Why, dear reader, do I keep having the same discussion over and over? Is it me? Is there something wrong with the tone of my voice? Maybe it’s my last name, it’s hard to pronounce. I’m almost out of ideas.
Somebody explain why I keep having this conversation:

Poor me: “Hello, may I help you?”
Misinformed customer: “Yes, I want my website ranked on the first page of Google for . . .”

Let’s stop there. Do you know how much talking must now take place because “misinformed customer” has mistaken a tactic for a strategy? The conversation grows lengthier and more precarious depending on how many other people the “misinformed customer” has talked to prior. Why do some of my colleagues and competitors contribute to this confusion by answering “You bet!” to that same question?

So, what’s the big deal, you ask? Why don’t you just say yes and close the deal? Because the “misinformed customer” thinks they are telling me exactly what they want and I have to carefully dig, dig, dig, dig to find out what they really need and then provide them with the vocabulary to articulate it.

Maybe it’s just me. Let me be clear on my thinking; being ranked on the first page of Google for a particular key phrase is a tactic. Before you disagree in this context, let’s agree on the definition of tactic. Here’s what I’ve taken from Merriam-Webster:

Main Entry: 1tac•tic
Pronunciation: ˈtak-tik
Function: noun
Etymology: New Latin tactica, from Greek taktikē, from feminine of taktikos
Date: 1640
1 : a device for accomplishing an end
2 : a method of employing forces in combat

So, based on this definition, I believe that ranking is a tactic. It’s a device for accomplishing an end, whether it’s generating qualified leads or building brand recognition. It is not a matter of ethics, but of good business sense to ensure that any potential SEM customer understands this.

One critical element to selling and maintaining a loyal customer in any industry is to effectively listen to and understand the customer’s needs. When I sold paid search technology, the conversations were simple because I was selling to paid search professionals and because other firms couldn’t use naiveté to close a deal and thus perpetuate misunderstanding.

It seems in SEO that things are much different. Too many firms seem to be happy to sell on their promise to effectively perform a tactic, whether it contributes to the customer’s real needs or not. I don’t know this for a fact, but I really don’t have any other clue as to why I have to explain all of this over and over again.
So, I’m here to help everybody to help me. If you’re selling SEO and you are about to have this same conversation with a potential client, taking this tack has helped me to educate customers and win trust and win business: talk soup.

We can see from the most recent search trend analysis that while impressions remain relatively constant, clickthrough rates have been steadily dropping. This supports the theory that people are using search to research and buy, but they are doing less shopping around. It’s not the gospel, but most of us infer that this is because the internet is less of a novelty and is now becoming more like a shopping center or a grocery store. What does this mean for the marketer? It means that brand is back.
It is critical for our customers to understand this new grocery store analogy. There was a time when the internet was shiny and new and the “brick and mortars” didn’t have their act together and there weren’t established internet brands. That has all changed.

I use soup because it seems to be all about brand. There are maybe two soup brands anybody thinks about? Seriously, all these soup eaters and two brands?

When somebody comes to me and proclaims that a simple ranking tactic is the solution to their business problems, I make sure they’re not selling soup. Just because I put some new tomato soup brand above, below, to the left or to the right of Campbell’s, I doubt they’re going to sell anything. If product placement is their strategy, I can help them to do it, but they aren’t going to be happy. They’ll spend a lot of time and money for nothing. And yet I have customers who are basically trying to do the same thing; like a mortgage broker shopping around for the lowest quote to rank next to Lendingtree.com on the phrase “home loan”.

I promise to do my part to educate as much as sell. I hope others will join me. If you’re an SEO professional, somebody soon is going to call you to talk rankings. You can help them. Just talk soup.