Do You Fear SEO?

There are a lot – and we mean A LOT – of websites out there today, and the vast majority of people are using the Internet to search just about everything – from the best restaurant in the area to how to install a faucet. This means there is a lot of noise and competition out there, and it’s very easy for your website to get left behind.

If you want people to find YOUR website, you need to make sure that it is optimized for search engines. That means that when someone types in “plumbers in Reading PA” that your website – if you own a plumbing business in Reading – shows up near the top.

This is called SEO or Search Engine Optimization. Webopedia defines SEO as “a methodology of strategies, techniques, and tactics used to increase the amount of visitors to a website by obtaining a high-ranking placement in the search results page of a search engine (SERP) — including Google, Bing, Yahoo and other search engines.”

For many years, SEO earned a bad name. It was considered somewhat unethical and manipulative, and to some extent it was. Some marketers used questionable strategies to earn or buy traffic to their website. Those techniques are generally referred to as “black hat” SEO. But the rules have changed.

Today, search engines like Google want to give people who are looking for information the best experience possible. The old SEO methods often yielded less than optimum experiences – sending people to websites with little or no relevance to what they were looking for. The search engines got wise to this and changed their algorithms making many of the old SEO methods ineffective. Today’s SEO practices help people find your website only if it is relevant to what they were looking for.

If you aren’t using SEO, your website is probably getting lost in all the noise, and you’re missing out on opportunities to attract new customers. Unfortunately, many people who are new to SEO find it intimidating, so they either ignore it or decide to address it later when they have more time, but later never comes.

This is true of almost any marketing technique, but with today’s technologically connected society, SEO should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. Unfortunately, because it does take time to see a return on investment, businesses sometimes give up on SEO before they see actual results. We encourage you to be patient.

There are a lot of moving parts to consider when optimizing your website. Experts estimate that Google considers more than 200 factors when ranking your website, but you don’t have to do everything at one time. You can choose to implement one technique at a time until you’re using the full power and potential of SEO. The other option is to hire a marketing agency like PMI to do the heavy lifting for you, thereby freeing up your time to do what you do best – running your business. You can also do a combination of the two, where you and your staff do some of the work, and the rest is outsourced.

The good news is that you don’t have to be a computer geek with a Masters degree from MIT. Like anything, it may take some time to learn, but many SEO techniques can be executed by just about anyone. Again, if it seems overwhelming or too complicated, focus on implementing one thing at a time or call us for help.

Google does impose SEO penalties on certain practices. Sometimes the hottest technique currently will become the very thing that Google frowns upon the next week. To avoid these penalties, your best bet is to focus on known best practices. I.e., avoid anything that feels like gaming the system, so to speak.

If you aren’t doing it right, this could be true, but the more you analyze your current website and find keyword patterns, the quicker you’ll be able to identify the keywords that resonate with your target audience – the ones who are ready to convert from visitor to paying customers. Look at what searchers are using to find your website including the volume, relevance, and level of completion of your keywords. Beyond that, make sure your website design is attractive and communicates your value propositions persuasively. No amount of traffic will cure a poorly designed website or worthless content.

If you find SEO intimidating, you aren’t alone. Search Engine Optimization does take time, resources, and patience, but it can be done. And when it’s done correctly, the benefits far outweigh the time, effort and cost.

The question shouldn’t be, “Do I want to invest in SEO?” It should be, “Do I want to invest my time to learn SEO or hand that off to an expert so I can spend it running my business?” If the second option sounds right for you then give PMI a call at (484) 297-6395 or contact us online if you want your SEO strategy to be in good hands.

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*This is a condensed version of the post entitled “ Why People are Afraid of SEO .”