I was on a call with a client the other day. He talked about SEO (search engine optimization / a.k.a. getting higher search engine rankings) like he had it covered because he was paying some company somewhere $50 a month. He then proceeded to ask me why he wasn't ranking that well.
Let's analyze this. How much work would you do at your company for just $50 a month? Not much, right? When you factor overhead expenses and taxes and everything, you might make, what? $15-$20 on that work? You're probably not going to break your back for that. With that said, I don't know why this client was expecting miracles with just that $50 a month for SEO. It's really no wonder why he wasn't ranking well. Expectations were completely out of line. I didn't scold him for it (and didn't say it quite like that) but I made some comments to try to get him to come to this conclusion himself.
Here's some information to help you learn more about SEO along with some things to avoid.
Snake oil!
Yes, there's offers for many "magic pills" out there - these are ways that will just completely skyrocket you to the top of Google without Google knowing what hit them because you used this one piece of software. Believe that? If that were true, wouldn't everyone be doing that? If everyone were doing that, wouldn't it then be difficult to rank high because everyone is doing the same thing?
That's exactly why there are no "get rich quick" scheme out there. Once everyone starts doing the same thing, it's no longer quick and easy. If you happen to get in on something that actually is new and works, then that's where you may benefit - before the masses get it - but only then.
Bottom line... by the time these snake oil offers get out there, they're already overused and outdated. Google has caught on or they will very soon. Don't go from magic pill to magic pill. You are just wasting time, spending money and not getting anywhere. Your best bet is a long term, planned approach that will be something Google wants for years and years to come.
Here's a simple SEO plan that works.
Before I spill the beans, people wonder why we tell our clients how to do it. Well, that answer is simple... it takes work and lots of it. It's a lot of grunt work and my guess is that most business owners' time is worth a lot more than doing this grunt work. We love to tell them how to do it because it shows them the value we provide and all that we go through to get websites to rank higher. It's important people understand what has to happen, how much work it will take and why it will take time for their website to rank well. The great thing is that once it does, you get long-term results and it takes less effort to stay on top (in most cases - meaning, don't ask us to rank #1 for "digital cameras" unless you have a quarter million to spend).
On with the steps:
There you go - SEO in less than 10 steps!
Obviously, each step has many sub-steps and it's a lot of work. You have to know which SEO tools to use, which keywords are good, where to get links, etc. etc. It's a lot of research and it takes experience to make the right moves. Since it takes time, you want to take correct steps. Sometimes we may take the wrong steps because a part of this is experimentation but in general, you'll start seeing improvement.
It's totally going to depend on your industry and how much competition there is. Some websites are easier to rank than others. Expect higher costs to get started and then for costs to plateau as we go into "repeat" mode.
For more information about Wisconsin SEO or SEO for your website, please contact Webstix today.
-Tony
