Are The Major Search Engines Forcing Small Home Based Business Owners Out Of The Marketplace?

Copyright © 2007 Nicholas Busbee


Have you taken a look lately at what it takes to have a good listing on the major search engines?

When you begin to read the requirements that it takes to get good placement on the major search engines, and then add in the cost of using pay per click, on major search engines it begins to seem as though they are giving small online or home based business owners every reason to look elsewhere for opportunities to reach potential customers who use the Internet.

Let's take a look at the least of the requirements we need to meet as home based or small business owners who advertise online, and depend on the "Organic" search results.

I suppose the phrase we hear most often with scoring high on the non paid for (organic) results pages is "Content is king." I just read an article that was discussing website content which said that not long ago, a small online or home based business website could have ten to twenty pages of keyword rich content that would generate great search engine results and lots of traffíc.

Now it's more like one to two hundred pages of original content is necessary to score highly on the most economical (organic) search result pages. The strange thing about this requirement is that on some of the most visited websites in the world the average number of pages viewed by visitors is 3 to 5 pages. Why would it be necessary to have one to two hundred pages of original content when even the largest online businesses don't come close to having that many pages visited?

What about this requirement to have original content? Almost everyone get's their content from some source. Even scientist. Is there anything written about that's completely original? Doesn't almost everything written about have some reference point? Some topic of origin? And as a small online or home based business, who would have thought that in order to sell a "widget" of any type, would require 200 pages of original content about "widgets."

How many of your potential customers do you think would read even 50 pages of content about whatever it is that you sell, in order to make a decision to purchase from your website? Probably not many. And if most of your potential customers did read let's say 100 pages of your original website content, do you know what just happened?

When anyone stays or revisits your online busness enough to read 50 pages of your original content,then you my friend, have just written a book! (smiles!) 100 or 200 pages of "original" content? I've read shorter books!

Does it really take that much website content to sell anything that the average small online or home based business would sell? Let's ask this question... Who would one to two hundred pages of original website content benefit the most, if your customer's and potential customers are not reading most of it?

Let's look at it logically...

1. The average potential customer doesn't need 100 pages or a small book worth of content in order to make a purchasing decision, that's obvious. If that were true, most companies could fire their sales staff and just mail out books full of valuable content and optimized keywords to sell their products and secure new customers.

2. You could do far better concentrating your time on increasing your conversion rates, than coming up with 100 or 200 pages of original content about "widgets." I mean, even if you sell Diamonds or Gold, it not going to take your customer 100 pages of original content about diamonds or gold to make a sale.

And realistically, how much truly original content can you come up with concerning just about any item you could sell? And don't let them try to tell you that they really mean almost or mostly original content! If something is original, by nature it can't be almost original. That would be like being "almost" pregnant!

Next, how many small online and home based business owners are even prepared or have the time to write that much original content? Sure it wouldn't be a problem if you're selling 100 different items. But I doubt this is true of the average home based business.

So who would benefit the most from this "content overload?"

I don't know if you have noticed or not, but usually immediately after the "tip" on having the "proper" amount of original website content, the next "tip" is that you should optimize your "multitude" of original website content with Pay Per Click ads. That way you can possibly make some extra money or pocket change, when your potential customers click off of your page.

But... unless you're getting a lot of website visitors, the monetary gains will be minimal. (barely "pocket change") But on the other hand, the advertisers get the same valuable exposure they would get if they were advertising anywhere else. Maybe better, depending on how long your home based business holds a vistor's interest.

So it seems like the advertisers who buy and advertise on PPC's, and the Search Engines who sell the advertising space for profit are the major beneficiaries of this "content is king" movement. The advertisers have millions of small advertising venues, that do add up! The PPC search engines pay a minimal amount to the small business owners for "clicks" originating from their websites, and they charge a hefty fee to the advertisers who accept the dismal performance of search engines, providing an average mediocre conversion rate of one to two percent.

So what if you don't have time or the expertise to invent 100 to 200 pages of original website content for your home based or small online business? If you're a new small online business entrepreneur, you are probably working on a shoestring budget. Every advertising cent has to be spent efficiently. So paying someone else to invent 200 pages of original content for your website is probably not going to be affordable.

