Beware of SEO firms making big promises

I am amazed at the vast number of emails I get from SEO companies promising to get my aviation marketing website on page 1 of Google. These firms must not be doing their homework because my website is already on page 1.

Many times , these so called SEO experts who spam your inbox are snake-oil salesmen reincarnated, using unethical techniques to drive up search rankings. If you’re a novice to search engine optimization, you may be tempted to contact one of these firms – especially those who offer an enticing ploy of not charging until they achieve a target search objective. The problem is that in search engine optimization there is the right way (“White Hat” methods) to achieve good search rankings, and the wrong way (“Black Hat” methods).

Black Hat Methods Can Get You Blacklisted

SEO firms that employ “black hat” methods such as keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaked and doorway pages, link farming, and blog spamming, can indeed improve your search rankings short-term, but these techniques violate search engine terms of service, putting your website at risk of being banned. Search algorithms identify these SEO tricks and will eventually blacklist your site from future searches, keeping potential customers from being able to find you. It happens every day, and quite often business don’t even realize it until much later.

More money to reinstate your site’s SEO status and integrity

One day your aviation business website appears on page 1 of Google and you happily pay the charlatan’s SEO fee; the next day, your website has been “blacklisted” and doesn’t appear on any search engine. Now that great deal is going to cost you more money, time and resources to correct the damage done.

The first clue a SEO firm may be unscrupulous is the fact they promote themselves via unsolicited emails; if they market their own company by using unethical spam techniques, how ethical will they be in their SEO practices to promote your aviation company? Not very.

In choosing a search engine optimization firm, you want a firm who has a proven track record of results and satisfied customers. It’s always a good idea to check a firm’s background and ask for references.

Avinash Kaushik

Social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter) is in vogue among connected consumers and many companies are hoping to capitalize on this marketing avenue to promote their business. I was curious to know how effective (or not) social media has been for other marketing aviation professionals — are they truly walking the walk, rather than talking (tweeting) the talk — I recently posted the above quote on LinkedIn to learn what experiences my colleagues have had using Social Media.

Troy B. reported, “Frankly, we’re loving it. . . When I reach someone who buys an airline ticket, parks in on-airport parking, purchases food, beverages and a magazine, brags about our WiFi and speedy screening lines, and plans to do it again soon — all based on info I’ve tweeted — I start to like the results.”

However, some are not 100% confident in this colleague’s social media experience.

“… there are a great many people who have learned the hard way that the medium is far less benign that was first assumed,” said Ronald K. “A lesson of both teenage sex and social media is that both are best done with adequate protection in place.”

I agree social media can often be impulsive, not to be taken lightly with its implications, and often times regrettable, not unlike teen sex.

And also concede that as a customer service tool, social media may well be worth the time and effort, especially for brand/image sensitive businesses. However, many of my own clients are in B2B space, and I hesitate to recommend Facebook or Twitter as a marketing tool because it is hard to quantify its effectiveness. I know from experience placing an ad for these clients will make the phones ring, and public relations will build awareness.

Steve E. said, “If you compare dollar-to-dollar spending, I’ll take social media over standard media any day as the immediate discussion that ensues is direct and instant and something that far exceeds anything standard advertising has to offer.”

But how well will social media generate new businesses as compared to traditional media is the question I need answered before recommending social media to my clients.

Allow me this hypothetical:

Using traditional marketing tools, say I run a 6-month, $10,000 advertising campaign for a client in a trade publication reaching their target audience. Assume this campaign generates 100 leads and the client closes 10. The cost per new customer acquisition is $1,000.

Alternatively, the client contracts to develop and monitor a social media program. We spend on average one hour a day building their network, making posts, responding to queries and, at the end of six months, the program has also yielded 10 sales. Assuming $100 per hour is charged (social media needs to be monitored by qualified staff, thus a higher per hour fee), then the cost to the client is $13,000! (5 hrs/week over 26 weeks = 130 hours x $100/hour). This is significantly higher than traditional advertising.

Granted, one can argue with my numbers in my hypothetical example, but to do social media effectively, you have to commit to high level of time management, and you also need to highly capable people managing your social media programs (otherwise more harm than good may be generated). With these facts in mind, social media may not be the holy grail of marketing as many proponents suggest.

Social media has a definite role in marketing, such as customer service and company announcements. But as an effective sales generating tool, I remain skeptical. I continue to encourage my clients to wait before they act impulsively and regret it.

Much like I advise the teenagers in my life.

Professional blogger and aviation enthusiast James Lawrence promises over 200 blogs a year — with the added bonus of his high quality, award winning aviation photography. Lawrence is the LSA editor for Plane & Pilot Magazine and now we get all his insights for free with one click at ByDanJonson.com.  There’s no need to register or pay a single dime: just click away for the latest developments and news in the light-sport aviation industry and check out James Lawrence’s take on our industry. He’s an incredible writer, phenomenal photographer, and all ‘round great guy! Read for yourself!

JetBlue is getting very, very friendly!

JetBlue, long considered the social media maven with nearly 1.5 million followers on Twitter…but what’s this? A measly 60k on Facebook??? This can’t be! So what’s the popular airline kid to do when they have no friends?

Easy, bribe them!

JetBlue is doing just so, and dang it, everyone is wishing they did it first, but will undoubtedly follow suit. Sooner rather than later, but we, the wannabes frantically friending JetBlue will end up the winners regardless.

Here’s the deal: JetBlue Facebook wants more friends, and to get them, they’re offering a carefully engineered campaign to add more – a lot more, quickly and with as much PR as possible.

A fan focused campaign, named buffet-style All-You-Can-Jet Fan Sweepstakes thrives on the age old gimmick of FREE STUFF. What’s old is new again!

Become a facebook fan and you can win free round-trip tickets, comped airfaire and a vacation for you and — get this — three friends for 5 days and 4 nights. Or, the grand prize of unlimited free travel on JetBlue for a year. A YEAR!

Simple and easy: a marketing dream come true. Become a fan of JetBlue and submit a ballot via the JetBlue Sweeps Page tab.

JetBlue gets the friends they’re looking for, and we get the chance to dream a little dream of traveling on someone else’s dime.

Hey, that’s what friends are for, right? (Up to 73k at this posting…and counting!)

After creating the page, I suggested that just because they built the page, it doesn’t mean customers will find it on the web. They really needed to optimize their website to improve their ranking when someone does a search through Google, Yahoo or MSN for aircraft to charter.

Search Engine Optimization is an important tool in aviation marketing. At Aviation Marketing Consulting, we have become expert in optimizing websites for search engines. It’s a somewhat complex and ever-changing endeavor, as there are over 100 factors that contribute to how high your website will rank for a particular search term, and there are no hard and fast rules to follow. Sometimes a couple of simple elements will get you on page 1 of Google and other times it’s a long and laborious process.

However, with enough patience, expertise and follow-through, good (even great) results can be achieved, which can lead to more sales and customers!

FYI, if want to find out how well we did for Panorama, go to Google and do a search for “aircraft charter new york,”  Panorama Flight Service’s aircraft charter webpage was ranked #1 in the organic search listings as of this posting.