The Catalyst

Search engine optimization is definitely on a lot of minds today, for good reason too. With the cost of lead-generation escalating (and not just because of the recession, it started long before that) business owners are looking for the magic bullet to restore a direct, low-cost path to the next customer.

There are many ways to escalate a company’s organic search position on Google. Some work much better than others. A quick read of Google’s webmaster guidelines will outline a few surefire methods. Those guidelines tell you some of what you need to know, without revealing the wizard behind the curtain. What they also fail to disclose is offline media’s growing impact on online search.

Yes, having the #1 position on Google is great for generating leads. No argument there. But there are two points to be made here about SEO that often go unsaid, especially for advertisers who use local media to help generate those leads.

The first point is this: Offline media is now accounting for one-third of online inquiry. So an advertiser’s web site may tell them they’re getting leads from search engines, when in fact many of these leads originated with a smart (cost-efficient) television campaign. TV is tops among offline media in generating this sort of effect. Oh, and local broadcast television also drives down the cost of physically bringing new customers into a business. We have decades of evidence (not “research”) of that fact.

The second, and more obscure point is this: While it’s always great to have high organic search position for your search terms, you don’t necessarily want Google to be the advertiser’s first source in terms of online lead generation. Sounds counterintuitive, but it’s true. A real-world example may clarify this.

We work with an electrician — let’s call him “Steve” — in Fort Wayne who has used local media, both online and offline, to drive leads. Steve’s electrical business is holding steady (to say the least!) during a very challenging economic contraction. As a nice “side effect” to his extremely cost-efficient advertising efforts, we’ve seen the company’s website climb to the #1 position on Google. Steve advertises on both WANE-TV and WANE.com, the local CBS affiliate’s media properties.

There is a bigger story here, and a lesson for other local business owners. While Steve is happy to own the #1 position on Google, he’s even happier that, in terms of his online lead sourcing, Google has dropped from first to third place. An analysis of his traffic patterns showed that in one month’s time, WANE.com became the primary source of online leads, while direct (or “unsourced”) leads were second. This is great news for Steve because he is getting many more direct leads, and bypassing the alphabet soup of competition listed on the search engines for a majority of his leads.

The moral of the story is simple, and needs to be repeated. Yes, we want to be tops with Google, but we don’t necessarily want Google to be tops with us. A good offline and online media campaign will demonstrate this immediately, as consumers will open their web browsers and type in our domain names directly, without having to find us — and our competition — on Google.

They might also call and visit us too.

No question that a good advertising campaign should keep search in mind today. The more visible my organic search position for key search terms, the better. But let’s remember to keep our eyes on the prize here: It’s all about the volume and cost of lead generation. Even better if my business becomes the first, and only place that my next potential customer visits.

Dave Eckstein does not play shortstop and was never the MVP of the World Series. He is a partner in the firm ESA & Company, based in Red Bank, New Jersey.