SEO (search engine optimization) in 50 words or less
An old Elementary School friend contacted me asking for help with SEO. Here’s what he asked:
“I need to pick your brain on Google and my business webpage. There is so much info on the internet and I continually get bombarded with phone calls offering to help with pushing my webpage to the top of the search engines. I figure they are all scams but I know there has to be a relatively simple way of doing it. Can you explain it in 50 words or less? Or is there even a simple way of doing it?”
My initial reply was short: It’s unfortunately not that simple. 
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There are ways to help elevate your listings and many “get rich” quick schemes that will help but only in the short term. You want to look at long term solution with SEO (search engine optimization). It requires a lot of work and takes time…if done right.
However, before you try to get rankings, I would recommend ask yourself “how do I want my customer to find me”? Do I want to be at the top of Google nationwide, regionally or just in my local area? How are they currently finding us? Use your analytics, or if you don’t know the answer then start asking your customers.
These are important questions to start from. Based on this information, you can begin to map out how your online strategy will unfold. But this is only one part of the equation.
What is most important to your company is conversions or actions that your visitors take on your site. Once you identify these, you want to map these out as “customer pathways” start to track back and use your analytics to find where they came to your site from. The answer may surprise you.
These two elements are closely tied together in SEM (Search Engine Marketing) so it is important to have this information first before taking the next step and hiring someone to help you out.
Plan the work…work the plan! I welcome comments and thoughts from others.
