For some companies, times are tough. So when a marketing manager or CMO (chief marketing officer) receives an email from an “Internet marketing specialist” who can get their site to the top of the search engines for a specific phrase, the company might jump at the opportunity.

Marketers beware…these “opportunities” from these “Internet marketing specialists” may not be as good as they sound.

Here’s a real world example that just prompted this blog post.

I received an email from one of these “Internet marketing specialists”. Obviously he does his research since we’re an SEO firm (that’s sarcastic).

Here’s the opening line:

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“Hello, my name is [removed] and I am an internet marketing specialist. I was looking at websites under the keyword 4 wheeler parts and came across your website http://www.polarispartshouse.com. I see that you’re not ranked on the first page of Google for a makeup search. Knowing your websites rankings as well as your competitions rankings is crucial for your online success.”

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It goes on to tell me more about his service and his promises. Impressive, right?

To someone who doesn’t understand SEO, this might sound very appealing. If you sell Polaris parts, why wouldn’t you want to get traffic for 4 wheeler parts? After all, you DO sell 4 wheeler parts.

Here’s why.

What are we selling?

  • 4 wheeler parts – yes, sometimes.
  • Polaris parts – yes, ALL THE TIME.

So where would you want your focus to be? 4 wheeler parts…or Polaris parts?

The search phrase “4 wheeler parts” does not qualify the traffic. Simply stated, there are a lot of manufacturers out there that sell 4 wheeler parts like Honda, Yamaha, Arctic Cat, Can-Am, Suzuki, Kawasaki, and, of course, Polaris. Among many others.

So if someone is looking for 4 wheeler parts, they need parts that fit their specific make and model. They don’t want to land on PolarisPartsHouse.com if they are looking for Yamaha parts! So the effort is wasted and no sales are going to happen anyways.

So what we do choose to focus on is higher quality traffic. Would “Polaris parts” be a good search phase? If someone types “Polaris parts” into the search engines, what are they looking for? Polaris parts. And would it make good sense for them to find PolarisPartsHouse.com, where all Polaris parts are sold? Heck yeah! (And where do you see PolarisPartsHouse.com for Polaris Parts on Google?)

A few more reasons why this offer is a joke. The search phrase “4 wheeler parts” is searched for 12,100 times in October according to Google. The search phrase “Polaris parts” was searched for 673,000 times. But if he knew the target market, he’d know they don’t search for “4 wheeler parts”, they search “atv parts”.

I’m writing this post to educate companies who might jump at the original offer. When I visited their website, there was no address, just a phone number, an email, a testimonial and a way to pay for their services. Come on! Do not do business with companies like this. Choose a local company that you can talk to and hold accountable or a company that you’re referred to because someone else has used them with success. Guess what…the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it is.” even applies to SEO. 🙂

I hope this helps!
Paul