Good Enough is Not Good Enough – SEO

In a previous blog post I discussed a Forbe’s article that highlighted the importance of Local SEO as a business investment. I concluded with the statement from Forbe’s that ‘Investing in Organic SEO is more important than ever before, despite the current difficulty everyone finds themselves facing regarding the lack of organic keyword data and traffic.’ http://www.forbes.com/sites/steveolenski/2014/03/26/7-reasons-why-your-business-should-invest-in-seo/

Knowing ‘what’ to do is only half the battle. There are thousands of articles that offer a short list of tasks needed to start a Local SEO campaign.  The information is good. It offers a ‘how to get started’ outline, but it doesn’t tell business owners ‘how’ to run a local SEO campaign.

More important, it doesn’t tell business owners what to do when their campaign fails to generate leads.

3 Things an Internet Marketing Consultant Won’t Tell You

There are a lot of SEO firms out there. They offer ‘the service’ and tell clients that they are not responsible for results. They offer ‘enough’ to satisfy their ‘proof of work’ but generate no results. The internet has no place for SEO firms that believe ‘good enough is good enough.’

1. Go Viral

Does your internet marketing company know how to go viral? The truth is ‘nobody knows how to go viral.’ But what a marketing company should do is write content, share images, and create videos that ‘can’ go viral.

It isn’t enough to keep posting advertisements that talk ‘all about how great your company is.’ While these are important, it is also important that you write what people want to share.

2. Be involved

If the marketing company doesn’t need you involved, then they are about 5 years behind current SEO trends.  Most traffic comes from Google. Google is creating a network that will eventually link everything back to the business owner.

This is their most aggressive attacks against spam. It is also the first step towards creating a customer-focused buying experience. When business owners are involved with their customers it builds trust, relationships, and sales.

Business owners need to realize that their internet business is not turnkey. You’d never think of opening the doors of a store and sit in the back office all day. When you came out the till would be empty.

This is exactly what many small business owners do with their website. They set it up, hire a company to build links, then step back and wonder why they are not making money.

3. Don’t Let Them Learn On Your Dime

The biggest trend is people starting SEO or website design companies and then out sourcing the work. They are learning, and using your success and failure to learn ‘how to market.’ This is often truest in the largest companies.

Make sure that your company has employees you can talk to. Do not work for a company who only has 1 or 2 people you can talk to. It isn’t necessary to be ‘hands on’ or talk with every team member as your campaign progresses. It is important to make sure you work for a marketing company with a strong background that knows 2 things. First, hire a company that knows how to build a website and run an SEO campaign. Second, that they know how to solve problems.

These three steps will help you make informed decisions and choose the best strategy for your business.