One of the more common debates in SMB digital marketing revolves around the DIY vs. DIFM dilemma. Is it realistic for a service provider to hand over its tech platform to a small merchant, or is high-level “done for you” assistance required? Surefire Social CEO Chris Marentis thinks the answer may lie somewhere in the middle.

The company recently released SMB Visible, its integrated social media, content marketing and SEO platform that helps SMBs tackle the fast-evolving discoverability challenge, where social signals, “earned backlinks”, fresh content and mobile optimization all have a hand in getting found.

Surefire Social’s proverbial special sauce, however, may be its network of “coaches” spread around the U.S. that work directly with clients to create their full digital footprint and generate a roadmap of editorial that drives engagement and leads. Certainly not DIY, but also different from many of the DIFM platforms that often take control out of the hands of the SMB and produce generic, high-level content that can at times homogenize brand voice and miss opportunities for direct customer engagement.

Marentis envisions building out the coach network to 100+ within two years to scale the SMB Visible platform. Also look for deeper movement into leads-based content.

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“We aren’t [as a culture] wired for long-term investment, and SEO is long term. We’d rather take a statin drug than use diet and exercise to stay healthy.” That’s how Search Influence CEO Will Scott described the SEO dilemma. It’s not a quick fix for driving traffic, but long term it is the best way.

This was one of the insightful messages, wrapped in a clever package, emerging from this morning’s pre-conference session on “SEO for CEOs (and Everyone Else)” at ILM East in Boston.

Andrew Shotland, an SEO guru who writes the Local SEO Guide blog, kicked things off with a primer on how website publishers can improve their traffic by doing the things that Google’s algorithms value.

Google has recently implemented some critical algorithm updates (with cloak and dagger code names) that have profound impact on organic search traffic.

According to Shotland, the latest update (code name Panda) is all about weeding out low-quality sites by focusing on site performance and engagement as key metrics, among other things. The change is significant. He cited the example of one site that went from 30 million to 15 million visitors per month immediately after the update.

Engagement is a key driver post Panda. If engagement is low, your company’s site rank is probably low. Relevant, well-linked, sticky content matters.

Site performance is also key. Focusing on improving site performance is an effective way to improve organic results. He cited the example of one client that improved from pages loading in 800 milliseconds to 300 milliseconds per page, and says traffic doubled.

Another algorithm change code-named “Venice” has led to Google pushing more local results into the SERP organic results. Since Venice, being a local business (with a real physical location) and a trusted information source are much more highly valued.

Regarding engagement, Shotland said the rules aren’t entirely clear, but it is fair to say businesses do not focus enough on engagement. Social is one element of engagement, he said, noting that social signals may be part of the Google algorithm.

John Denny, VP of marketing at Advance Digital, followed Shotland and talked about the critical importance of good content to SEO.

“Thought leadership content development is a huge competitive advantage,” he said. The catch is, this is not easy to do. This requires provisioning high-quality content in blogs, newsletters, webinars, Q&A content, and so on.

Denny illustrated the importance of good SEO with some stats.

* 56 percent of Google queries don’t show any paid ads at all.

* Organic results on page 1 are between 2 and 6 times more visible than a paid listing.

* 77 percent of users choose organic results over paid listing.

All this feeds into the bigger trend of the shift from spending on media to spending on services (e.g., SEO, content development), Denny said.

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SEO companies are a dime a dozen. How do you stand out? How about guaranteeing a front page rank on major search engines to SMBs? That’s what Relevant Ads’ Local Splash has done.

The fast-growing SEO company cofounded in 2006 by former Local.com executive David Rodecker has built a template for SEO that it hopes to sell to thousands of SMBs on its own, as well as via third parties. It guarantees a Page 1 ranking on a major search engine within six weeks of a contract, based on an extensive business profile that it develops, triggering placements on local maps, local organic search pages, mobile screens, as well as pay-per-click.

