead of trying to pitch everything I could do all at once.
I think you're exactly right that the Sally's of the world may take some time before fully utilizing all your services and the way to get to that point is to offer them a series of smaller successes that will in time lead to them taking advantage of more of your services.
The one issue that sometimes comes with this though is Sally's expectations, Part of the challenge of offering small successes is making sure your client understands what is a realistic expectation given the work being done.
So while in the beginning you may want to provide services that aren't all inclusive it can still be good to let your client know there is more you can do and you will be ready to do those things anytime they are ready. Help them understand the big picture while offering to work on the little pictures within one at a time.
Ok, first off, I'm writing from Ireland so my views may not translate well to the US market. My experience comes from the fact that my family have been involved in catering for about 40 years here in Ireland. I've been involved in SEO since 2002.
I have to say that while the strategy is absolutely without reporach, it simply is not realistic for most catering companies to implement. By it's nature the catering inductry is fragmented with a large number of small operators. The budget and time they can throw at an on-line strategy is generally going to be limited.
Any ideas of bringing in outside investors is fanciful. Just look at the churn rate of businesses in the industry. Unless you are very established and have very decent financials I dont see anyone coming in to prop you up to implement an online strategy.
I think it would be worth looking at the resource requirements of Rand's strategy to see the costs involved, and then work out whether the return would justfy the outlay.
As I said my family have been involved in that industry for many years. It's a reputation-based indutry and the greatest marketing platform is simple word-of-mouth.
While search marketing can be a good lead generator, it simply cant compete with word-of-mouth referrals. Perhaps when SERPs start to include more recommendation type info this will change...
Great strategy, wrong industry I think.
This has been a great series, Rand, especially for someone like me who tends to work with smaller clients. I've definitely seen possibilities for link-building in niche industries, but it takes time and effort. I don't think it necessarilly requires cutting-edge design or Web 2.0 whiz-bang stuff (and I agree with others on the cost/ROI); I find that the best material comes from leveraging my clients' own domain knowledge. They know their industry, and I use that.
One thing that I didn't see come up in the discussions is also that niche industries generally have less online competition. Sure, it sounds nice to be doing something high-tech that appeals to the Digg crowd, but that also means you're in a field of thousands of companies. A small, local caterer doesn't need to hit the top of Digg or place on Google under "food", but some solid, link-worthy content could get them in the top 10 under something like "Chicago caterers".
Wow. Pessimists unite! Judging from the comments Sally needs AOL's marketing budget, Wal Mart's manpower and the ambition of a Stanford garage venture to create her link friendly site.
Rand wrote this post as advice for marketers with 'unsexy' content appeal yet from the comments most of us are trying to place ourselves into Sally's entrepreneurial shoes, convincing themselves that she won't have enough time or money.
So here's a real world example: we have a website in an undesirable industry that had zero marketing dollars for +18 months that grew into half a million monthly users through content & community. It now dominates a ridiculous amount of long tail SERP results. On the flipside, we spent a 6-digit sum promoting a new niche website without gaining visitor traction or link buzz in any way, shape or form.
What I'm trying to get across is the creation of a successful (link-worthy) site depends not on how much time and money you have but what you know and who you know. Decide what you want, do what you can, outsource what you can't and make sensible ROI assumptions.
The interwebz never gave anyone the keys to the kingdom but damn if there aren't thousands of keymakers out there...
No, and no.
Most of the posts I read, and I have done participants the courtesy of reading what they wrote, have actually not been pessimistic at all but have tried to relate Rand's post with its genuinely good ideas to real-life experience that they have had with small business start-ups.
Rand gave a "dream menu" of what you as an SME could do if you had a lot of time, a lot of money and already knew a) the relative importance of online marketing and b) what you were doing when you were doing it.
Now, if anyone wants to assume any of those as a given, or posit SEMbasics' rich aunt, then that's fine, and we'd all be happy with clients like that.
But I think a lot of the comments have split themselves into two ideas:
1) how to ease unknowledgeable SMEs into online marketing in the first place, and convince them of the value proposition during the pressure start-up time, and
2) what you refer to in your post below as the "opportunity cost" - how it is often necessary and possible to tailor those dream menus to a start-up's conflicts of time. money and motivation
I really don't see how that comes across as pessimistic or assuming that online marketing won't work for some businesses.
