CALL US Within our industry it’s always been a bit of a misnomer that companies like ours are called Search Engine Optimization Experts. The reality is we aren’t optimizing for search engines at all. I don’t work for Google and I am quite sure they don’t want me telling them how to optimize their site. (But I wish I could because they are making a mess of things right now) We help clients get ranked on search engines by the thoughtful and carefully planned out ongoing marketing tactics we do; but in reality, all we are doing is persuading the search engines to pay attention.
How do we do this? How do we persuade Google to pay attention? There is really no magic to it. It’s part science, part metrics, having a solid team that can produce good content, and a lot of experience and patience. We combine all these things together and create ongoing plans for our clients whereby each month we execute specific tactics to try to persuade Google and the other search engines to pay attention to what we are doing on behalf of our clients. Maybe our industry needs to be renamed SEPs or Search Engine Persuasion companies.
Depending on what company you talk to they all have a variety of tactics that are sometimes “guaranteed” to get you ranked on Page One of Google. I always laugh when I hear this. I’ve been in this industry for 15 years now and devoted purely to Search Engine Persuasion for the last 5+ years, and the one thing I can tell you for certain is this: there are no guarantees and anyone who gives you one is a low-level outfit in this industry and they are liable to do as much damage as good for you.
Here is what I can guarantee you:
- What I know today that is working to get my clients ranked on search engines isn’t necessarily what is going to work tomorrow and certainly not a year from now. Keeping up with the tides is very important, and Google’s Panda and Penguin updates showed a lot of people just that.
- There are no tricks, fast tactics, or magical ways to get you listed on search engines faster. Anyone who says this should leave you skeptical as to what they may do might get you there, but when Google finds out what you did (and they always do), you will be penalized and it will be 10 times as hard for you to get ranked the white hat and ethical way.
- Nothing is more important than your content. It needs to be by you, for your customers, and flow naturally like you were reading it out of a magazine or hearing it on a commercial.
- The company fastest to respond to leads is the one most likely to get the business. If you don’t believe me, go test this for yourself. Pick any site and then submit your info to it as well as 2-3 of their competitors. See who you end up being more likely to go with.
- If you run a good, sound business offline and treat your customers well, doing the same online will make you a success.
Getting ranked on search engines is the last thing you want to focus on when starting a business, and I wish I could say you could do it once and be done, but it’s a lot like your electric bill. Stop paying and eventually the lights go out. That’s what we are here for. We are the Persuaders.
