Wild Dingo.Net

So many of my clients inquire about search engine marketing. Specifically, they want to get their sites listed in the top 5 position at Google and Yahoo for specific keywords. As my experience includes 13 years in corporate marketing, they naturally begin inquiry with me. And as much as I would love to provide SEM service, I will not for many reasons.

Before I list the reasons, let me explain that Wild Dingo offers Web sites that are search engine “optimized,” that is, programmed in a way that helps search engines organically or naturally find and craw your site and categorize your site for specific meta tags and keywords. This type of search engine optimization costs nothing more than what it costs to program a Web site in HTML, PHP, ASP.net or any other Web programming language. Search Engine Marketing on the other hand, is an active implementation of a marketing tactic, which in turn is part of a bigger marketing strategy. And this is where you’ll begin to understand why Wild Dingo doesn’t provide SEM services at this time.

First, Wild Dingo specifically focuses on graphic design and programming search engine optimized Web sites. It’s no secret that I’m a one-person-one-dingo Web design/programming shop. And as many times as I’ve been tempted to grow, and hire employees, I’ve resisted, simply because I like to do the work. I truly enjoy designing and building a site. I enjoy the planning and the programming as it is very much a problem-solution puzzle process that often leads me to discover or learn new programming solutions to accommodate a variety of client needs. While I don’t have an engineering or design degree (that’s no secret either), I do have solid experience in marketing and communications and can bridge the gap between what you need to do and say to your audience and what design or programming will be available to do it within your required budget. I don’t provide SEM services simply because it is a whole ball of wax that takes as much skill to perform well as design and programming skills themselves. It would force me to devote more time to learning the ins and outs of pay-per-click, link exchange and SEM strategies and take me away from honing my design and programming skills. And while growing the business would enable me to provide SEM services in the form of SEM skilled employees, the truth is, I would be forced to move into a management position and I’d never have any fun of building something cool.

Second, SEM requires more than understanding how pay-per-click and directories work. Search Engine Marketing is merely a tactical implementation of a larger marketing strategy. And while I have a lot of experience providing this level of service (in fact, marketing consulting is how Wild Dingo got its start), I have found that it is very difficult to provide any level of strategic marketing services that are not on a yearly retainer basis, simply because strategic marketing is a job that requires research, planning, tactical implementation and measurement which requires time. I will never be as passionate about a product as clients are, and simply my clients know their market and their products best. What I can do is help creatively convey a message to a defined market via design and programming.

So why not find a Web firm that can provide design, programming and SEM in one package? You could do that. It may be costly as most firms that provide a full range of services typically need a lot of specialists that stay on top of their skills in programming, design and search engine marketing. And typically, they’ll have an account manager that pulls all those skills together. So, likely, you’ll be paying a larger fee. Or perhaps all you need is a cool Web site with good solid SEO programming and you’re willing to devote some time to your marketing strategy and learning the ins-and-outs of SEM on your own. I have plenty of clients that do this and if you need help, I can certainly point you in the right direction and provide my best advice on what I know about link exchanging, SEM and paid advertising strategies. I can provide a list of things you can actively pursue on your own to get your site ranked high and more importantly, drive people to your site and purchase your product or service. It’s not as scary as it sounds. Typically all you need is credit card and a little time, in some cases as little as an hour per day, and you’ll be able to launch, manage and fine tune your search engine marketing campaigns without added fees of an SEM specialist. I have a lot of clients that do this and sometimes become more SEM savvy than me!

So, when your site is launched, should you hire and SEM specialist to help you achieve your top 5 Google goal? Yes and no. Hire one if you have you have formulated a marketing strategy on paper. (Hopefully you would have done this before designing or developing a site. But in few cases, I’ve launched sites with very little on paper regarding their marketing goals.) Hiring an SEM specialist is a bit like hiring a Web developer, it’s tactical. The most important thing for you to do before you hire any tactical implantation consultant, such as a Web designer or developer or an SEM specialist, is make sure you have your marketing plan formulated, your goals and objectives defined and tied into your ROI, as well as your net profits and long term goals. Make sure you define your audience very precisely, by gender, age, demographics, psychographics, education level, income level and more. The more precise you get, the better you can get your message to the right person without wasting money on reaching a person not suited for your product. Hiring an SEM specialist before doing any of this is a waste of time. If you do not have the capability of developing a marketing strategy, consider hiring a consultant for one year to get you started. Marketing, although it isn’t easy, isn’t exactly rocket science. If you understand your customer and your product, you’re halfway there. And if you have a formulated plan, you can begin to make educated decisions about how to reach your audience within your budget. And maybe hiring and SEM specialist is one of those decisions. Or maybe taking on SEM yourself will be more manageable for you once your marketing strategy is on paper and therefore you’ll be able to informed decisions on what to purchase in the form of pay-per-click advertising, keywords or link-exchange.

And if all of this is still too much and you need to find an SEM specialist, I can refer a few very successful SEM specialists that can help you achieve your web marketing goals.