Maybe 'pessimists unite' was a little harsh (in the era of linkbait people tend to forget the ol' fashioned flamebait) but I really do believe that Rand's suggestions can be executed by most SMEs with a minimal investment of time & money. Judging from your two points on education & opportunity cost I think we both arrived at the same destination just via slightly different paths.
In any case, I think that Rand has a good future topic - "How-to build a linkworthy site on a budget".
An absolutely fascinating article and a great many thoughtful responses.
I've both worked with many caterers, know caterers, and been witness to all their operations in a variety of business functions, including having worked with the principals of a major caterer on big business decisions that demand a lot of time. In fact I'll post twice after looking at some catering sites. (so I like great food....so shoot me!)
Also I have a business, somewhat like catering, in the sense that it doesn't grab the attention of the linkerati. I have enough of an appreciation for how well the web works for my site and aspects of it that grab the attention of the customer....that I truly value the ideas. In fact I have a hard copy of this article to pore over.
From a first glance, though, the full scope of this project "appears" to be a lot for the small and even the medium sized business owner. It is a lot to grasp for the non-web oriented business owner. That same principal, at any active business of this type is consumed with a ton of items to deal with on a daily basis...and at whichever part of the business they emphasize its consuming.
What would be very helpful, Rand, is to price out this idea. Price it in a range if necessary.
If my business is a start-up....I may not be able to afford it unless there is a lot of money behind my business.
If I'm an established business I've got to look into this expense vis a vis established expenses for advertising/marketing. What is this going to cost me versus the "typical 5 page" catering website.
Will it actually bring in business.....that I have to compete for...or will it bring me lots more links....higher rankings...and some extra business. Give us some figures to work with.
EGOL's comments are supurb....but still is the scope of this project beyond my capabilities and bank account. That is something I have to know. How does the scope of this project compare to the "five page web site" I might do that will compete in the market. And if I have the passion to be great...does that passion stretch to every other aspect of the business...including advertising and the web.
In a sense you are proposing the Exquisite best....amongst the world of the mediocre....and I have to know what its going to cost me...not only in terms of dollars but time investment.
Sometimes, there is a more mundane way to get to the same bottom line--lots more customers for--for a relatively simple site. In fact I've seen this work for sites in the catering "food chain".
Make your site THE resource for every complementary service around. If your a caterer....make your site a resource for hotels and venues where catering might take place, all the wedding planner, party givers, graduating celebrations, birthdays, and holiday celebrations within the area. Be a resource for every limo service, floral provider, etc etc etc. you can think of.
Many of the visitors searching for any of these services are going to need your services also. If they don't need them this time...they go back to you the next time. You are the resource with the most information for catering...and every associated service around.
Not as sexy or provocative...but this also works.
Now I'll pour over the ideas again...and visit some catering websites and report back.
Great provocative article, Rand.
Dave
I think you ask some very good questions here. I also particularly like your idea about creating a resource page for related industries. At the same time, it would be worthwhile to try and get a reciprocal (sp?) link. These are mutually beneficial links which can benefit all sites involved.
This will vary for everyone and every project.
Sally (or anyone) could also attempt to do some of this on her own. While this will be done and may be the only option for some, it is probably not the best answer. All business owners have to focus their energies on what they do best and what is directly related to their business, and in most cases, it probably makes more sense to bring in specialists for the other details.... web designer, SEO, accountant, lawyer, etc.
As an in between solution for those with either an interest or more time than money, it may be worth at least hiring an SEO as a consultant/educator. We all know how much information is online and how much time it takes to educate ourselves, let alone sort out what is no longer valid and what is right and wrong. The SEOmoz's beginners guide might be helpful, but for a business owner completely new to SEO, having someone to help cut through everything and provide some guidance would probably be worth it.
I still think the real challenge for search marketers, is education first, but long before we try to educate on good web design, SEO friendliness, title tags, links, and all the other things that we may take for granted, we need to educate business owners on the importance of making a search marketer part of their team, as early on as possible.
So when they are starting up their business and picking their team of advisors, they should start thinking about and looking for their search marketer as well. Then, when they are weighing all of their business needs and their budget, SEO and search needs can be planned accordingly with everything else.
identity, I agree with you about the challenge being client education.
With this in mind, I would be interested to know how many of the consultants here who are still looking for clients are members of their local chamber of commerce, or regional development corporation, or who have given a presentation at any group business meeting or conference?
