Online marketing is a prerequisite for any website owner, after all, a professional and beautiful website is a waste of money if it doesn’t get visitors. Most people now accept that the mentality of “build it and they will come” is laughable, mainly because it just ain’t so!
Dodgy Practices
Back in the early days of search, a few sneaky practices ensured that your site would get to the top of the rankings; I’m talking about, of course, keyword stuffing and dodgy links. These were the main tactics used by the many SEO agencies that seemed to appear almost overnight. Not surprisingly, they made small fortunes out of their customers whilst they learned to manipulate Google to your advantage.
Welcome to the Zoo
These days most people have learned that the dark side leads to penalties because of the influence of Panda and Penguin. Sites that have experienced such a penalty have seen their online marketing reset to almost day one. Despite this and as a legacy of days gone by, people still expect to see results from their SEO campaign almost overnight, which, of course, never happens.
Poor Websites
Sometimes the thing that holds an SEO strategy back is the customers themselves. After spending their hard earned money on a website, the last thing they want to hear is that the website has been poorly designed. Quite frankly though, there is no excuse whatsoever for poor website design. Customers already have zero tolerance for a sloppy site and will very quickly “bounce off”.
Quality and frequency of New Content
So assuming that we have a well designed website, what else is the big “G” looking for? Well, to give your visitors a good search experience and keep them coming back for more, you seriously need to consider social interaction and the quality and frequency of new content. New content is easy and an informative blog goes a long way to satisfy this.
Use Social Media
Social media is another thing altogether. People just don’t get it. In most cases they spend a week posting technical details of their business and after two weeks of not getting any additional sales, they don’t bother anymore.
The social media aspect of organic search needs constant attention. It helps with your branding and getting yourself known. Nobody said it was easy. It takes time and it takes effort. It isn’t instantaneous.
Consider the Competition
Look at your competitors. Chance are that if they are dominating the rankings they are investing in time on Facebook, Twitter, LinkenIn, Pinterest etc. They know that hard work brings in results, and that’s why they’re in front of you in the search results.
Beware
So, if you want to dominate in organic search, choose a professional agency and a transparent one at that. If any agency promises you top of page one in Google within three weeks, then run a mile, unless of course a penalty doesn’t bother you.
