Build it and they won’t come.
October 30th, 2008
If you have ever seen the movie Field of Dreams with Kevin Costner, you may remember the line “Build it and they will come.“, referring to the building of the baseball field within the corn field of the family farm. The purpose of quoting this is to point out the opposite effect with the building of a web site.
Ever since web sites started getting free links from search engines, every web site owner has wished for the holy grail of front page billing on at least one or all of the major search engines. I have noticed that most businesses have had the perception that by simply building a web site, they would get front page billing on the search engines. This is a very optimistic view, and could not be further from reality. If you are thinking of building a web site, or have one already, then you have probably already found this out. You may have learned or been told about SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Even if you follow all the guidelines and hire companies that specialize in every aspect of SEO, you are probably never going to be satisfied with the results. You might get top billing when searching for your companies name, but will you ever get front page billing for your products, or services? Anyone can promise you a #1 listing, but if that listing is only for your company’s name, does that really help your business bring in more revenue?? Be careful of what SEO consultants and companies promise you, and also be aware that once you hire them to do everything they recommend, you wind up spending so much money and waste so much of your time that you have to ask if it was worth the effort to begin with.
What is the answer to all of this? Don’t rely on Free Listings. Search Engines can be a part of your advertising strategy, but they should always be a small part of that strategy early on. With diligent SEO you could plan on increasing traffic to your web site and over time improve your companies bottom line. The most important component of your strategy? You should compound your strategy with other marketing channels like email advertising, pay-per-click ads, banner ads, direct mail, telemarketing, print advertising, tv ads, radio ads, public relations, and lastly a good sales staff. After all, nothing is more effective than having good people to promote and sell your goods. So remember, “Just building it, WON’T guarantee they will come to visit“.
- Joe Cuviello