Wise comment Identity. SEO is the new PR and job descriptions will need to be updated accordingly.
I think that a lot of the comments made here about the amount of work required for *rankings* are valid. Underestimated and not clearly expressed in this thread is the enormous *marketing* value of this work.
If Sally builds this site it will win her customers like crazy... because they will know that she is the best caterer around. That type of demand drives premium prices if she can deliver the goods.
So, the investment will pay back big time.
I think you brought up some good points in this post Rand.
I also agree with stever that this would be time consuming and costly for the small business.
Also, the other question that hasn't come up is whether Sally's target customers actively search for her services online?
The strategy you recommend is something that she could do over time, but as a fledgling startup, she may be better off opting to do some direct mailings and joint marketing partnerships that wouldn't really cost much upfront.
It seems the tone of some of the posts is that "this" is beyond the reach of most small business or that you can 't sell "this" to most clients.
"This" is just a collection of really good ideas. You don't have to do "this" like following a script. If you did just "this"
Ingredient testing and comparisons
OR "this"
Recipe seekers who tag and share content through social media sites
That is better and not very expensive and will likely put you ahead of others in the results ahead of you.
If you did "this"
Restaurant & catering critics working for local media publications
AND "this"
Food photography
That is a LOT better and if you were selling it, you could sell those two "thises" for more than just the one "this" above.
If you are selling a web marketing solution, then part of your job is to pre-qualify your prospect. If she can't afford the entire "this" which of course is optimal for you and the client, then what R ya gonna do, tell her to take her cheap crappy site that will NEVER get on top down the road? No, you're going to realize that doing even one of these things is a valuable service that will improve the visiblity, the traffic and the bottom line of this catering business and for your business, doing a little always pays better than doing nothing. Charge what is fair for the "this" your client can afford and everyone does better than they would have.
A little in such narrow a target is far, far better than accepting we can't afford "this". Just look at "this" as a series of little things that all make it better and now it looks like every client can't afford not to do some of "this" at least.
There are two things I like about this post.
1) My brother and I have been talking and thinking for a while now about how to create link friendly content (what you call content for the linkerati). One of my questions was is there a difference between creating content to attract links and creating content for one's site visitors. I think the answer now is definetly yes - and it's important to create one's site and content in order to meet both of their needs (for which you gave some excellent examples).
2) When you referenced Steve Krug's book, you refered to Steve's page and not to the Amazon page. That allows Steve to make more money (as you will see if you go to that page). You could have easily linked directly to Amazon with an affiliate link and made some money with it given the number of people who visit this blog and the loyalty of your readers (I know that I plan to buy this book now because you recommended it). Instead, though, you allow Steve to make more money off of his book. I think that's great. Indeed, I think that attitude is one of the things that has made SEOMoz so popular (that and the great content).
Keep it up!
Moshe
Another point I want to make is that I'm not sure why everyone assumes that Sally doesn't have any money. Maybe she's married to a rich Seatlle lawyer who is willing to invest in this. Maybe she comes from money and this has always been a dream of hers and she is willing to spend whatever it takes to make it happen. The point is that link baiting, which requires excitement, is possible even in a market that seems boring.
I actually had a similar conversation with my brother about a local rug cleaning company - what can they do to get links and (just as important) what kind of links do they want to get. I imagine that many of the ideas that Rand mentioned for cateroring can be applied to rug cleaning. Is it worth it? It all depends on how much money there is to be made in the industry. Are there big rug cleaning or catoring contracts available from big corporations and/or the governement? If so, then someone may see the value in being number one on Google and be willing to help foot the bill.
Good point.
That's why I think it is less about money and more about education. People will spend money on what they feel is important. Someone who has $100,000 may be just as hard to sell SEM to as someone who has $1,000 if they don't understand or see the value in SEM or a web presence.
I agree, but I'd add one small aspect - it's about education or awareness. Meaning, there are people who are already aware of the value of ranking well and understand that it takes time, effort, and expertise. Others don't yet realize what is involved, but are educable. Those are the two groups who can benefit from Rand's post. The third group, those who don't get it and aren't open to it will not benefit from Rand's post (as Stever pointed out). My only point is that there is no reason to assume that Sally comes from the "don't get and won't get it group" - she could easily come from the aware or educable group, in which case it's just a matter of her finding a way to make it happen.
