There are thousands of websites and books and podcasts and seminars and courses dedicated to explaining SEO. Some shove their version of what works down everyone else’s throats. (“Do this, do that. Don’t do that. No, no, not THAT!”) Others are more helpful. But if you’re new to the world of Search Engine optimization (or perhaps even if you’re a seasoned professional), you may be thinking: I Follow all these best practices. I do exactly what they say. Why is it so hard to increase my site’s rankings? I’m doing everything right. Why am I not having any success? It’s a frustrating thing–to follow SEO’s best practices and yet remain on page 7 for your prime keyword. That being said, you should keep a few things in mind: #1: Organic SEO takes time. The answer to your problems might be to keep plugging away at it. You shouldn’t expect immediate results for even the most well-crafted and executed organic SEO campaigns. #2: Most best practices do little to increase Rankings. They simply protect you from potential problems. Clean URLs Mobile-friendly website Indexable site architecture Decent, unique content Useful internal links Fast page load No manipulative links No keyword-stuffing No duplicate content No spammy links …all these things, while important, are mostly defense. That doesn’t mean they’re not important. You can’t win a championship without solid defense, but you also shouldn’t expect your rankings to skyrocket if you’re only playing defense. Or, to think of it another way: these things help make your boat seaworthy. They fill the holes in the hull. They make sure your compass works. But it takes much more than this to weather the storms around the deadly Cape Horn. Sailing requires a waterproof ship, yes, but it also requires the top-of-the-line equipment and solid seamanship. #3: Every size doesn’t fit all. Not every business needs their social marketing campaign run by a third-party digital marketing agency. Not every business needs their reputation managed online. Not every company needs to invest thousands of dollars per month into a per click advertising campaign. Cookie-cutter SEO is destined to fail. Blindly following the best practices that another company posts on their site only leads to frustration (yes, even our site). At GHI Internet Services, we are constantly staying up-to-date on recent changes in Google’s algorithms, the latest reformatting to the search engine results pages, and the newest data on search trends. But we always work from the perspective of the client. What works for you? Specifically. What fits your DNA? What are your goals? What do you hope to accomplish? We’ve been helping companies reach their goals for over 15+ years. If that is something you’d like to talk about, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today.
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