There’s an interesting TV show on cable called “Extreme Cheapskates” that features people who go from cutting their own hair to scavenging food from the garbage receptacles! Well, nothing against their choice if they say it works for them. But here’s a stern warning: there is no such thing as cutting corners when it comes to creating a strong online presence!
Cheap SEO Isn’t Cheap — It’s Dangerous!
Here are some ways SEO can be done “cheaply,” and how it triggers Google’s alert button and flag your site:
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Cheap SEO|How It Hurts You
Buying links or getting links from low quality websites|Google Penguin classifies this as link spamming. You will suffer the whipping of Penguin’s tail for low quality links.
Producing and distributing low quality content|Google Panda chooses only high quality content whether on your website or those which you create and syndicate (mass distribute) to the web. Google Panda will penalize your site for producing low quality content.
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Other Cheap Online Tactics[attr class=”someclass”]|How They Hurts You
Cutting your PPC campaign abruptly to just $100 per month.|If you’re building a brand, consistent visibility is the key. Running a good spread of PPC adverts consistently will give you the value of a solid presence instead of being a “one-day wonder” or “here now, gone tomorrow” company.
Cheap Website Design|There are many free website builders if not templates online. Or if you decide to engage a web designer but got the really cheap ones then brace yourself for a cruddy looking website as well. Remember, even if you have SEO that securely places you at the top of Google and PPC that gets you instant rush of traffic, if your website looks unprofessional then both the ranking and the traffic will not succeed at conversion. In marketing, you measure profits, not rankings or visits.
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Online marketing is indispensable to your arsenal of marketing strategies because it is one of the ways you can do marketing relatively cheaply compared to high cost mainstream marketing techniques. In fact, going viral is a guerrilla marketing strategy.
What you need to remember is that being relatively cheaper; you can’t squeeze your online marketing dollar too much to not have juice anymore. It’s a fierce world out there and this does not exempt online marketing. You have to stand out or be forgotten. Unfortunately, those that have resorted to cheap online strategies have tasted the bitter effect of being completely wiped out of Google either by a penalty or by people’s choice for other better websites over theirs.
A revolution is happening out there, and it is a digital revolution where most people would go online and see your website first before they even see your physical store. The cliché is true: You can never get a second chance for a good first impression. So don’t go cheap.
Invest in a good responsive website; invest in a decent SEO Company, and in consistent PPC. All these will assure you the long-term rewards of increase in profits and a brand that stays.