All the best,
Moshe
Certainly, and I wasn't meaning to imply that Sally was in that group...
my mistake if it came off that way.
Really just pointing out another group entirely that you can run into that has nothing to do with how long they have been in business or whether they have money. Let's face it, there are still businesses that question whether they need a website at all.
True. And worse still, there are businesses who going only half-way with their websites. They pour enough money (and other resources) into them to get it up and running, but they don't pour enough money and resources into them to make them an asset to their business.
Btw, I was agreeing with you:) - I just wanted to expand upon what you said.
no worries.
You're right, and unfortunately, most people who put a little into, maybe create their own site even though they had not business, skills, or experience to be doing so, don't invest in promoting the site, etc.... always seem to walk away with the thought that, "Good thing I didn't put any more money into this than I did since it clearly doesn't work," rather than realizing, "You know, my site looks like crap and I didn't do anything to market it, maybe I should have invested more time/money/etc. in it than I did, and maybe that's why it didn't work."
I think this is a very intriguing post Rand, obviously from all the comments, I'm not the only one. I think there are a lot of sides to a new business that have to be covered. Rand pointed out some quick suggestions that could be used to boost online visibility for a fictious character and company, and since not all of these sides are covered, they seemed to be misconstrued as easy to achieve or do. Regardless of the type of business that Sally could start, there is more involved in starting a business and gaining customers/clients than just doing SEO/M for her site. Granted one person can start a business, it doesn't mean they would neccesarily have all the time and resources to do everything to promote their company. It is definitely a downfall to starting your own business.
It seems like Rand's point was given that you had the time, effort, ability and know how to do SEO for your own company, and you wanted to target the "Linkerati" of your industry, these were ways you could proceed. I personally didn't take it as the be all, end all to having a successful business online.
I should also add, knowledge is free too. Want to learn about seo? how to design and optimize a blog? How to write articles for social media marketing? All free. Knowledge is the easy part, using the knowledge and resources you have to get waht you want, that's hard. Executing extensive plans based off that knowledge, even harder.
Excellent points about knowledge and execution, Solomon.
I've just spent a fair bit of time over the last 24 hours getting some information together for improving one area of my skillset for the medium-term future - it involves physical work, hardware, software and a web application.
I'm pretty experienced on the physical stuff and the web application but knew nothing about the hardware and software side - yet I was amazed to find that there is reams of stuff out there, with nuggets of gold on different expert, government or university sites just waiting for people to put things together.
So the question at the end is, and here we come back in a circle to a general application to Sally's case, whether a business person is prepared to make the effort to find the knowledge and has the perseverance and motivation to execute and follow through with their plan.
Let's walk through a case study for a cheap, practical approach for Sally:
While we don't really know much about Sally & her company (what's the marketing budget? Does she have a marketing team? Does she or the marketing team have experience in online commerce?). we do however, have her motivation:
This is Sally's online objective. She wants to squash the online opposition like apple crumble (food metaphors, yum).
So let's assume she has read this very post by Rand (and bent the space time continuum in the process) and intends to follow the SEOmoz master plan.
Steps I - III: Brainstorm phase.
For all we know, the marketing team might consist of her mom & dad, the husband and in-laws at the kitchen table after a Sunday lunch but that should not stop Sally from grabbing a sheet of paper and scribbling whatever ideas come to mind:
This could easily be accomplished within a few sessions or even a few hours, at little to no monetary cost. Yes, you could hire some guru consultant or marketing agency to do the same, but who really knows the industry best? Besides, if she gets stuck, she can always consult the definitive collection of idea generation methods.
Step IV - V: Website Design
Armed with her content portfolio she does some research - she scopes out the local competition, websites from other cities & states & foreign caterers for inspiration. With a clearer idea of what the site might look like and a design budget in mind, she asks some website design agencies to pitch for the job - whether she gets a customized Wordpress blog or a full CMS/retail cart solution will depend on the size of her purse, but regardless of the design, she will own a site that accommodates content publishing.
Step VI: Marketing
Apart from traditional marketing through letter drops, newsletters, word-of-mouth, local tv/radio/print etc. Sally will also have to devote a portion of her marketing time & budget to online media - email subscribers, blog feed subscribers, community forums & blog, social networks & newsgroups and even PPC, anything to introduce the site to the linkerati.