Local Splash also provides a bevy of other services for SMBs, including loan outs of its huge roster of exclusive domain names relevant to local business (i.e., PlumberInIrvine.com). It also provide local video ads, merging business information into short, keyword-driven video presentations. The company also registers a Facebook page for clients, and encourages them to use various MerchantCircle tools (i.e., newsletters and coupons).

A recent visit to the company’s new headquarters in Santa Ana, California, shows a buzzing and large new workplace, with telemarketers crammed tight.

The company’s model is deliberately kept simple. It is $199 for a setup fee, and then $159 a month for a standard package. This gets customers into local map and organic result via direct feeds to Google, Yahoo, MerchantCircle, Bing, Yelp, Facebook and others. Other options include $40 and $100 monthly AdWords packages (or higher custom deals).

CEO Steve Yeich, a veteran of the domain registry business, and before that, a local search leader at Overture (and Yahoo, after the acquisition of Overture), tells us that roughly 25 percent of customers take an AdWords package. Yeich notes that the company has primarily reached out to SMBs via telemarketing, although it has some premise sales.

The company’s real growth, however, is its Agency/Key Account business, which targets national brands and their agencies. These accounts currently make up 25 percent of the company’s revenues, but will soon be about 50 percent. The company also has direct sales relationships with various organizations, including the American Association of Franchisees and Dealers (AAFD), a 50,000-member group.

To us, the company may not be all that differentiated from the efforts of third-party resellers such as ReachLocal, WebVisible, Yodle and Orange Soda. But Yeich believes the company has a unique offering, especially with its emphasis on map placement and mobile. Such resellers are ideal partners, he says.

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Yodle, the third-party SMB reseller, has now divided its business into “Yodle Sponsored” and “Yodle Organic.” The formation of the latter division, which has been live for a month with 150 clients, is a recognition that SMBs are increasingly relying on organic search as much as paid search — and they need help driving exposure to their Web sites, blogs, YouTube, and social sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

For $400 a month, with six-month initial contracts, Yodle Organic is set to pump up its clients’ organic search rankings. It will provide personalized consultations, design and code Web sites to maximize search rankings; help create and syndicate video; distribute local business profiles to search sites and directories; and provide a dashboard that allows SMBs to measure goals.

Yodle CEO Court Cunningham says the timing feels right. “SEO’s price-per-lead and price-per-click is substantially lower than SEM. But it isn’t ‘either-or.’ They complement each other,” he says. “SEO takes time to build your site so it becomes visible and builds authority in the eyes of the search engines. It is about building equity in a brand that is long lasting.”

The challenge is to properly scale the effort for each client and make money — Yodle gets an average of about $1,000 per month from its 7,000 paid search clients. “No one has productized and automated and put clear accounting” around something like this, he says. But “we’ve been building Web sites for three years. We’re experts in automation.”

Still, it is an ongoing experiment as Yodle works to get clients non-paid traffic in such new areas as maps, article sharing sites and even Google’s 7 Pack. “We look at these things as organic distribution,” says Cunningham.

Content production is probably the biggest question mark for Yodle (and for any company entering this space). Out of the gate, Yodle is using a combination of external contributors, internal editors and curated content from other sources. It hopes to provide at least 10 fresh pieces of content a month to each client.

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Real-time reservations have moved beyond restaurants, hair salons and parking garages and are now being offered for self storage units. G5 Search Marketing, which specializes in self storage, has teamed with Centershift and United Stor-All Management to launch Web sites that integrate G5’s SEO and clickthrough solutions with unit availability, pricing, promotions and payment.

The effort allows United Stor-All to consolidate the Web presences of 80 facilities in 17 states and D.C. that it currently manages, while generating brand awareness and Web traffic for its storage unit owners. It is the first of several third-party integrations that G5 has planned for 2010.

“Integrating at the point of sale enables us to close the loop and truly track a new customer all the way back to the origination point online,” says G5 CEO Dan Hobin. “Our clients like to know that they have a managed service.” At the same time, Hobin says clients expect “full access” to their sites and want to be able to make changes at will.

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