The problem is that along the way, we have picked up some poor marketing practices and techniques, and this will affect how sustainable the results you are getting with SEO are. You can be king of the world one day and a poor old pauper the next, just by listening to one of the so-called “SEO gurus” and implementing some less than credible techniques or marketing practices...
Or, buying some of their valueless products which claim to be the magic bullet. Just to be clear where we are going wrong along the way, let’s look at some of the mistakes we are making and think about what we can do to turn it all around for the greater good.
1. We Don’t Have Control, We Never Did!
It is a fact that with SEO, we relinquish just how much we can control to Google. Google tells us that if we want to sell our products and services, we have to do exactly what they say, or else you will feel the wrath of some furry little panda or slimy little penguin.In fact, just how much personal data they have on us is enough to make anyone feel uneasy with the likes of Google Plus and all of our other Google accounts. The fact that they don’t tell us very clearly what they plan to do with this information can drive anyone to think they are being watched all the time, never knowing when the peeping tom will pounce. And that is where conspiracy theories come in.
There are people in the business world who have devoted their lives to explaining to us just what Google is doing to screw us all up in the internet marketing world. Conspiracy theory after conspiracy theory are spun but the fact that hardly any of them ever come to pass does not stop these people; it’s like this is the business that they are in – selling conspiracy theories, and we are in the business of buying them.
Basic psychology tells us 2 things about conspiracy theorists and those who believe in them. One is that they are individualistic and the other is that they feel that they have no sense of control. True, most entrepreneurs have to be individualistic is they want to stay ahead of the pack, but the loss of control is what you should be worried about.
Google is there and we need it so we have to pretty much do what they are asking us to, but we must do it without a sense that we are losing control. If you feel that way, it is time for you to diversify sources of traffic so that even if Google shuts you down tomorrow, you business has a chance or keeping its doors open.
2. Yes, You Can Make A Buck Selling Something Of ZERO Value
This has to do with the darker side of SEO, the one where you can use black hat methods to get lots and lots of traffic to your website. This strategy is usually supported by a completely valueless products at the end, and the only thing it rides on is that it has convinced people to buy something. This is, in fact, how some of the early riches of ecommerce were made, before people realized how underhanded black hat strategies were.The fact is though, that sooner or later, it all starts to unravel. People want value, and it will only take one card to bring the whole deck crashing – one day someone will point you out to the rest of the internet world and because it is a world that relies almost purely on trust, you will have to be booted out. Good luck getting back in.
The way to build a business is around a product that is so good that if it had a chance, it would sell itself. This means that some serious research has to go into it; time and money have to be spent in product development and you have to do rigorous quality testing. It doesn’t matter whether you are selling a training course or a diaper brand; all these things have to be done so that once the market has a taste of your product, they keep coming back because they want it but not because they see a blinking ad in the left hand corner of their computer screen.
3. Whatever You’ve Been Told, You CAN Make Money Without Spending It
This is the first lesson of business class – that you cannot make money without spending money. Even a lottery requires that you invest something in the ticket. Unfortunately, SEO teaches people that they can make money without spending any so long as you can get lots of links out there pointing back to your site. This is all up-side-down.Let’s say you decide to do all the work yourself; you have to spend a huge amount of time understanding how to place the right links in the right place that can result in profitable traffic. If you have an inheritance, go ahead and do that because it takes up all the working time that most people have.
If you want someone else to do it for you, you have to pay them, and because of the level of skill that is required to build up links that can convert to cash, these people are not cheap.
If you want your SEO to work, treat it like you treat any other marketing strategy that you have in your business. If you are going to put up adverts, you need a budget; flyers and brochures need a budget; even business cards, which are a great marketing tool, need a budget. Set something aside for SEO as well.
4. Don’t Take Everything As Gospel, Do Your Own Research
This is a common mistake that many businesses make. They assume that because experts have done a study, that whatever they say will work. Unfortunately, much as we wish it would be this way, most of the time it just isn’t. This means that businesses get to implement a new SEO strategy and then take for granted that it will work. They make projections on bottom lines based on reports and research from experts.Nothing is working until you have tested it and then looked at the data that it is giving you. If you have a social media campaign, just how much of your current business comes through efforts to keep the social media campaign going?
This is the kind of testing that is required, the kind that speaks for your company and your company alone. They all say social media works, but look how many try and then give up and tell you that it doesn’t. You have to try it out for yourself without making any assumptions.
To conclude, SEO is making us lazy as marketers. We have forgotten the basics to customer acquisition and customer retention. We have forgotten the real hard core lessons in testing something to make sure that it works. We have even forgotten that to make money, we have to spend money.
If you look at the top 50 most successful businesses in the world, most of them were founded when the internet, SEO and all these things were just a notion at the back of someone’s mind. They succeeded because they were ready to do the right kind of marketing so that they could get the right kinds of clients.
They were also ready to build products and services that spoke for themselves. As much as SEO makes business convenient to run, you should speak to an SEO consultant but not forget the old school stuff because after all, thats what makes the world go round.
Lucas RabyAbout the Author:
Lucas Raby is the owner of http://www.searchengineoptimization.me, an SEO Consulting business based in Melbourne, Australia. For more information about him, visit his website.