Search Engine Optimisation or SEO is a contentious subject for many businesses. Oh and if you're a little confused about what exactly search engine optimisation is, this explanation will help! But the thing is, many businesses make it worse by falling for what we call the SEO Cycle of Denial and it goes something like this.
Warning: As with our last post this one also contains some hard truths.
Is This You?
You've got (what you believe to be) a great website. It doesn't get much traffic and it's not particularly visible in Google searches for (what you believe to be) the search phrases your customers are using. Your competitors have got (what you believe to be) poor websites but they rank in Google and it's (what you believe to be) unfair. Am I describing you? Be honest.
A Sporting Analogy
Setting aside where it originated there's a saying in sport that goes something like "The more I practice the luckier I get". In my experience, it's true both in sport and business and pretty much everything else. You could say getting lucky is habit forming. However, for people stuck in the SEO Cycle of Denial they never get lucky because they expend most of their energy looking for a silver bullet. Take it from us, there isn't one and the longer you prevaricate the more opportunities you're missing.
Consider A Strategy Where You Deserve Your Success
Most people recognise that sporting greatness comes to those who train hard and stay the course. There are no guarantees, many people work hard and fail but it's rare for natural talent alone to be enough. So it is with search and generating business on-line. Lead generation is hard and it favours the brave, it favours life's hard workers, those who know that success doesn't come easy. People who've fallen into the Cycle of Denial don't recognise this, for them there must be an easier way.
Think About Something (Hard) You've Succeeded At
What have you achieved in your life that was hard? Your academic qualifications? Your professional qualifications? Running a marathon in a decent time? Now think about how you went about it. It's likely you made a plan, followed it, mostly, and got an outcome you were happy with. Do this with your website. Create a realistic plan, set aside your past prejudices, accept your competitors are beating you and you have to work harder. Just accepting you need to get smarter will mean you're on your way. Seriously, you need to do this if you want to drive business enquiries from your website. The only alternative is paid search using PPC and again we talked about this in an earlier post.
Next Steps
Your choice of next steps is pretty straightforward. You can either continue with the SEO Cycle of Denial or embrace the world as it really is and decide how you're going to deal with it. There's a ton of fantastic information out there for people who want listen. Equally, there are plenty of snake oil salesmen ready to sell you a quick and easy fix...that won't work.
