Can you guess?
Could it be on page optimization?
Or perhaps researching the keywords?
Or maybe it’s restructuring the architecture of the website?
Wrong!
The biggest obstacle in the SEO (search engine optimization) process is the website owner. Yep, you heard me right. For the most part, website owners will argue with their SEO firm every step of the way!
Why? It may just be mis-understanding by the client on the SEO process (maybe poor education by the SEO firm) – it may be that the client considers his/her website their “baby” and therefore, all hands off! But mostly I think it’s just ignorance of the SEO process. And that goes for both site owners and SEO firms. Many firms promise the moon, the sun and more but they rarely go into detail on what exactly needs to be done to get the moon and the sun!
As an SEO webmaster who has been in practice for 10 years I can give you some of those details. If you’re a website owner working with or looking to work with an SEO firm, you should know the implications before you sign on the dotted line.
1) Your website will be changed – know that from the beginning. If you’re not comfortable with changes to your website, consider having an alternate website marketed but be aware that it’s the alternate that will be found on the search engines.
2) Your website will require continuous change. Yes, it’s true, you can’t just create a website and then let it bring in business for you. Are your competitors doing that? Maybe so. Maybe you and one other company are the only two selling a particular product. And that product happens to be in demand. If that is the case, then yes, you can get away with not changing your website. Because truthfully, the niche and demand are so specific, the search engines will HAVE to find both your websites.
But this isn’t normally the case. A Pompano Beach personal injury attorney won’t be the only PI attorney in Pompano Beach! So, his/her website will have to compete with the other personal injury attorneys in the area.
Here’s a little secret - if you want to see how often your online competitors change their website, put their domain on Code Monitor. It’ll give you an idea of how often they make a change either on their site or blog, etc.
3) Your website needs to grow. Yeah, I know. You’re thinking “Well, of course you’re going to tell me it needs to grow! That way the seo firm or the web designer keep getting a steady income from me for new pages! Ha! I’m smarter than that!” – Sorry to tell you, NO, that’s not the reason. Believe me, any web designer and any SEO firm (who are worth their salt) are busy enough! Just ask my clients! They’ll tell you how often they get emails from me at 1:30 AM (or later!).
But, here is the TRUE reason as to why you need to keep adding to your website.
a) Your website is your online office/retail space. So that means that if your client base searches for a service or product that you sell, you need to have that on your website. That means every single service or product that you sell must be on your website. Most businesses change their list of services, products throughout the year. Those changes need to be reflected on your website.
b) Your client base are also searching for answers to their questions that have to do with your product or service. It doesn’t matter if you sell divorce services, name tags, maps to movie star homes or whatever. There are questions out there that you can answer and why should your target audience find those answers somewhere else? They shouldn’t. They should find them on your website.
Are you going to have all the answers to all the questions on your website when it first launches? I doubt it. But you can continuously add to your website. After all, you may not be able to afford a 500 page website at first, but you could certainly build up to that a little at a time.
c) Every business has seasons. If you’re smart, you’ll know what your audience is looking for at each season of the year and you’ll alter your website to accommodate them.
Another Secret: most business websites receive the majority of traffic on Wednesday. If this is the case with your website, then make sure that every Tuesday night, your web designer puts up a special page or sets of pages just for Wednesday! Take advantage of the extra foot traffic to your website.
So, don’t be an obstacle to your own SEO campaign. There is no benefit to the SEO firm if your website does not succeed. For their own reputation, they WANT your website to succeed so they’re not just blowing smoke, they need to do what they’re telling you. Work with them and you will reap the rewards!
Tags: internet marketing, search engine optimization, seo
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported.
