A while ago we wrote our theory about "search marketing in one sentence". Our editors took some time to rewrite this. Here's the updated theory:

SEARCH MARKETING IN ONE SENTENCE

For the past few years of a full service web marketing firm our team has more than often heard (beyond exhaustion) the infamous question.

How do you get websites ranked higher or how can I get more traffic and more sales???

Being that is usually coming from a business owner/internet entrepreneur this question is economic in nature. This person or company is actually asking “how do we make more money” with our website(s)?

While we are not stock brokers or financial experts, don't be naive to think that the internet is exempt from the universal laws of economics. The supply and demand of your product or service CAN and WILL influence your search engine positioning and ultimate success. If you change your perspective to fit one economist you can actually boil down a mountain of books, blog advice and lectures into one simple answer. SEO may be an art...but true success in internet business is a economic science.

So here it is point blank

DEMAND (MONEY + TIME) = Your Website's Online Visibility

That's correct. This simple algebraic equation is a baseline approach that intelligent Internet marketer must consider when promoting a website. Let us explain the variables to this formula.

Variable #1: MONEY

DEMAND (MONEY + TIME) = Your Website's Online Visibility

We are mean and green. Welcome to the NOW generation. Most businesses are impatient and will quickly turn to paid advertising for quick traffic and sales. This includes spending on paid advertising, paid linking, press releases, anything that costs money to get visibility on line. It could take months to rank for a phrase like “New Balance running shoes” where it takes only 15 minutes to setup a Google Adwords campaign and start getting traffic immediately. However you must be willing to pay anywhere from $0.01 to over $50 a click for this traffic. Once your out of money, tough luck.

There is nothing wrong with spending money on paid advertising as long as your business is producing a positive ROI. Paid traffic can also bring you repeat business that will likely go directly to your website. Also considering this primary way search engines generate revenue (in fact Google makes 99% of its revenue through Adwords) it's unlikely the paid online advertising will ever go obsolete. Our suggestion is to make sure you are carefully managing your paid accounts...or hire a professional to manage them for you. Many people are clueless when it comes to setting up and managing pay per click campaigns. Similar to hiring an accountant to save money on taxes, hire a legitimate search engine marketing professional to save money on pay per click and/or other forms of on line advertising

Variable #2: TIME

DEMAND (MONEY + TIME) = ONLINE VISIBILITY

It's possible to generate on line visibility without spending a dime on paid advertising. This is usually accomplished through countless hours of search engine optimization, blogging, social networking, etc. This is often more common with hobbyists/part timers who are under less pressure to generate on line revenue. The problem it may take several months/years to learn how to naturally promote a website and much longer to actually apply these tactics. A common problem (and sometimes fatal error) beginners may succumb to taking bad advice and end up using questionable tactics that end up hurting their online positioning. Plus it isn't just about SEO anymore, there are newer web marketing options such as blogging, video promotion, mobile advertising and social marketing that smart businesses are embracing to gain new customers. Not to mention the organic listings on search engines are finite, where the competition is growing every minute.

Devoting your effort to promoting a website/blog can be very rewarding if you are diligent in your work. However remember the old cliche “time is money”. Do you really have extra time to devote to your project? If the answer is “yes” great, if no find someone to do it for you (unless you want to become a SEO professional).

VARIABLE #3: DEMAND

DEMAND (TIME + MONEY) = Your Website's Online Visibility

In the not too distant past, the venerable web marketing guru Danny Sullivan commented at SES conference in Chicago that when it comes to web marketing “it is much easier to have the search engines pull your product or service....then trying to push it”. Just face it, some services or products are in more demand than others. And some industries are more or less complicated. If you are trying to promote a website for general keywords related to mortgages, real estate, viagra, etc you are likely going to have demand variable that is far less than 1 ( < 1 ). This variable will unfortunately lower the return on your efforts involving TIME and MONEY. So for instance your product/service demand is 1% then your equation might look like something like this

(1%) multiplied by ($100000 x 200 hours of work) = ONLINE VISIBILITY RETURN

Not to be discouraging, but just realize that if you have a low demand service/product you will end up investing more time and money. You may also have to focus more a certain niche for these markets. For example, you may next to impossible for a newbie to get ranked on the first page of Google time getting ranked on the first page for "New York Real Estate". Considering your brutal competition your demand variable is going to be very low for this phrase. However if you try promoting our website for "Ashland New York Real Estate" (Ashland is a small city in NY state) your are much more likely to get higher returns and placement for this specific phrase.

Also don't forget to mention hot topics that are being noticed by the media/public. Have you found the cure for cancer? Did Oprah endorse your book/product? Do you have something special that none of your competitors can offer (and your customers truly want) If your honest answer is YES your demand variable will increase exponentially. So the little money/time you devote to a high demand service/product will be significantly multiplied.

The tricky part about demand is that many business owners often overestimate the true demand for their service or product. You need to seek unbiased information about popular your service/product is.

You also need to protect yourself against copycats, imitators and knock off artists. If you have a great idea make sure to file for a trademark/service mark immediately with the United States Patent and Trademark Office

So you may be saying to yourself “well I get your point....so now what?”. Well every situation is different. First off except the fact that there are NO SHORTCUTS in online marketing business, but you can make better educated choices. Just like any long term investment you must stay optimistic because you will eventually get what you pay for.

SEO Prodigy understands that there is no best answer for online marketing, but there are better answers.