Your next best option for good placement on the major search engine pages is going to be Pay Per Click. But if you have read any of the blogs that discuss pay per click topics, you'll quickly see that the cost, versus the average conversion rates for pay per click accounts can be prohibitive for a small online or home based business owner. Unless you are selling a very expensive product or service, with an extremely high profit margin.

The days of 5 and 10 cents per click have been over for a long time! On the Google Adwords forum I read consistantly where advertisers complain about having very unique keywords that relate only to their particular business model, and still they are being charged sometime five to ten dollars per click. I have personally read of advertisers who have no competitors at all in their genre' of business and still being charged astronomical prices for their clicks.

On my main website for example, the product I sell cost forty seven dollars. The average conversion rate for PPC's on the major search engines is 2 percent. (and i'm being generous) For example The number one PPC search engine Google, and Google Adwords, considers 1 sale out of 100 clicks to be a 100 percent conversion rate. 100 percent?!

One sale out of a potential 100 customers is considered to be a 100 percent success or conversion rate? Isn't that similar to counting backwards??? To be completely transparent on this topic, why even be in business as a paid advertising venue, when the best you can consistantly deliver is 1 out of 100? Those type of statistics would tell the average thinking person that something is wrong with the business model.

But I guess if you can convince enough prople that a one or two percent conversion rate is normal, acceptable, or it is due to consumer wariness and fears of doing business with an unknown home based or small online business, then that business can continue to "wallow" in mediocrity and make a lot of money off of the advertisers who will accept and spend their hard earned money, with companies that tell them to expect and appreciate a 1 or 2 percent average conversion rate.

Let me tell you, as a salesman with years of experience selling, if I averaged a one to two percent conversion rate, I would starve. And then be fired for poor job performance!

Anyway... if my product sells for 47 dollars and I pay anymore than 40 cents per click, after I pay the company that processes credit card payments for me, I only make 5 dollars and some change profit! I work too hard promoting my product for that to be an acceptable profit margin. How much do your products or services sell for? How hard do you work on promoting your home based business? Working smart is best, but at some point success requires hard work!

And my friend... 40 cents per click on the major search engines will get you absolutely nowhere fast. Not if you are using popular search terms. And even if you use obscure keyword phrases, most likely any amount that is less than one dollar per click will still get you nowhere. And if you do get an inexpensive keyword phrase, it will probably provide you only a small amount of potential customers.

If you utilize the secondary search engines, some of which will charge you a flat fee to advertise, you will probably get very few website visitors. That has been my experience. Even on Microsoft's Adcenter for example, which is one of the major search engines, back when I used the account, Once just to see what would happen. I bid 40 cents per click on some popular and obscure keywords for my home based business. For this entire year I have only had one click! Even for the popular keywords. I know my ads aren't THAT bad, because they are the exact same ads I used on my Google Adwords account, where even on a bad month I would get at least 100 clicks.

On my Google Adwords account one time I recieved 131 clicks in less than four hours! Of course that was immediately after I had made a few unpopular post on the Google Adwords Forum!! But that's another story! (smiles!)

I guess the next paid avenue for advertising your small online or home based business would getting your website listed in the directories that have a good page rank. That can become expensive for a new online home based business. Because the directories that have a good page rank are going to probably cost you anywhere from $29.99 to $299 dollars. And you will need to get listed in more than one directory. You won't be able to get around spending money to advertise your home based business. That's a fact. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

The goal is to get true advertising value for your money. Directories will help your website get indexed (listed) by the major search engines, but it has been my experience that they will only bring you a small amount of potential customers. The number one goal is to get noticed by the major search engines when buying directory listings.

So again... where do we as small business owners go online to get noticed by our potential customers?

The next avenue is probably going to be purchasing paid links on other web properties. But if you read a post that Google's owner wrote, Google is now waging a war on links that have been paid for! So there's another venue that the small online business owner can be penalized for.

Okay!... What's left???

