One of the trends that gets contentious is one where we see traditional advertising agencies somehow acquiring search marketing “expertise” overnight. I’ve always contended that search engine MARKETING is what SEO is all about–and that PPC is just search engine ADVERTISING. Agencies should be able to do a good job at PPC, because that’s a world they understand (although writing classified ads is not the creative activity that justifies their high fees). On developing a robust strategic information architecture, writing page content that cascades into the site, drawing the search engine spiders along and establishing authority on choice keyword phrases? Not exactly the forte of a hot creative shop.

On the other hand, you have clients expecting their inhouse marketing team to add management of the site optimization process to its job description, without adding staff. Reworking your website’s content, or developing a new site with SEO web design in mind is not a part-time, when-you-get-to-it project. And, it’s probably not something your in-house writer or your design firm can do as well as an experienced SEO agency. However, most sizable companies do their SEO internally, because of the nature of developing content and the requirement of working closely with the web team. And probably, they recognize that the ad agency isn’t a good fit for this type of work.

MarketingSherpa reports that the typical traffic increase from in-house SEO is 38%, and that it’s 110% when clients use an SEO agency. As an agency that turned its B2B marketing expertise into a focused SEO agency six years ago, we know that there are a lot of subject matter experts required to do a good job on the varied range of client sites. It’s this experience and actual mastery of the work that makes our results better than DIY, but it’s not always clear to clients what to expect from SEO.

That’s why we do such a thorough audit, competitive analysis and deep keyword research. We put it in writing, and we scope our projects based on the specific competitive environment our client is struggling in. We’re very specific about the site optimization plan, and what else needs to be done to be competitive. Most importantly, we collaborate and partner transparently with our marketing colleagues on the client side. We want you to understand this stuff, to learn how to do it well, and to help your company thrive in the online marketplace of information, quick comparison and immediate consideration that has turned your sales department into order takers.

Having a small business myself, I know how much I needed sales in the early days, and how much I have had to learn about marketing to understand where sales come from. Have you ever noticed how few advertising agencies advertise? That should tell you something about marketing professional services.

When it comes to web marketing, the small local business owner is clueless about what tools are available. One of the most powerful is absolutely free: signing up for a business listing on Google Maps. Local results are often at the very top of the search engine results, right where you want to be found.

The other recommendation I make is to try pay per click advertising. For a modest budget, maybe $300-600 a month, you can advertise on the most popular search terms for your business, and target only local prospects. Over a few months, you will gather data on what search terms are resulting in traffic, which terms actually turn into business, and how much it costs to be present when people are shopping. Since a full SEO program costs at least a couple thousand dollars a month, PPC advertising can help you test the waters and see if search marketing is profitable for your business. This is a test we recommend, before you make the financial commitment to use SEO to show up on top of the rankings, based on your site’s merits and not ad dollars. If PPC works for you, and you know that only 18% of B2B prospects click on those ads, then SEO starts to look like a better investment.

From this most recent study from eMarketer, it looks like marketing executives are really coming up to speed on two important issues: marketing basics (any economic downturn spurs both a drive toward “back to basics” in budgeting and an emphasis on measurement and then reporting on ROI) and, surprisingly, search engine optimization. From our viewpoint, SEO is the foundation of modern marketing, especially if you are marketing to businesses…it’s nice to see our client-side marketing peers mention it as both a trend and as an almost fundamental emphasis.