As both a business person and search engine marketer, I couldn’t resist toying on the idea of selling SEO as if it’s a retail product. Make it duplicable, scalable and applicable regardless the type of websites, and then slap it with an affordable price and attractive packaging. Tada~ I’m a millionaire in the making.
Not likely so.
We have notice many’s idea of packaging web services into a box and sell it on retail shop, only seen them fail miserably, though some still survived - by playing on the crowd’s ignorance or technical disabilities.
A good example is our local web hosting tai ko - Emerge. Their Sharksurf seemed promising - RM99 will get you hosting, domain name, website design, sms broadcast and trade portal membership. Coupled with aggressive marketing (which they did), it looked like a product that will dominate web hosting and web design industry. But everybody with a decent ‘internet experience’, will know that it is a ‘rip off’ with pricey renewal fee, and lack of even the most essential feature for a simple web hosting - like a database (extra subscription of database is RM100/year, ouch!)
Submitnet SEO, which looks like an in-the-box SEO product, provides ‘auto monthly submission’ and many analysis tool that will improve your ranking. The ‘auto monthly submission’ claims that “All of your URLs are submitted to our list of search engines monthly to ensure the best rank possible”. Wow, seemed so 1999. Again, the effectiveness of the product is questioned.
I’m totally not against these companies / products. Sure, it is a brilliant business model. But did it work? If not, playing on the ignorance would not get your business running for a long time.
So back to my initial question, is it possible to sell SEO like a retail product while still provide great value (like..improve your ranking) ?
Share and discuss.
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adrian oh 12.23.07 at 6:54 am
Actually Emerge just launched a new product, called Ximplify - http://www.ximplify.com, seems like go head to head against Exabytes Xstudent Package (is it mere coincident both “packages” also starts with X ??)
Sharksurf, a lot of industry player see it as a PR stunt as they are planning for an IPO. “Take kenal maka tak cinta” You need to get more people to know you so that they willing to spend $$ buying your shares right? Again, this is only speculation, only the Emerge boss know about it lah.
I personally have used Submitnet SEO before, i would say it’s for the “rookies”, the tools are over simplified and i seriously doubt it will add any value to your website. In comparison, you can benefit A LOT MORE by just reading CS Lim blog (free!) and applying to your website.
Infact, as far as submission to search engines (esp for new website) is concerned, the most effective way is to
1) Provide QUALITY content (let’s assume you write about internet marketing, SEO etc)
2) Get a link from an Relevant, Authoritative and Quality (remember RAQ) website, preferably in a blog post (in this case, you want a link from getfound.com.my or gobalakrishnan.com)
Personally, i think SEO is something very hard to scale.(something like penang char keoy teow lah, u didn’t see people franchise char keoy teow, do you?) much harder than just merely web services as a package. As software side, you can consume as a “services”, something like salesforce.com already a proven success story.
SEO is a different beast, it requires DEEP industry specific knowledge (from keyword competition, competitor website analysis, user searching/buying behavior, technical know how, social media savvyness, pr skills, link building and a lot more), which next to impossible (even if you wear Adidas) to scale like software does.
And I have reason to believe SME tend to underestimate the knowledge and work required (thus the COST) for internet marketing, and that’s why lah CS Lim proposal mostly dun get reply! :)