I’ve written about the reasons that agencies should offer SEO services before. But it wasn’t until recently that they became tangible. An SEO consultant said that a client asked her to do keyword research and then write taglines using keywords.

And so it begins. Agencies are not necessarily the gatekeepers of a client’s brand anymore. Rather, the owner of the keywords will be the driving force behind the brand. Keywords for all stages of the sales decision process:

Keywords incorporated into all communications from the company: off-line and online advertising, public relations, investor relations, internal communications, customer service, etc.

So the question to consider is do you want to wait for your client to give you the keywords that off-line communications need to integrate? Or do you want to continue to be the leader of your client’s brand by integrating online with off-line?

For those choosing the latter, the good news is that it’s not too late. Agencies that specialize in advertising, public relations, and marketing communications have options to get into search:

• hire an SEO specialist
• partner with an SEO firm
• acquire an SEO firm
• train current staff
• become a Lead Maverick reseller partner (my personal favorite)

If you would like to jump headfirst in to see what keyword research is all about, here are some tools that will help:

• Wordtracker
• Google Insights for Search
• Microsoft AdCenter Excel Add-in

Search is continuing to grow…in the number of searches conducted and in online spending. Agencies that delay getting into search risk losing control of their clients’ brands…and eventually the budgets.