If you’re the type of person that gets a kick from taking high risks with low ROI probability, then this post likely isn’t for you.
However, if you’re the type of person that evaluates risk/reward and makes calculated decisions, then stick around and take note. A quality SEO strategy might be just the thing you’ll need.
We no longer live in an era where, if you want to grow your business, simply building an attractive website is considered good enough. Nicely laid out fonts, selective images and well-rounded literature are perfect for retention, but those elements alone WILL NOT get people to your site. You aren’t the only one selling lemonade on your street corner anymore, so what do you do to get people to come to your stand?
There are basically two ways:
- The right way – Strategic
- The wrong way – Impulse
Maybe you’ve already made the big move and have a basic online foundation, your site is running, was well thought out with the end-user in mind and seems to be exactly what you had visualized. Now what, what steps need to be taken to now get the exposure you need? Let’s start with the wrong way.
The Wrong Way.
You’ve realized your investment in building a website hasn’t paid off and all of a sudden you’re angry, dissatisfied and feel you’ve been duped into believing this internet thing works. For you the dreams of building the website and then getting rich made sense, but what’s happening? Why aren’t people visiting the site? Why is your wallet more empty then it was before the web venture? You take action, you’ve received an email from a solicitor claiming you’ll be #1 on Google in a matter of weeks and the money will start rolling in. For only $99.99 / month you’ll have an SEO campaign that will completely change the direction of your company and its future online! You’ll be ranked #1 for every major key term in your industry, you’ll be unstoppable! Sounds amazing, who wouldn’t take the plunge out of desperation and most likely because you just don’t know what’s about to hit you.
A month has passed and you’re starting to see some traction. There’s some visibility on page #2 and maybe even page #1 for some of the terms you’re going after. Month 2 is even better, more terms are showing up on page #1. Month 3 is even better! Then comes month 4 and Google has discovered your tactic. They’ve identified over 10,000 backlinks going to your website from some very shady sources. Then they send your Google WMT a warning message of suspicious activity, unbeknownst to you. A few more months pass and you notice you’ve dropped. You’re actually nowhere to be found online. And you’re having a hard time touching base with your expert SEO rep. Something doesn’t smell right, you pull the plug. So what’s happened? Why have you disappeared? The likely answer is you’ve been identified by the Google SPAM team as using blackhat SEO techniques. Leading you to receive a penalty. Ultimately leading to your site being taken off the SERP results pages. Leaving you to dig yourself out of a pretty massive hole!
Did you read that, your OFF the search engine results page, meaning, you cannot be found through search! Ya, that four-letter word comes to mind! If you’re going to venture into the amazing benefits, do it right, or don’t do it at all.
