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When will local come to Australia; Despite the prominence of small business in Australia we have still failed to capitalise on local and small business marketing on the internet. With the exception of hospitality (which has had a long history of user generated reviews) Australia is still not embracing websites that combine official business information with user generated content, reviews and comments.

How long until this expands to other forms of small business – could we have a system where tradesmen are reviewed? Or many people just want to find a good hairdresser or beauty salon? It is after all just a matter of time before there is a web 2.0 incarnation that will satisfy our needs of information, yet where is it?
Some of the bigger directories like HotFrog may have gotten it right with better quality listings than traditional business directories, yet they are still not that open to user generated content. Same for AussieWeb – it is nothing more than a huge business directory with contact information. These sites, in essence are providing nothing that the yellow pages hasn’t provided for decades.

True Local is perhaps the best example of a site that is on its way - at least it has tried to start a reviewing system, the problem is 99% of businesses do not have any reviews. It is a chicken and the egg problem; if small business embraced local search better consumers would start using it, and if consumers started using it small business would embrace it… In the end we have to ask, is it us that is the problem or is it small business? One of the reasons that local SEO has undoubtedly not taken off is that we are all too lazy to offer the infrustructure to support it, that is, online spaces that small businesses can use for promotion, reputation management and as a public relations tool.

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There is a misconception that a good site and/or idea will sell itself; which has led to many entrepreneurs putting their cash in to online ventures without adequate knowledge, research or skills to make it a success. What many entrepreneurs who have had business success offline do not realise is that the online market is just as demanding (if not more) than your average brick and mortar business. There are just as many failures, probably far more online than there are offline especially with the increase in Web 2.0 start-ups.

The number one problem is that these investors/entrepreneurs think the internet is the same as traditional offline business, yet for some reason they treat it so differently. These entrepreneurs have (mostly) been in industries where if they have a good idea they follow a series of logical processes as well as overcome many barriers to get the business underway: they do their market research, they do their balance sheets, they consult accountants and business advisors, they go to a lawyer, they write a business plan, they have financial forecasts, they have financial goals, they need permits, leases, contracts ect. They are used to going through the hoops to get a good idea off the ground and a 5 or 10 year wait is nothing in the end. The most important thing, and the thing that they remember is that eventually their idea/s have worked and they have made money from them.

Having this success offline has recently increased with web 2.0 start-ups, such as online websites and businesses. What most entrepreneurs think is that offline business skills can be transferred to online enterprises; they think the internet is the same as any other business. This isn’t where the problem lies, however. The problem is that despite thinking that the internet is the same, they treat it so differently. Rarely do these entrepreneurs do any kind of market research, business plans or financial forecasts for a web site. They spend their lives going through these barriers and seeing success so much that they think it is their ideas that will sell themselves. What they don’t realise is that it was often all the other work that originally made their businesses successful, not just their ideas. Most ideas change a lot in the time from when it is in somebody’s head to when the idea is actually executed in a business sense. Inversely, the internet translates ideas too easily and directly from somebody’s head in to reality without consideration of all the external (normal) business issues that are usually considered with any other business. For most it is a matter of going to a web developer and fronting the funds, and the sad thing is that so many people do just that with faith that their idea will take off, even without consideration for marketing or promotion of the idea.

They think the internet is like any other business (which it is in certain ways), yet they will trust their intuition in putting down $30,000 for a large web development project just because they think they no longer have to go through the same barriers to get their ideas out there.

The internet is different from other industries, but each industry in itself is different anyway. I wouldn’t start a shoe store if I had success starting a mining company without a LOT of research and advice. Same with the internet, just because you may have had success with a shoe store offline doesn’t mean you will have the same success with a shoe store online; they are two very different industries, and entrepreneurs will think the online like the offline; with faith that their ideas will just work. But they will not treat the online like the offline, which is the number one problem with entrepreneurial investors.

An idea is just that, an idea, and if you can execute it without breaking the bank you may have a chance at success. If the idea has a solid business plan to go with it you may even have a greater chance at success. But if you think you can invest in just an idea, you are nearly always destined for failure.

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There are many conflicting ideas about what a SEO consultant should charge; whilst some people (both consultants and businesses) will whinge and moan at paying $500 for half an hour’s work, others would probably see nothing wrong with the $500 fee, especially if they know it is going to result in an extra $5000 or $10,000 in sales.

What are my views? Well, there is certainly a middle ground. And many do over step the line by charging exorbitant fees, but inversely many should probably be charging more for what they do. Personally, I see there little wrong with a SEO consultant charging $1000/hour if they are getting the business a ROI out of it (and neither do most businesses), however, my major problem comes with SEO consultants who charge this much (or even substantially less) and don’t achieve the business any kind of benefit.

In reality, people shouldn’t be so critical of the SEO consultant that charges $1000/hour and gives the business results, they should be more worried about the SEO consultant that charges $100 an hour and gives no results. Because of the nature of the job and industry, it naturally attracts its fair share of snake oil salesmen, but price is not the issue here; it is quality of work we should be concerned with.

Over the last couple of weeks I have seen several businesses charging hundreds of dollars for simply “search engine submission”, undoubtedly through automated programs submitting to a bunch of search engines nobody uses. This $200 will not result in any more sales, or benefit to the business, so there is something definitely wrong with charging for this. Whilst charging for changing some page titles, no matter how rudimentary it is, may only be 10 minutes of work – but may result in a 50% traffic boost in the next month. This may be a highly valuable service that the business would have realised without the guidance of a SEO professional.

If a business was to hire a consultant in any other industry they would charge similar rates such as these for the kind of results they get; and believe me SEO usually provides much better ROI than most business consultants.

People should stop viewing SEO as a simple labour process where all they pay is the labour costs of optimising a site… this leaves out all the know-how, knowledge, and research that goes in to a SEO campaign. If your average run-of-the-mill office employee was to sit down and research everything that a SEO consultant knows it would take weeks, or even months to come close to just the knowledge base – and that is not even getting started on the skill of many SEO’s.

It is true that some of the more basic elements of SEO are quite simply very basic or even common sense that it feels we shouldn’t be charging this much for SEO, however, you are charging for the information and know-how. It is the same in nearly any other industry which has a highly specialised skill base, but even more pronounced because of the necessity of a SEO consultant to be constantly up to date on the latest progressions of the industry; plumbers, electricians, or even professionals such as lawyers do not have the same constant requirements as SEO professionals. Although every industry changes, SEO is one of the most volatile industries that it does require a constant exposure in order to keep up to date; something which most part time ‘marketers’ would never be able to keep up with.

In reality I probably would have a problem with a business charging $1000 to change some meta tags even if it did help sales, but I do see that there should be a definite middle ground; SEO professionals have to charge a fee that reflects their commitment to the job, their knowledge, skills and ability to return a return on the businesses investment, but they also have to weigh it up with the labour involved. Something such as changing a couple of meta tags or page titles verges on the labour side of things so should be charged accordingly, whilst putting forth a proposal to completely re-program a site to dynamically create search engine friendly page titles and meta tags verges on the knowledge side of things, so again should be charged accordingly. It is all about balance.

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