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I think this is going to take a lot of people by surprise.

Because I see sooooo many SEO experts talking about…

How every business needs SEO.

But in reality… some businesses really don’t.

Yeah, you read that right.

Not every single business needs SEO.

Before you get all up in arms about this…

Here’s a great example: I don’t do SEO for my own agency’s website. 

And I’m not alone – most SEO agencies don’t do SEO for themselves. 

Why not? 

Because if you rank #1 on Google for “SEO agency,” you are going to get A LOT of cheap, unqualified leads. 

You’ll have spent thousands of dollars & hundreds of hours just to have dozens of UNQUALIFIED discovery/sales calls. 

Gigantic waste of time in my opinion. 

Anyway, where was I?

Ah yes!

You see…

Some of the most successful eCommerce brands in the world don’t do much SEO for themselves. 

There are hundreds of successful SaaS products that were built off the backs of paid ads, communities/forums, and cold email. Not a single dollar invested in SEO…

Building a mobile phone app? Google-based SEO is unnecessary, BUT you should optimize your app page for the Apple & Google Play stores, because those are search engines in their own right. 

I’m not saying to ignore SEO – I’m an SEO, that’d be preposterous. 

Every business requires SEO to a certain degree

But you don’t absolutely need it to thrive.

It depends on a handful of factors: 

• How much cash flow do you have? / How much money do you have to invest? 

• What’s your timeline for success? 

• Is there demand for your product/service on Google (i.e. search volume)?

• Are your other competitors already SEO giants in the space? Or will you be competing against just a handful of other companies? 

I try not to make blanket statements in SEO, because as we all know, “it depends…” 

BUT 

If you really don’t have much cash flow or money to invest, and you’re thinking about doing SEO

Then you should probably do this…

DON’T.

Just DON’T in SEO.

If you need to make money in the next 1-2 weeks so that you can pay your debts, pay employees/contractors, and order more stock for your eCom brand – paid ads is the route you should take. 

You won’t see any overly-profitable results from 1-2 weeks of SEO. 

But if you 2x or 3x your ad spend? Well, that’s a different conversation.

Okay Kai… I get it. 

But if you’re saying all of this, why do you still do eCommerce SEO?

Great question – here’s my answer: 

Some of the biggest eCommerce brands in the world are functionally BAD at SEO. 

But they win SERPs because they’re an enormous brand.

Let me give you a short example of a brand we work with: 

The brand that ranks #1 for their top keyword (8100 searches/month) is currently winning that spot because they’re 25x bigger than our brand in terms of yearly revenue. (roughly $2m/year vs. $50m/year)

They spend more on paid ads. They have a bigger social media presence. They’re just bigger. 

However, our brand’s SEO is so much better than theirs. 

Of course I’m biased, I did it myself. But objectively, we’re doing all of the right things, and it’s only a matter of time until we claim that #1 spot. Seriously, we’re going to win the #1 spot because they aren’t paying attention and almost arrogantly, I know that I’m better than whoever is “handling” their SEO.

Why doesn’t the #1 competitor do any SEO or play any defense against us? 

Because they are 25x bigger – we are a fly on their windshield.

Their money is far better spent on growing the business in other areas like wholesale, retail, brand awareness/PR, celebrity & influencer partnerships, etc. 

Now…

Sticking in the eCommerce realm…

If you are building a new brand and you see that your primary competitors are spending an obscene amount of money on paid ads, influencer marketing, and other channels, then SEO might be a good play for you. 

Why?

Because if you ask any eCommerce founder in the world, I’d bet that over 90% of them would tell you that SEO is near the bottom of their channel priority. 

And because of this, you can capitalize on organic search while they ignore it.

You can win it while they aren’t even looking. 

How’s that for a slap in the face to your competitors?

On the flip side, if your organic competitors are absolute SEO giants, and you’re just starting out, get creative with other channels or pick a new niche.

So back to the big, hairy question: should you do SEO? 

I can’t tell you what to do. 

I can tell you it’s expensive – backlinks, content, strategy, and execution don’t come cheap.

And if you can’t afford to invest a few thousand each month, knowing your return is months away, then I’d put it on the backburner for now. 

But if you’re growing well past $100k/month (as an eCom brand), you should absolutely be thinking about it, provided that you think the SERP is winnable.

Investing in it will decrease your customer acquisition cost (CAC), while increasing your top line revenue. 

Essentially, you’ll make more and spend less over time – an obvious win.

One last thing to touch on: 

Customer demand

If your dream keyword only gets 100 searches/month and your product retails below $100, pick a new channel. 

But if you sell a high-ticket product or service that’s $1000+ in value, those 100 searches each month are pretty damn valuable. 

That’s it for today.

Until next time,

Kai Cromwell