SEO can mean search engine optimization or search engine optimizer in case you’re new or unfamiliar with the term. Every website that desires online visibility usually performs some type of SEO. The competitive nature of your niche or website topic is the determining factor when it comes to how much SEO you may need.
What is your objective? Traffic, leads, conversions or just a place for you to share your opinions with the world.
Search engine optimization applied to your website homepage or other internal website pages is known as on page SEO. Strategies such as back linking, content syndication and social signals would be considered off page SEO.
Evaluating your competition or difficulty of your niche may also be known as your vertical. I guess because you’re trying to go up and get above those that are already there.
There seems to some disagreement in the SEO community about the need for back links as part of your off page SEO activities. Some people say don’t worry about back links, they don’t mean what they used to. Others say get as many back links as possible. I think both have valid points but it’s highly dependent upon the difficulty of your vertical. If you’re in a competitive market and you don’t have back links you will never compete with those that do.
Thorough and objective analysis must be done before initiating any SEO campaign. You as an SEO customer need to know exactly what you’re up against. A quality digital marketing consultant should be able to tell you what needs to be done to increase your online relevancy.
Some business owners may have a hard time facing the reality of their previous marketing campaigns or lack thereof. No one wants to hear that they are the reason or contributing factor to their own lack of or limited success. The difficult truths are always the hardest to face but also the most necessary for real, meaningful growth.
I will never fault a business owner for not being able to personally tend to all their business needs. Especially those that are heavily involved in the day to day operations of their business. We are all limited to 24 hours in a day and 7 days a week.
Allow me to be your voice of reason if you are one of these business owners that are short on time and provide you a word of caution if you’re experiencing less than desirable results on your own or with your current SEO. Hiring the wrong SEO doesn’t just have the potential of pushing your website down the search engine ranks but it carries the potential of getting your website penalized or even deindexed from search engine such as Google.
Before hiring any SEO you would be well advised to ask yourself if you’re taking full advantage of the free stuff that’s available to you. Chances are good that you are not, especially if you’re already too busy to focus on any other marketing efforts.