The SEO Fiscal Cliff: Are You On The Verge?

January 3, 2013 - 4 minutes read - Blog, SEO
Disaster may have been temporarily averted, thanks to an 11th-hour deal by Congress on New Year’s Eve. Yet, for many businesses, the fiscal cliff is still a very real possibility. At its heart, the fiscal cliff was a battle of compromise. Concessions needed to be made by both Democrats and Republicans to save the nation from painful across-the-board tax hikes, gouging cuts to social programs, and diminished confidence in our financial markets.
The same is true for every business, as entrepreneurs ask themselves the tough questions: What can I afford to spend on SEO this year? What can I afford to cut? Which investments are most worthwhile? What needs to change in order for my business to move forward? The first quarter of 2013 is often a time of financial restrain until business owners can better gauge consumer sentiment for the impending year, but there are certain SEO strategies you don’t want to skimp out on.

Top SEO Investments in 2013

Your SEO strategy must begin with a thorough assessment of your competition. You not only want to look at what did or didn’t work for you in 2012, but you also want to see what has / hasn’t been working for your competitors. If you hope to grab a bigger market share, you need to take your battles to the front lines and make a few strategic, competitive moves. A good SEO firm will look at what metrics your competition is tracking. Are your competitors using paid search? Traditional advertising? Social media? Wherever they are, you should have a tentacle too.

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The best investment, specifically, is to set up a good analytics program. By tracking metrics for your success, you will have a complete picture of what works best to give you a return on your investment. You need to have goals for the performance of your pages and track e-commerce campaigns. Google Analytics is a good place to start.

What To Do About Keyword Ranking In 2013

In the past, keyword ranking was the end-all be-all of budgeting. If you were getting on page 1 of Google results for competitive keywords, then you were getting a good return for your investment. However, as we know, the SEO world has become much more complex. Nowadays, not everyone arrives at your website from typing a phrase into a search engine. Many people come over from social media recommendations, social sharing sites, Google image searches, news feeds, and viral video sites. That’s why you need to track multiple sources of traffic with comprehensive analytics software, rather than simply relying on keyword rank.

Allocating Marketing Budgets Online Makes Sense For 2013

Keep in mind that offline advertising with billboards, magazine spreads and TV spots is MUCH more expensive than online advertising — and it’s much harder to gauge how well these campaigns actually performed. On the other hand, you can justify an online advertising budget by looking at:

  • Page views
  • Unique daily visitors
  • Visitor return rates
  • User demographics
  • Coupon redemption rates
  • Conversions (leads or forum submittals)
  • Sales
  • Follower Growth
  • Subscriber Growth
  • SERP ranking

Are you looking to set up better analytics for 2013? Ask me how!

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