I have an interesting case. For two years I pitched to do a holding company's web sites - the company consist of 4 divisions and then the Corporate site.
I had a great co-branding strategy as well but only 1/5 divisions wanted to go with my proposal. 4/5 web sites were done by another local company and I did the site for the 1 division that was impressed with my presentation and proposal.
2 Days after launch I got a call from the CEO that I must please join them for a meeting as he was not happy with the quality of work done by the other web development company that landed the other sites and he wanted me to take it all over.
There was no problem in doing that and after 3 years I am still awaiting patiently as ever the response from the 5th company.
Now here is the interesting thing. My counterpart told this Corporate that SEM is not needed as they only submit once and that the search engines will continue to find the sites. So no continued support.
The quality of the work was shocking - it looked like Word documents saved as html files.....
Anyway, I work on the basis with my clients that we sign a contract for 6 months - continued
SEO, SEP and SEM. After 6 months, I do a complete report and we meet, then decide what needs to happen next. On a monthly basis, I provide feedback on stats etc. and make changes as we go along -
SEO never ends as you very well know.
All 4 companies on board do not want to reveal their sales from the sites but they told me that from one sale they cover my 6 monthly fee. And they sell more than one item from their sites that is for sure.
A large part of what I do is customer education and we are now reaching the stage where the customer realize how important
SEO and SEM is on an ongoing basis, but it took blood, sweat and tears to get there.
The interesting part of it all is that their suppliers also have individual sites as this company is merely a Southern African distributor of industrial equipment.
The other day, just out of interest, I looked up their positioning vs their suppliers' and it is frightening. The South African distributor in many cases outrank the actual manufacturer's web site on specific search terms. Search terms for which I would think the Manufacturer's site should rank highest! And these are well-known brands.
Anyway, taking a look at their competition in South Africa - well not being arrogant or complacent but it is clear that there is just no concept of
SEO, SEP and SEM. It is really fascinating taking into account what is happening on the web.
I think companies with well known brands cannot afford to be complacent and this article just confirms my own experiences. I spend a lot of time on customer education and even though frustrating at times, it does pay off in the end.
I guess in short my client gave me the biggest compliment the other day when I told him our 6 month review is coming up in August - he replied and said "Your last month will be August 2010"......
That is quite a compliment - it is hard work for relatively little pay but worth its while in gold when you have a happy customer.
And there is no recipe - just bleeding figers on keyboards.....and many late nights.