Search Engine Marketing Still Foreign To Many

I had the opportunity to speak at the Business Network of Anthem’s weekly meeting on the subject of what else – search engine marketing. A small group of around twenty people gathered, all who own small businesses in the Anthem, Arizona area where I also live. The group consisted of bankers, financial advisors, insurance brokers, home improvement service providers, an auto repair facility owner, a flooring company, a swimming pool service provider and the list goes on.

My talk was pretty basic – defining what search marketing is and how it is separated into two arenas, organic and paid. I discussed some of the ways people market organically (SEO, Link Building, etc.) and then discussed PPC. Then it was on to a couple of fundamental reasons why they should be marketing their web sites on search engines. Finally three case studies on how search marketing works, one for a local business, one for a national business and one example of PPC campaign. Pretty basic stuff – no new revelations.

What shocked me a bit was when I polled the group as to who was currently doing any kind of search marketing. Two people out of the twenty raised their hands. The remaining either were not doing any search marketing of were completely unaware of its existence. We who are so embroiled in the industry often forget that there still remains a wide opportunity to reach businesses with the search marketing gospel, especially small businesses.

What is ironic about this is that I have lived in Anthem for five plus years now and I have never thought to join up with any of the local business networking associations mostly because I think of SearchRank as a national if not global company. However today’s meeting has had an impact on my views. While many SEMs work hard to have a national presence, we must not forget that there still remains an abundance of untapped potential right in our own backyard.