5 Reasons Your Employees Shouldn’t Learn SEO for Free

September 26, 2009

I’ve heard from some people that paying for SEO services, consulting, or even a book on Amazon is a waste of money, because all that information is somewhere on the Internet  for free.

I’d agree to an extent. Somewhere, most of this information has indeed been shared. However, I would strongly caution any business away from that route due to the following 5 reasons.

1. How out of date is the information? – Search engines change their ranking algorithms by the month, and some changes are significant. Search engines like Google tend to have bias toward older information on these types of searches. That is exactly the opposite of what you need for breaking technologies like Search Engine Optimization.
2. Where is the information? – Sure, we can Google questions but are we asking the correct terminology to get the best answer? Basic questions beat basic competition… You don’t have basic competition unless this is a one-of-a-kind product or you’re competing in a 3rd world nation with few online marketers. You need advanced answers for intense levels of competition in marketplaces. Even if you find one answer, piecing it all together could take you to 1000 websites.
3. Is the information accurate? – I’ve been on all kinds of “trustworthy sites” like major magazines, and even search engine-focused publications that put out completely inaccurate info. Sometimes I knew it ahead of time. Other times I erroneously believed that information until I found proof otherwise. I have many campaigns to test with including businesses we operate on our own. I also have many contacts who can help me weed out the baloney. Does your company have the time and money to waste on bad information or the contacts who can tell you if it is bad information?
4. Are they giving you all the information you need to win? – Search Engine Optimization is a fine art. Most of it is based around creating an extremely useful site and getting people to recognize and talk about it across the web. Some people will tell you that is all it takes, but they’re either being naive or hiding something. The complete truth is there are some tricks of the trade that are both legal and ethical, and meet all search engine guidelines. The top competition either used them, are using them, or will use them. You don’t want to miss out on this competitive edge.
5. How long is this going to take? – The member of your marketing or IT team (don’t do the latter, we can explain later) who would most likely be tasked with this responsibility is busy with other tasks. Learning this field well enough to beat your firmly entrenched competitors is a full-time job in itself. Probably a couple people’s full-time jobs to get it done right. Do you have those resources? Even if you do – how much in profits could you lose in the year or two they use to get caught up on the field. Combing blogs and forums for answers means you’re weeding out 99% of the “noise” and banter to find the meat. Sure, much of SEO technique only takes a couple weeks to learn tops, but learning the context of each situation for correct application takes years of polishing one’s technique.

I took this route when I first started learning SEO. This was a few years ago and had a little online store I was trying to get people to. I combed the web for hours and hours until I found a reliable source. I then spent some cash to learn what that source had to know and it cut at least a year off my education process. I went from being an eternal student to making money and helping companies do the same. Getting that reliable baseline for my SEO training was the best investment I ever made. That guy is currently out of this line of work, but many highly skilled SEO consultants have sprung up across the world in the days since.

The choice is yours – the company can learn SEO via the web for free, or condense your time and get on the road to profitability a year or two earlier. Avalanche Internet Marketing offers everything from SEO training, full service SEO programs, and comprehensive Internet Marketing programs which tie in all aspects of online lead generation. Please contact us today for an opportunity analysis or subscribe to our blog for breaking news in the field of online lead generation.