Do You Need Rankings or a Guy in a Monkey Suit?

More and more I move away from talking pure SEO which is really all about rankings. I find myself talking more internet marketing strategy. Working for many small, medium, and large clients and for my own e-commerce company has taught me it’s all about return on investment (ROI). I believe that investment starts with filling the sales funnel. Fill the funnel, of a good company, with good qualified leads and you create good ROI. A good company is one that closes on those leads. If search engine traffic is the best source of those leads, go for those. If a guy standing on the street in a monkey suit is the best source, those are where you should spend your time.

It used to be that a good ranking on the right terms was the absolute best way to get good leads. It is still a strong source of those leads but it isn’t the only game in town. Internet marketing looks at many more facets of generating traffic. It looks at online advertising, local search, social media, and yes even email.

I spend a lot of time listening, analyzing, determining, and executing the best internet strategy for each company I consult. At the end of the day, I will even tell my clients if they’d be better off using the guy in the monkey suit.