Why Google is a Tactic not a Strategy - Understanding the value of Google
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Traffic is important. Leads are important. Google is a huge source of both traffic and leads, and is thus extremely important. But what about sales? And what about highly specialized industries that don't lend themselves well to keyword searches? How valuable is Google in the grand scheme of things?
Let's say you manufacture boiler parts and provide service for extremely high-end, expensive boiler equipment. Your target audience might be engineers who work for companies that maintain these huge boilers. The engineers are responsible for keeping the boilers working and thus ordering parts and service. It is likely that this constituency already has a preferred boiler vendor, perhaps the manufacturer they purchased the boiler from.
In this case, focusing exclusively on SEO and/or Google as a tactic for reaching these people is setting the company up for failure. You just won't reach these engineers because they aren't performing keyword searches. Many highly specialized industries are in this same boat. There are simply not enough searchers out there to justify the time and expenditure on SEO. The value isn't there.
I'm not saying that their corporate websites shouldn't be search engine friendly. All I'm saying is that a much smaller portion of the overall marketing budget should be allocated to SEO than other tactics such as email marketing, banner advertising on industry-specific websites, and directory placement (which is also industry-specific).
Now let's look at Google's value in terms of sales. It's obviously very high. Many e-commerce sites depend on good rankings in Google to make their monthly sales quota. A drop in Google's search engine results for their hottest terms is devastating to their bottom line. For these companies, focusing on getting good rankings in Google is very valuable and critical to maintaining their businesses. As such, a larger portion of their marketing budget should be allocated to SEO with an emphasis on SEO time and energy placed on Google optimization. A "larger portion" does not mean the entire budget.
In each of these scenarios, Google is considered from a strategic standpoint. These companies have a couple of things in common. Both of them want to promote their businesses on the Web and both of them are considering SEO as a way to do that. However, time and budget allocation will look very different for each company. If they are wise, neither company will plan to reach their key goals by using just one tactic. This is a dangerous strategy in any situation, but it becomes particularly risky when the tactic is focused on one company (in this case, Google). Even if either or both of these hypothetical companies do well in Google and enjoy success for months or even years, the internal workings of this one search engine have been known to change in a heartbeat. If you don't have a backup plan, you're out of business.
Next: If you don't have a backup plan, you're out of business >>
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