In this case it might be helpful to create a matrix that plays off the opportunity cost of time vs. money for each marketing channel and then rank them in order of traffic (link) generation & difficulty of implementation.
It's a nice list of potential things that if you could implement. If you did them all, that would cost way to much, but any one of them could be done on a decent size budget.
Although one of the MAJOR problems I have with large SEO firms is they don't accurately account for the execution ROI and take into account their client's inadequacies. If you can't write, hiring a professional writer is expensive, data entry is expensive, a good graphic designer is expensive, you need to make a plan that could potentially work with the skill sets, time and money a client actually has.
All of Rand's examples above could be summarized with, make a killer website that offers some cool stuff and then market the hell of out. He goes on to give you an entire list of ideas (nice creativity by the way), but here is the silver bullet, the thing SEO's seem to gloss over. The ideas aren't important, there are a millions of them , spreading online like a virus. They are no longer the main contributor to a company's success online or off.
I could give you lists of them, look above, rand just gave EVERY Seattle caterer a huge list of a things they could do to improve their website / presence. So why aren't they going to jump at this chance or opportunity? Because they're stupid? No, because they're busy doing business and don't have the means to execute those plans effectively (or don't think they do with their current SEO / Web contacts). It's the execution that's the valuable part now and although many people talk about how to execute plans, it's apparent from their broken sites and blogs they like to talk about it then do it.
I respect seomoz and rand, not because of their industry history (so what), but because of what they've executed and what they continue to execute on this site among others. They don't seem to make very much money out of all those man hours and resources, but they execute large sites / marketing plans that could easily gross many times what they cost.
If I needed help with a gigantic web project that my company couldn't complete internally or if I was personally launching a new web 2.0 service, I would think about contacting seomoz. I could afford their fee too and would know exactly how to use them for the most value. Set them off to work on the execution (also planning, but their ability to execute a large project is where they're true value lies and why I would put them above most of their competition)
Get good at the execution, more then research, more then brainstorming ideas, more then thinking out of the box, and you'll be successful beyond comparison, it's the execution now boys and girls that separates the winners from the losers. Ideas are a dime a dozen, just look at all ideas above, and hey they're free, go send them to some caterers, but don't expect many of them to be executed properly anytime in the near future.
Nice ideas, but a bit impractical...
Sally, if you're reading this I would suggest that instead of spending your money on an all-singing all-dancing website, go get yourself a bunch of flyers printed up and leave them in shops around Seattle or even pay someone to hand them out --- you'll guarantee your marketing towards your target audience (people in Seattle who eat food) and probably save yourself a wad of cash to boot
I don't think you need an all-dancing all-singing website, although you also don't want a site that looks like the 10 yearold down the street made it either.
There are lots of sites that are successful without all the AJAX bells and whistles... like any great buzz, it seems that too much focus is being paid that those things are required to be successful.
It really comes down to having a site that speaks to your users and represents your professionalism. Yes, some industries might need the bells and whistles, but not most.
I tell all of my clients when developing a website for them that it isn't their website... it's their visitor's website. Yes, I want them to be happy with it and get what they want, but that immediately changes the focus to make sure that we are keeping their customers and clients, as well as future and potential ones, in mind, after all, those are the ones who will be using the site much more than my client ever will.
Realistically, how many of those flyers are going to end up in the hands of people who are in the market for catering, and at a time when they can act on it, which is an important thing that many forget, which is where traditional, mass marketing often fails. Unless I'm needing catering at that very moment, or often need catering, I'll probably toss the flyer away, or stick it someplace for later, which I of course will forget where that was.
Sally would probably get a lot more value out of those flyers if she had a website to send people to. I think people want to review and get a feel for businesses much more now than ever before, if for no other reason because they can. And that is probably done more often through the web because it allows them to do so without feeling any pressure or making any commitment in doing so.
flyers = online mailing list.
Anyone?
Great post Rand.
Seems like your getting a little bit of flak for why its very hard for the small buisness person to tackle all these apsects of a successful campaign while still cooking and running the catering business.
Your next post should be (which I'm sure your already on top of) how to convince small business owners to spend the money on marketing their new business online.
As the first person who responded, I'd just like to say that it's not really flak.
If someone came to me and said: "Look, I want to be the #1 site for widgets, money is no object, I want a full-time person on my account, and I'll be happy to provide you with whatever it takes in terms of content" then I'm sure most of us could probably come up with something pretty similar to what Rand posted.
