Jon C. Coward, VP of Internet Marketing
Remember how simple car engines were when you were a teenager? All you needed was a screwdriver, a wrench and some duct tape to keep them running. Well, thanks to improvements in technology and efficiency, they are a bit more difficult if not impossible to work on now if you haven’t kept up with the changes. You can spend hours looking under your car hood for your carburetor, but you won’t ever find it. (Someday soon, it probably won’t even be called a car “hood!”) When it comes to the Internet, search engines and search technology, there is a similar type of growth as there is in automobile engine technology, but at a much more rapid pace. Are you prepared to keep up with all of the changes, today, tomorrow and next week?
If you are reading this blog, you probably have an interest in search engine marketing or at the very least have an idea or two about seo and search engines. There are plenty of blogs and websites that tell you just what to do. The problem is…. do they tell you what to do today? There are even a dozen places to learn about Google’s pay per click advertising, their own site included. However… nothing stays as it was when the documents were originally written. Plus up and coming new advertising sources like Facebook, may look the same… but they do not act the same.
Working with seo and search engine marketing is a lifelong learning process. Everything you learn changes at a rapid pace and it takes a lot to keep up. Because the technology is evolving so rapidly, the skills you learn today may not be relevant tomorrow. Even that intense seo boot camp you attended last year is out of date. You must be constantly keeping your skills and certifications up to date. One class, one degree, or one Google certification isn’t enough to be effective in the long haul.
If seo and search marketing were that easy to master, wouldn’t everyone try to make their site rise to the top. Everyone would certainly constantly try… and that would make Google’s search engine irrelevant and no different from Bing or anyone else. All of the major search engines thrive on delivering their own definition of what they deem to be a relevant search. For individuals searching, each has a different version of relevant as well. So do you really think that that simple seo tip you read a few months ago can sustain you indefinitely? Do you really think that buying a pay per click ad and keeping it up at the top of the results, for the least amount of money possible is easy? Think again!
So, go ahead and do it yourself! Real estate agents learned long ago that one of the best sources of new customers comes from giving classes to teach people how to sell their house WITHOUT an agent. Many of those who take the course and try to sell their own house see first hand the amount of work and study involved and become a model client for that agent!
Sometimes, hiring a person to manage your search engine marketing isn’t about your lack of knowledge. You are paying for someone to keep up with the current knowledge to make sure you don’t fall behind.
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Great analogy. I think most people who have been around the internet for a couple of years can really appreciate what you are saying. Just 2 years ago or so, Google implemented it’s Google maps. It was very easy to get listed on the mpa, and age of the listing seemed to play a big part of where Google placed you on the list. You could even make-up an address to get closer to the cities business center. Now it’s become a whole area of expertise for some SEOs. Companies who enjoyed being on the map have mysteriously disappeared. From what I can tell, AdzZoo seems to have this nailed down.