How about writing original articles, and submitting them to the free article directories, and in return we will get a free link back to our online home based business. First of all how many of us have the expertise or the time to write articles? I know I don't have the expertise! And how many of us even dreamed when we first started our small online or home based business, that we would need to somehow become "instant" authors in order to advertise our assorted "widgets?" and or services.

Now even writing articles, which is arguably the best and the most economical method to advertise a small online business, has come under attack. It's called duplicate content! If you utilize the free article base that is available to all, you run the risk of having your home based business penalized by the major search engines, because the free content you have chosen to display on your website, originated from another website.

Even if you write your own original article, and post it on an article directory before you place the article on your own website! Let me say that again... If you place your very own original article on your website secondary to placing it on a social network or article directory your own content becomes "duplicate content" and your website will be penalized for not being original.

Some of the article diretories seeing their demise coming along with this duplicate content rule or "fetish," are scared almost to death! Recently I had what is reputed to be one of the top article directories reject one of my articles. They complained that I was promoting a product that advocated using duplicate content. The article was titled Question... Are there any legitimate online home based business opportunities for a new Internet entrepreneur?


The editors at this article directory (Ezine Articles) said that I was promoting the use of duplicate content! If you'll read the article yourself you will see that I only gave the definition of "Private Label Rights." And further down in the article I clearly stated that you should write articles the same way that you talk. And that you should just picture yourself explaining what you do to your mom or dad.

And there are other ways to use "Private Label Rights" articles other than submitting them to Article Directories. Like printing hard copies and selling them, or burning them onto CD's or just using them to create fresh ideas!

Now I ask you to be the jury... Was my article promoting "Private Label Rights?

When I wrote back and illustrated the above mentioned, the editor had nothing to say! But then she came up with a brilliant reply! She didn't address my earlier point, other than to thank me for the clarification, but she then went on to tell me she would publish my article if I edited out the bold highlights I was using on certain words for emphasis. I do appreciate her telling me that... after I considered her opinion I came to the conclusion I was using to much bold emphasis on words.

But... If I used so many bold fonts in my article and it was that much of a problem, why didn't she mention it the first time she rejected my article???

What I believe happened was this... that particular editor for Ezines Articles saw the words "Private Label Rights" which seems to be synonymous with "duplicate content", and panicked. She almost "dropped the baby!"

She had become so intimidated by just the thought of the duplicate content "rule" and the effect it will eventually have on her business, where their main commodity is publishing someone else's original content, that she obviously rejected my article without reading past the definition of the phrase "Private Label Articles."

And then went on to accuse me of violating their rules for article submissions. Which I would never intentionally do. Especially something as blatant as advocating a business model that I know is against ANY article directory's terms and conditions.

But guess what... She has now begun to fight a war against her own business model! The very nature of an Article Directory's business is to publish other people's articles. Authors are not required to relenquish their ownership rights to their material, nor are they required to sign over exclusive rights to their articles that are published. Although that may be their last effort to stay profitable in the future. Don't be surprised. The question is...

How long will small online and home based business entrepreneurs continue to post articles on their websites, that are going to be devalued and or penalized for not being original? Why put forth the effort?

How long will authors continue to submit free articles, if they know that their content is going to be penalized wherever it is published online? Why bother? How much longer can article directories survive and be profitable?

And what about our potential customer's who are seeking information? They don't care how many different websites have the information that they are looking for! You will never hear an information seeker truly complaining about finding their desired information in too many locations on the Internet!

But... the same question asked of Article Directories applies to us, as small online and home based business owners. How long can our businesses survive if every afforadle avenue to advertise is penalized, blocked or soon to be barricaded? Do the major search engines really want our business anymore. Or do they just want our money?

About The Author:

Nicholas Busbee has been in Sales, Public Speaking to groups of up to and over 20,000 people, and Radio Broadcasting as an Air Personality from Classic Rock & Roll to Hip Hop & R+B, (Jazz and Bluegrass Gospel too!) for almost 25 years. His website helps people start their own home based business online or offline, selling Master Resale licensed software,e books and instructional videos. http://www.bestcoolwebsitetools.com/ Copyright © 2007 Nicholas Busbee All Rights Reserved Worldwide

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