Search Engine Optimization
October 11th, 2016Do you want new customers to find your website using search engines?
For website owners this question may trigger a primal response similar to what a drug addict feels when asked if they would like a fix. Yes! Give it to me now!!
It’s a very enticing concept—hire someone to apply special coding to a website and watch it start drawing in new customers. There is a large number of unscrupulous SEO solicitors looking to capitalize on this myth . . you may have seen their spam touting their “proprietary” methods to get your site placed at the top of Google.
This can create a dangerous scenario—a compulsive, sometimes panicked, desire to use the Web to grow a business, and a whole slew of information-age carpetbaggers looking to capitalize on the situation.
The best way to protect yourself from wasting money, and learn how to develop a SEO strategy that really works, is to take some time to understand SEO. It’s not hard to understand and it’s not a secret; Google for example freely shares the criteria they use to index and rank sites.
It’s also important to discard any notion that there is a quick-fix SEO solution out there waiting to be found. Many people’s understanding of “search engine optimization” has been built on a very appealing and popular misconception that we refer to as the “Field of Dreams” syndrome.
The Field of Dreams syndrome
The 1989 movie was about a novice farmer who becomes convinced by a mysterious voice that he is supposed to construct a baseball diamond in his corn field that is somehow the path to his personal enlightenment and success in life. The memorable mantra of the mysterious voice was, “If you build it, he will come.”
The real plot being played out today in business is remarkably similar with the mysterious voice being wishful thinking and misinformation. The appeal becomes overwhelming and rational thought is blurred . . . “If we just build a website optimized for search engines customers will come.” Part of the appeal of this fallacy is that it provides a clear simple solution to a pressing need that exists in a technical realm that many are intimidated by. The problem with this approach is that, just like the movie, it’s fiction.
