Search engines have evolved from simple “find it” databases into complex, virtual teleporters to send a visitor exactly where he or she wants to go. Attracting new visitors to an ecommerce or other site nearly requires that it rank fairly high on searches. The trouble is that a lot of companies aren't properly informed when they consider how the search engines can work for them, and they fall victim to a number of SEO failures.
In the last few years, thousands of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) companies have popped up all over the internet. They charge anywhere from a few bucks to thousands of dollars, all having a different twist on how they can speed your site to the top. It’s no wonder there is so much controversy concerning hiring a professional SEO. But there are many factors that figure into whether outsourcing might be a good idea other than price. Consider the following SEO pitfalls and failures.
Not Performing SEO at All
So many times have I heard business owners tell me that they don’t think SEO is necessary. They have misconceptions that as long as they stick those keywords in the meta tags, their site will be fine, or if they put good content on their site, that they will somehow magically appear in the search engines. Worse yet, I have even had companies tell me that they don’t link with other websites because it would detract from their own website, or give them competition. Whatever the misconceptions may be, there are a definite group of people that don’t see the need for SEO at all, and just leave it alone. These people may advertise, either with purchasing banners, or a few pay per click campaigns, but they do very little for their sites, simply assuming they will just be found the way they are, and picked up.
This is probably the most dangerous of all of the things you can do to your own website. Without optimizing, a site risks sitting in obscurity forever. Compared to radio, television, magazine, or billboard advertising, website advertising is by far the cheapest, most readily accessible media available on this planet. And if 85% of websites are found by using search engines, then why wouldn’t you at least try to gear your efforts there?
Results: Penalization, Banning, Unqualified traffic or No traffic = no sales
PPC vs. Cost of SEO
Let’s compare the cost of hiring a professional to pay per click programs. Yahoo Search Marketing, formerly Overture, charges $100 for a site analysis, and then by the click thereafter. A minimum campaign may run you $100 per month. That means, you are purchasing about 200-250 visitors per month, at roughly 40-50 cents per click. Of those 250 visitors, one can estimate that if the keywords used in the PPC ad are properly utilized, 75% of those are qualified clicks. So that means, for your $200, you are getting 188 qualified visitors to your site in the first month. In the scope of traffic, that’s really not very much. In a year’s time, you can spend $1300 for 3000 visitors. You can see how relying solely upon pay per click traffic can be very expensive.
Let’s say you pay the same amount to an SEO firm. If they do their job effectively, you can easily receive ten times the traffic in a short period of time. Plus, every click to your site from the search engines are by people who are actually looking for what your site has to offer, and even if they make a mistake, it costs you nothing. If you don’t use the correct keywords, especially in a pay per click campaign, you’ve wasted your money on traffic that neither cares about nor wants your product. By not optimizing your site effectively, you will end up relying upon pay per click traffic far more than you need to.
Search Optimization 
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