And the post was valuable, with, I'm sure, a lot of thoughts provoked amongst readers.
My response was essentially about the choice of a small start-up to illustrate those points, and what in real life for her and for anyone she approached for help would be potential stumbling blocks, in other words:
I'm not saying that life is impossible for someone in Sally's shoes by any means, or that she can't approach a lot of the goals that Rand set out, but maybe the ways and means need to be tailored a bit more for someone in her situation, and that's what a lot of people have been talking about in the comments.
I agree with Stever, I don't necessarily think he or anyone else is really giving any flak on the issue, just raising concern that it may be a bit more challenging under certain circumstances.
I think this is rightfully true, especially with startups, where there are limited resources. Ironically, these are the businesses that might also benefit the most.
The challenge is that more education is needed, many of these startups don't give enough attention to their web presence early enough in the process... it is a lot easier to budget for a web presence when there is still money in the budget.
There are those who simply won't get it, but that may be not have anything to do with whether they are a startup or have money or not.
I think another big challenge that has to be overcome, again related to education, is that a lot of people feel that web results should be free... after all, the web has that perceived idea of all this stuff that you can get for free.
A lot of people feel that when they get their website, they should appear on the top of search results automatically, after all, in their minds, they are the most relevant, best site for their market. This should just happen.
So education often goes beyond all the elements of having a website and search marketing, but also how search engines work on how results are determined.
I've got two thoughts on this...
OH MY GOODNESS ***HOW*** MUCH WORK?
And what a fantastic idea and soon that will be an internationally renouned website with links in from everywhere and very popular. This is the best idea EVER!
How much work you ask...
To give you some idea - I published my latest web site mid January 2007. Since then I have ploughed an average of 10 hours nearly every day, including some time on weekends, to move from 2,404,982 position in Alexa to 439,711 in just under 3 months.
In order for my site to make any money at all I'll need to get into the top 20 000. Currently the site gets around 800 uniques a day, is rather grey hat (for which I make no excuses), and makes around $3.00 a day from Adsense. I make around $2.00 per day from the other API affiliates. Certainly its not a living.
Based on current stats, over the three month period, and time I input into the site, I expect it to be making around $50 per day in around 12 months from now. That's only $1500 per month. So unless I can find a way to offer a better value proposition to users I may as well dump it real soon.
In fact, I make more money in one day consulting to clients than I will from my own site two years out from now.
Unless a site offers extreme value to users (like SEOmoz now ranked at 955), you're out. Even if you SEO the hell out of it, go grey, skip meals with your family, you're out - unless there is value.
For any site that's not a digg, youtube, or yahoo, you're looking at lots and lots of hard work. And when you slow down you can rest assured someone else is speeding up.
Offer great value and the site will grow through word of mouth - all by its little self. Sure it's worthwhile to get search traffic through optimization but the site must ensure it gets direct traffic from each user over and over again.
But just because you have a website and SEM skills, it doesn't obviate the need for a business plan if you are intending on making money.
Sally could, for example, be interested in molecular gastronomy and design her catering services only to provide such delicacies as snail porridge and bacon-and-egg icecream. And her financial success would then be rather more dependent on market factors than online visibility.
Great comment.
The great successes of Web 1 and 2 had no real business plan. If they had they probably wouldn't have been such a major success for business plans are often too rigid and not fluid enough to make quick changes.
Today one needs to go with a little gut instinct, and listen listen listen to users. If you pay attention they will pay you visits. If you get enough visits you can monetize the traffic. VZ Google owns YouTube so they can share their own traffic like Coke owns 250 brands to compete with itself. The modern day version is simply - 'divide and conquer without a plan'.
The thing about my site is that its visitors are not SEO's, techo's and linkeratti. They are moms, dads, teenagers, and even some grans. From their perspective my site is credible because it 'partners' with the three most successful Internet brands. But its even harder work getting them to visit for they are not Diggers but Googlers.
Thumbs up for the Fat Duck reference!
You really look at Alexa stats?
I've worked on sites before and with the Alexa toolbar installed on IE, just me looking at the site can push it below 100k.
Anyway, good luck with your site, i'm sure it will be a success with all the effort your putting into it.
Alexa is one of my greatest sales weapons. When I show a potential client their rankings they are disgusted at their own shortcommings.
