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Oct 22, 2008 at 10:55am Eastern by Paul Bruemmer Two Ways To Justify SEO In Uncertain Times In House - A Column From Search Engine Land During uncertain economic times like these, our advice is to always stick with the fundamentals to maintain business efficiency and progress. No matter what your business model, performing the fundamentals will keep you on-track and in-line for leveraging future success. If the C-level executives in your company are having any doubts about the value of SEO and are hesitating to release more funding, it's time to perform a cost-benefit exercise. It's your job as an in-house SEO manager to reestablish their confidence in the value of SEO as well as your value and the value of your team. When funding gets in the way, having a narrow focus, putting it on the table, and describing company goals you are committed to are all very important. 1) Leverage Your Paid Search Data To demonstrate implicit value for SEO, start with a baseline. Show where your key terms currently rank in organic and multiply by the cost-per-click value. Run the numbers for the value of direct clicks with high search intent. One way to go about this is to calculate an Effective Cost-Per-Click (eCPC) for your organic listings: 1. Access the Keyword Tool within your Google AdWords account. 2. Type your best performing (for instance, 20) keywords. 3. Select descriptive words or phrases and synonyms. 4. Click Get Keyword Ideas. This will produce a report; select Exact within the "Match Type" field and click on Approx Avg Search Volume. 1. Look at the Cost-Per-Click column to acquire the CPC value (let's assume it's $2.00). 2. Go to your web analytics data and identify the number of organic clicks for these keywords (let's assume 20,000/month). 3. Multiply the two (CPC times the number of organic clicks (in this case $40,000/mo)). 4. Create a spreadsheet with your best performing keywords and make the statement, "if we

"If you find a sluggish market, your client can become a winner with the right strategy."

"Content marketing is the most sought-after SEO service for 31.3% of SEO pros, followed by keyword strategy (30.8%) and web design (25.5%)"

The downside to having a dedicated IP address is the cost. Most ESPs charge an initial set-up fee of $500 to $1,000 for a dedicated IP address; there's also often a $250 monthly fee for maintaining it. This directly impacts your e-mail ROI (define). For large quantity senders the additional cost is minimal, but for those sending small volumes of e-mail it can make a dent in your profit margin. A shared IP address is just what it sounds like -- you're sharing the IP address with other organizations. Every company sending from the IP address has the potential to impact, positively or negatively, its reputation. If your IP address neighbors are good guys, the reputation shouldn't be damaged. But if one of them (or if you) does something that raises a red flag, the IP address' reputation will be tarnished and all e-mail sent from it could be blacklisted. Why Might You Want to Share an IP Address? The ESP I spoke with recently raised another valid positive about shared IP addresses, at least for low-volume senders. When we talk reputation, we talk about positive, neutral, and negative. To get on the reputation radar, the IP address needs to be sending a certain amount of e-mail each month. If your sends are small, your dedicated IP address may be below the radar and never "qualify" for a positive or a negative reputation -- you'll be stuck with a "neutral" reputation or no reputation at all. This isn't all bad, but it's also not all good. By having companies share IP addresses, this ESP contends it is able to get enough volume to earn positive IP address reputations, which helps its customers' e-mail get to the inbox. This is a valid point, as long as everyone using the IP address behaves and avoids red flags. It's a calculated strategy, one which requires the ESP to provide education about e-mail best practices and closely monitor every IP address to ensure customers are in compliance. If you're sending from your own in-house system, these same pros and cons apply

The downside to having a dedicated IP address is the cost. Most ESPs charge an initial set-up fee of $500 to $1,000 for a dedicated IP address; there's also often a $250 monthly fee for maintaining it. This directly impacts your e-mail ROI (define). For large quantity senders the additional cost is minimal, but for those sending small volumes of e-mail it can make a dent in your profit margin. A shared IP address is just what it sounds like -- you're sharing the IP address with other organizations. Every company sending from the IP address has the potential to impact, positively or negatively, its reputation. If your IP address neighbors are good guys, the reputation shouldn't be damaged. But if one of them (or if you) does something that raises a red flag, the IP address' reputation will be tarnished and all e-mail sent from it could be blacklisted. Why Might You Want to Share an IP Address? The ESP I spoke with recently raised another valid positive about shared IP addresses, at least for low-volume senders. When we talk reputation, we talk about positive, neutral, and negative. To get on the reputation radar, the IP address needs to be sending a certain amount of e-mail each month. If your sends are small, your dedicated IP address may be below the radar and never "qualify" for a positive or a negative reputation -- you'll be stuck with a "neutral" reputation or no reputation at all. This isn't all bad, but it's also not all good. By having companies share IP addresses, this ESP contends it is able to get enough volume to earn positive IP address reputations, which helps its customers' e-mail get to the inbox. This is a valid point, as long as everyone using the IP address behaves and avoids red flags. It's a calculated strategy, one which requires the ESP to provide education about e-mail best practices and closely monitor every IP address to ensure customers are in compliance. If you're sending from your own in-house system, these same pros and cons apply

Rand Fishkin said

"Pricing"

"The content on the specific URL you link to is important and impacts ranking in the local results.  For most businesses, it makes sense to link to the homepage since that URL has the most authority, backlinks, and relevance.  However, for some businesses that qualify to have multiple listings, using a strategy like this can help provide better results."