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SEO: The True Cost of Doing It Wrong
By Scott Buresh

There is much debate in the general public and in the search
engine optimization community as to what amount companies should
pay for search engine optimization expertise.* Prices are all
over the board, and can be influenced by an SEO firm's size,
reputation (or lack thereof), resources invested in customer
service, and many other factors. Moreover, there are a variety
of pricing models from which to choose.

Rather than hire a firm, some companies instead opt to attempt
this specialized discipline in-house in order to "save" money.
Of course, there is a cost associated with this option as
well--labor. Often, the cost of effectively performing SEO
in-house, when fully calculated, will be equal to or greater
than the costs of outsourcing (due to a sizable learning curve
and the necessary testing and experimentation required).

In any case, companies often make decisions on whether to
outsource (and if so, which provider to choose) based solely on
price. However, one thing that is rarely factored into the
decision making process is the potential cost of doing SEO
wrong.

The Price Tag

The most obvious cost of doing SEO wrong is the price that was
paid for the actual work, whether paid to a firm or toward
salaries for internal resources. While this is the most
quantifiable cost and the easiest to recognize, it is generally
the least expensive consideration. This concept is sometimes
difficult to understand, since there is typically a finite sum
the company considers "at risk" when they sign a contract with
an SEO firm or commit internal resources to the task.

Penalization Issues

In many cases, companies hire shady optimization firms that use
underhanded techniques to increase rankings. Other companies use
well-intentioned but over-eager internal resources that
implement dated, and often dangerous, methodologies. Such
strategies may work in the short term, but it is typically only
a matter of time before the search engines catch on to the
gimmick and the site becomes penalized**. In this scenario, the
company actually winds up in a worse situation than before they
hired the search firm or committed the internal resources, since
now they have lost any search positions with which they started!
Afterwards, getting back into a search engine index is
difficult and sometimes near impossible.

Lost Opportunity Cost

Search is currently one of the hottest marketing channels in the
world, and increasing numbers of companies are jumping into the
mix and realizing outstanding returns on their investment.
However, it can take several months to attain optimal results
with search engine optimization, and choosing the wrong provider
or using ineffective methodology can delay any returns. It is
critical that the methodologies used at the outset are effective
and timely to minimize the waiting period for results.

Disenchantment Leading to Channel Abandonment

Worse yet, sometimes a company that hired an inexperienced or
unscrupulous firm, or used internal resources to little effect,
will abandon the idea of pursuing SEO. Frequently, companies
will make blanket statements about how SEO "doesn't work for
their business", because they didn't get results from a single
poorly-executed initiative. This mistaken belief is potentially
the most expensive cost of doing SEO wrong, since the major
increases in revenue that SEO can provide are never realized by
such companies (although they are often realized by that
company's competitors).

Conclusion

While price can (and should) certainly be a factor in the SEO
decision making process, it should not be the primary factor.
Unfortunately many companies who think they are saving money
when making SEO decisions find out later that the actual costs
of doing SEO wrong can make the "savings" pale by comparison.
Worse yet, firms that focus primarily on price will sometimes
unknowingly embrace methodologies that put their site at great
risk for penalization and at best do not get the anticipated
results. Meanwhile, those who abandon SEO entirely due to a
single bad experience leave the channel wide open for their
competitors, who are usually happy to take advantage.

* For the purpose of this article, we refer to "natural" or
"organic" search engine optimization, where a company helps a
firm to show up prominently in the natural results, as opposed
to the "sponsored" or "paid" results.

** While fear of penalization is often used as a scare tactic by
SEO firms, the threat is very real--one need only read about the
recent Traffic Power fiasco to confirm it:

http://www.isedb.com/news/article/953

http://www.seoconsultants.com/traffic-power/clients

http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/ripoff64783.htm

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Scott Buresh is managing partner of Medium Blue Internet
Marketing (http://www.mediumblue.com), an Atlanta search engine
optimization company that works with clients all over North
America. His articles have appeared in numerous publications,
including SiteProNews, ZDNet, WebProNews, MarketingProfs,
DarwinMag, PromotionData, and Search Engine Guide.
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