As a child I used to be scared of a lot of things but two major things scare me the most.
One was the fact that I was the first child in a family of 4. This means a lot of things were expected of me. I have to lay a good example for my younger ones to follow. As the saying goes where I come from “the horse behind looks at the pace of the horse in front to determine his speed”.
The second thing that scares me most was the fact that my mother was separated from my dad. So I was scared of getting married and was always afraid I might make a mess of it.
Now, I am a bit older and I have a beautiful wife and a lovely girl. I look forward to closing from work every day so I can rush home to meet them.
If you ask me, I think I turned out just fine.
Likewise most businesses are scared of the word Search Engine Optimization or SEO as it is popularly called.
For ages, tales of woes of business that has been hurt by the search giant rants the air either through an art of commission or omission by their SEO agency or sometimes by the business owners themselves. Add that to the ever changing nature of the way Google updates it’s algorithm and the situation becomes almost helpless.
Yet despite all these optimizing a website for search is not a matter of if but only of when. So the real question is how should you approach your SEO so that you:
- Get the best out of your it- Remember it all about traffic, sales and brand awareness
And
- Avoid the wrath of the search giant Google.
Wherever you go, you will get tons of never ending tips and tricks that promise to rank your website to high heaven. Some of these tricks do work for a limited time but if you do not get the basis right, it is doomed to fail. And these lead us to the following tips for succeeding with your SEO in 2015.
The first thing you should do is:
1. Pick the best SEO provider:
When the foundation is destroyed, what can the righteous do? Your whole process should begin with the fact that you have carried out due diligence in choosing the right partner for the service. If you are building an in-house team, then you need to make sure that the team undergoes regular training to keep up with best practice. Most problems usually arise when businesses choose to outsource their SEO. Learning how to pick the right service provider is the only antidote to a bad ending.
2. SEO is not really about ranking for every keyword
There is need for a pragmatic change in the way businesses and even some practitioners think about SEO. Search Engine Optimization has never been about ranking for keywords or getting to the number one position. Website optimization has always been about making sure that the right kind of people finds your website at the right time. This is the reason we obsess about how people search, write good content and build links. This is the reason why we engage in conversion optimization and spend hours analysing the WWW (Who, What and Why) of our visitors. The whole aim is to create the best experience for our visitors so that they in turn get interested in whatever our offer is. It has not and will continue not to be about ranking.
3. It is a long battle you can win:
90% of the time most of the people I come across usually want the website on the first page within a period of one month and my first duty is to make them see that SEO is not something that you have a fast trick to succeed in. As a matter of fact, Google has not made it very plain how and what factors they use in ranking websites. The only thing we know is that they are ready to display search results irrespective of weather a website is properly optimized or not. While they are doing a great job of cleaning up the SERP estate in every location, there are still and will be occasional slips.
Since results have to be displaced irrespective of other factors, no matter your keyword, there are people who are already ranking for your keywords. Spam or not these are the people you have to contend with. It won’t happen overnight but it sure can happen. So understand that there is no quick fix and then begin following the right practice. Sooner or later, your dreams of a higher ranking will be achieved.
4. When you are axed admit it and move on
I hate to admit it but one day, either through an act of commission or omission you may find your website has been penalised. It could be an algorithm penalty or a manual. If it is a manual penalty, then you have to clean up your house but if it is an algorithm, you have to hope that once you have cleaned up your house, the next update favours you. For those businesses who engage in following the rules, this might be far off and in between but should you ever get hit in the crossfire, learn to move on.
5. Do not put all your eggs in one basket
SEO is important but it is only a tiny part of an online marketing strategy. The remaining piece of the puzzle are social media marketing, email marketing, offline marketing etc. SEO should never been seen as the fix all solutions to getting customers to your business. It is only one channel you can use in attracting customers to your business. Implement SEO but focus on building a business that transcends channels. This means you should be able to talk to your customers via email, engage them on social and be there to answer their questions on different communities and forum. When possible get in the local news (PR).
6. Put your audience first and last
Finally put your audience first. Your customers might find you through SEO but if you leave a bad taste in their mouth, they are never ever going to return. Understanding your audience, giving them value for their time and money, then making sure that you make them a key part of your business growth is the secret to succeeding at SEO.
And should you ever be scared, remember this quote about immortality.
“The aim is not to live forever but to create something that will”
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