If you’re reluctantly climbing aboard the SEO bandwagon, there are a few things you need to come to terms with. For one thing, Kübler-Ross was really on to something. She might have been talking about the stages of grief, but she sure as heck pegged the average SEO journey… Oh yes, it’s a rollercoaster:

Denial – Surely you just throw up a website and the customers come?

Anger – Not another *thing* I have to do!

Bargaining – Here’s $20 – put me on the front page of Google.

Depression – this isn’t as easy as I thought…

Acceptance – Let’s do this.

Five things to consider when it comes to SEO

In reality, there is a lot that businesses can do to get themselves SEO ready without lifting a finger. By simply coming to the process with an open mind and an understanding of what’s ahead, you can make it a whole lot easier, and more productive, for everyone.

So, if you’re a business owner or marketer, consider this a healthy dose of SEO mindset coaching – five little gifts to your future SEO consultants.

Number one:

Your website is your real estate. I 100 per cent get that SEO is confusing – and in the wrong hands can be a touch shady – but it’s such an important part of any business’s marketing strategy. That owned platform is your piece of internet property, most of the time it’s your business’s main digital presence … you need to make sure it’s delivering the goods.

And, to that end, while a phenomenal social media presence can churn out great results, it’s worth remembering that that can be gone at the click of a mouse. Fall foul of Facebook or Instagram and your following could be wiped out.

Number two:

A bitter pill to swallow, but … Google rankings aren’t actually where it’s at. Shocking, right? While it’s obviously an important metric, you can’t walk into Woolworths and buy groceries with it. The only true measure of success is the number of customers and the amount they’re spending.  Ranking number one for an irrelevant keyword or a keyword that doesn’t have any search volume isn’t useful.

Money – cold, hard cash – will trump the best Google ranking any day of the week.

Number three:

SEO isn’t quick and it shouldn’t be dirty. A quality service costs money and it takes time to deliver. If you want to understand what you’re getting for your money, ask. Usually, you’re looking at technical optimisation, tailored content and link building. Cheaping out will probably cost you in the long run and, even if you commit real resources to the process, you need to be aware that returns probably won’t be immediate.

For new businesses in particular it can be a slow burn but, done right, the results will eventually materialise, and they will be well worth your patience.

Number four:

Pleasing Google, as well as your customers, is a bit of a balancing act. Once Google discovers a page on your site, it visits (‘crawls’). How the creepy Google spiders view the site is different to how your customers interact with it, so your technical SEO will be tackling all those bits that aren’t delivering the goods for search engines while ensuring that the site still delivers conversions.

This is where you might have to be prepared to compromise and find a happy medium between the bells and whistles and optimal design for SEO. Ultimately you need both – a site that attracts visitors and then turns them into customers.

Number five:

Write for people first, then search engines. SEO should build the bridge between the problems your customers have hopped online to solve, and the marketing messages on your site.

If the copy stinks, it doesn’t matter how many keywords you stuff in there. Do yourself and your customers a favour and speak to them as humans who need what you’re selling.

So, if your web presence isn’t what it could be, don’t shy away from SEO: Look that sucker straight in the eye and make it work for you.

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