These last few weeks I have been showing the results of my own web site and won more business.
Hooray for Alexa!
Hey, $1,500 a month is great because once you’ve done all the work it’ll be a source of semi-passive income. Invest that $1,500 each month, Klikhir, and you’ll have something to live off of when you’re old. Yes?
Christina
That was a rehtorical question *GIGGLES*
Great article, and although it would indeed take a lot of effort and money to accomplish the top 3 in Google, this is the way to do it.
For the next catering website I do, I'll have them read this article so they know what to expect! :)
Those Seattle Caterers in the top four of the SERPs in the Rand's screenshot may have not visited SEOmoz in the past but should be popping by anytime now that their website has received the exposure :)
Indeed if Rand had mentioned them by name in the Title of this post they would already be ranked number 1 for 'Seattle Caterers' ;-)
Edit: I am not suggesting that SEOmoz should ever leverage thier site in such a manner.
One of the extremely powrful and important reasons to set one's business site up with linkbait qualities is that for a small business like a caterer and/or a printer referenced above, or any other similar type of business is because logical links are extremely difficult to get.
I know I've been working on getting logical links for my business for several years from certain logical sources. Other small business operators have websites handled by a third party, its not a priority for them, they forget about it, and it just doesn't get done. This is not necessarily different from asking for links from webmasters...but its probably more frustrating; at least webmasters are in the business of treating their web sites as a priority.
so you might as well place your site in a position to garner links...especially because your competition in the small business world is going to have the same difficulties as you are in garnering links.....and you might as well take advantage of your link bait knowledge to soar beyond them.
Dave
I wish i had the time to pursue half of the great content i want to produce. i also have a rather involved project concerning the display and treatment of news.... that I have to program first.... fun.
Great post but I still think there are some businesses that would struggle with creating a linkbait worthy site. Like a small printer.
Anyone and any business, with the power of creativity at their disposal, can create and succeed with viral content.
It's nothing more than the standard business problem: "how am I going to get coverage?" It was never cheap out in the real world - and it isn't any easier or cheaper online.
A campaign like that outlined is going to cost serious money (if done well) so Sally would have to weigh up whether the business she'd generate from a #1 listing would pay for the work.
Now that, unfortunately, is the great unknown... unless you're going to use PPC to get a clear idea of the search volume.
I'm hungry!
I have to say this is one of the best SEO posts I've read recently.
I actually feel motivated to go and crush someone now with mad SEo skillz. I have been suffering from a dry patch. But I think you've moistened me up enough!
P.s. love the fact you chose a very specialised site and related the post to that. Too often I see general posts where it is hard to relate it to your organic cookie site or whatever.
This whole series of posts about the Linkerati have been excellent. I'm glad you used a non-tech company for an example.
I think the comments have kind of moved away from the point of the post.
This is extremely useful information for me. I just joined a very small company that's had little or no time to do any marketing whatsoever; the most they could do was set up an AdSense campaign and check it once a week or so. I get to design the program from the ground up for the most part, so this is an invaluable post.
And I'm checking out that keyword research tool. Your shameless self-promotion worked!
It's an AdWords campaign, not AdSense. AdSense is other people's adverts on your website, so that you get paid. AdWords is you advertising on Google, it's partners sites and the content network. :)
Another excellent post on this topic. I just recently finished reading Steve Krug's book and I have to say it completely changed the way I look at web design and usability issues.
I will actually probably read it again to make sure I get the most out of it that I can.
Rand this series has been great. I'm not sure if you're planning on continuing, but I'd like to know more about step VI: Launch & Promote. The initial push it takes to get your content to go viral is something I think a lot of people would be interested in learning more about.
I think the suggestions you gave here are fine, but realistically most sites will not be featured in the design portals and as someone who moderates a couple of forums if you join and immediately post a link to your new content your link won't be there very long.
I think both are good suggestions, but for most people it won't be enough of a push.
If you do have any intention of continuing with this topic then my vote is for a post on promoting your linkbait. If this was the last post in the series then thanks form some very valuable posts.
I love your explanation here, from inception to launch. SEOmoz is certainly one of my favorite blogs now!Keep up the great work!Rich Page
nice. but the part of creating spcific content pieces is not so easy to create!
I am SO going to hijack this to create a monster "other ways of marketing online" post for YOUmoz tonight...