As part of the Real-life Digital F**Ups Series here is another one that is, unfortunately, way too common. (often thanks to some dodgy SEO salespeople offering all sorts of promises)

Search engine marketing can be very effective and powerful for some businesses HOWEVER do not spend money driving traffic to your website only to not capture their details. Or if your website is outdated and doesn’t clearly articulate the solution you offer.

I have seen first-hand people spending ridiculous amounts of money on search marketing to drive traffic to the worst website in the world plus when they get there they are not capturing their data in any way.

What happens is the prospect, clicks on the website but then leave within seconds. That equals a lost opportunity!

Doing SEO or AdWords is a waste of money if your website is crap, doesn’t clearly articulate what you do or isn’t capturing this traffic.

So, what should you do?
Firstly. take a long hard objective look at your website. Is it over 3 years old and needs to be updated? Scarily I have seen too many websites recently that look like they belong in the Website Museum. If you cannot be objective, get staff, clients or friends to look at it and give you honest feedback.

If it needs updating or redesigning, invest in that before doing any SEO.

If your website, passes the test, then ask yourself does it clearly articulate that we do? I see this fail a lot on recruitment websites – most look at the same and there is no point of difference (but they will tell you otherwise)

Lastly, if you think it clearly shares your solution in seconds, how are you capturing their data? This could be using tracking pixels or something as simple as lead generation download that swaps their email for some valuable content you have to share.

Only when you are ticketing ALL those boxes and not before, are you ready to invest in search marketing. Before that, you’d get better results giving me your money and I can buy shoes with it! (yep you are wasting your money). Moral of the story – if you are going to do it, then do it properly!