As all of us in the SEO (search engine optimization) industry are well aware, there is a global shortage of SEO skills. Many experienced SEO analysts do not opt to enter the corporate arena as they have come to realize that freelancing and operating their own websites or blogs can often prove to be more profitable. As a respected SEO consultant once said, “A good SEO will never work for corporate because he knows how to tap a fortune online.”
This may be an overexaggeration of internet entrepreneurship but the host of affiliate programs and independent website and blogs vying for their share of the profits has virtually clogged the digital world. This poses a problem to traditional businesses with conventional trading lines in the real world. Competing with the internet entrepreneurs for good rankings online is anything but a simple task.
Bloggers and social media gurus have often dominated search engine rankings and many a time seeded the internet with untruths, misinformed opinions and sometimes just plain rubbish. This at times leaves the average search engine user quite frustrated with an endless list of websites publishing useless information. A click here, an affiliate sale there, search engine users often fall victim to cheap PR and 100% money back guarantees.
Google recently tried to unravel the tangled mess of rankings with the February 2009 Vince Change where brand websites were favored for choice keywords over independent blogs and amateur websites. This was short lived. Bloggers and affiliate websites are back in the rankings and if your business website is new, you will have a difficult time competing.
The Best of Both Worlds
As the old saying goes ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’. There is no doubt that successful internet entrepreneurs are the SEO gurus out there. They know how to dominate rankings, funnel quality traffic and turn ‘just another’ blog or website into a money maker. Of course, adopting these methods for your company website may not be very professional and could bring your reputation into question. After all, reputable companies do not opt for cheap marketing. Or do they?
Many established companies now recognize the need to outrank the internet entrepreneurs out there. Or at least profit from their earnings. Micro-sites and affiliate programs are now being touted as effective internet marketing options by many companies. Micro-sites are blogs and websites that are owned and operated by a company or its digital marketing agency. Micro-sites employ a number of SEO and SEM (search engine marketing) practices that were previously the domain of the internet entrepreneurs. By ranking high and catching search engine traffic, micro-sites filter this traffic back to the parent website i.e. the company website.
Affiliate programs are no longer the domain of the larger enterprises. While SME’s (small to medium enterprises) were previously satisfied with traditional PPC marketing, they quickly recognized the effectiveness of affiliate programs. By using an affiliate service provider, SME’s are now able pay out commissions to internet entrepreneurs that make a sale on their behalf or get new customers to sign up for their promotional material. This has proved more effective than traditional PPC campaigns.
If you need more advice on micro-sites or affiliate programs for your business website, contact Corporate SEO Solutions for a cost effective solution.