Digital marketing myths and facts

The internet changes almost daily and along with it the way people use the internet. What is the best way to reach your audience? Does the internet really work for B2B or local marketing? This article is an “at a glance” look at the myths and facts of internet marketing.

Myth: Having Meta Keywords and Meta Description is all that’s needed to assure search engine placement.

Fact: It’s no longer sufficient to add a few META tags, submit your site and wait for top placement. Many search engines give only token attention to META tags in lieu of giving more weight to the actual content within the website. Optimization, positioning, content relevance, incoming links, and much more go into a successfully promoted site.

Myth: Local businesses won’t benefit from rankings in search engines.

Fact: 63% of US Internet users performed a local search in July alone of 2006 – That figure represents about 109 million people.

Of the 94 million American adults who use the internet, 59 million Americans use the internet to search daily (November 2005), up 55% from the 38 million reported in 2004.

Myth: Businesses don’t use the web to find other businesses. We won’t get any prospects from optimizing our B2B site.

Fact: US Based online B2B transactions will surpass $650 billion by 2008. This represents an annual growth rate of 52%. The internet serves, in many ways, as a “virtual tradeshow” of products and services available to businesses – especially in niche markets.

Myth: The traffic generated by search engines is not the type that purchases products or services.

Fact: Case studies have shown that search engine traffic is equal to or better than traffic from more expensive sources. In fact, studies have shown that people who research products and services online will spend an average of 30% more when the purchase is made.

Myth: Paying for an automated submission service is all you need to make sure that your site is picked up by all possible search tools.

Fact: There are dozens of firms who claim to submit your site to 15,000 search engines for $9.95/$19.95. These offers usually come by email and do nothing (if anything) but spam the search engines with submissions. Not only is this a waste of time but it is very likely ‘blackballed’ the website from being indexed because of “black hat” practices.

Myth: Once I am in the search engines and traffic is coming to my site I’ll automatically make more sales.

Fact: It takes more than a well-positioned website to make sales. It takes a site that is ready to receive traffic and directs visitors to the course of action you want them to take with a compelling reason to take that action.

It’s all about converting visitors into customers. The average website enjoys a 2.4% conversion rate. Do you know the conversion rate your site is getting?

Myth: What worked well for us one or two (or more) years ago will still work today.

Fact: The web continues to grow in dimension. Today’s internet marketing tools include more than search optimization. Also in the mix: podcasts, online social media, mobile web, website analysis, and much, much more.

If you are still doing the same things and the number of orders, sales, leads, etc. from your site has not increased (or has even decreased) that is an indication that the site has fallen behind. Take a look at your web analytics to get more information about what you can be doing to increase traffic. If you don’t have web analytics installed, investigate the options available.

You might also consider outsourcing your digital marketing program. Hiring an expert to get your site back on the right track can do wonders for the effectiveness and overall conversion rates of your website.