Ever notice how there is very little originality in the entertainment industry? Every year we’re subject to the same movies and TV shows that we’ve seen time and time again, just repackaged a little differently. Movies from cartoons, movies from books, TV shows from movies, movies and TV shows from comics, comics from TV shows, etc.
And then there is the sequel. And then the sequel of the sequel. Then the series of direct-to-DVD sequels that are inevitable because my kids’ kids won’t be able to get enough of the Air Bud(ies) franchise that started when I was in high school!
Solomon could have been speaking of Hollywood when he said:
What has been will be again,
what has been done will be done again;
there is nothing new under the sun.
(Ecclesiastes 1:9 NIV)
Then again, he could have been talking about SEO as well.
Growth Is Not a Maintenance Strategy
One of the most common things people don’t understand about SEO is why it doesn’t end. Business owners think of it as a one-time service rather than a series of ongoing events. It’s not web design, which has a definitive beginning, middle and end. It’s not web development, which involves completing a set project, and then it’s over. It’s not web hosting, which you just sign up for and promptly forget about it from then on.
Someone recently told us that they probably don’t need an “SEO maintenance” plan. I agree completely. That’s not what we sell. Ever. SEO isn’t about maintaining the status quo.
SEO is marketing.
It’s improvement.
It’s growth.
It’s advancement.
And it’s continuous.
You can stop SEO at any time, but its effects will fade. And your competitors, who are not stopping their SEO efforts, will soon surpass you and take the lead in rankings, in traffic and in sales.
A site without SEO is a site that is stagnating.
Stalled.
Going nowhere fast.
SEO Wasn’t Built in a Day
There is a difference from what we call making a site “search engine friendly” and then doing “search engine optimization.” Making a site SE friendly is mostly a one-time process. SE optimization, aka web marketing, aka inbound marketing, is all about continually improving your website to bring in more qualified visitors and improving onsite conversion rates.
Web marketing, aka inbound marketing, aka SEO, covers a number of disciplines. (I know… die hard precisionists will tell you those are three different areas. I agree, but there is considerable overlap for an agency such as ours. A good agency brings them all together into a solid marketing campaign). Everything from on-page optimization, conversion optimization, link building, social media marketing, content marketing, keyword research and website architecture, all fall under the inbound marketing (aka SEO, aka web marketing) umbrella.
Each of these have both one-time and ongoing pieces. You can go out and secure a dozen links and call it a day. But that will only last you as long as it takes your competitor gets a dozen similar links. So you then need a dozen more, just to “maintain.”
Similarly, you can get a one-time social media strategy, but you’re going to need ongoing implementation of that strategy. You can write content for all your pages, but if you stop there then you’ll find that you’re not providing all the content your visitors are searching for. You can “fix” your site architecture only to uncover more issues that were not apparent until you got enough data to uncover them.
Ongoing SEO is really nothing new and/or profound. It’s the same things over and over again. But it’s not mindless robotics either. SEO is about knowing what to do, when to do it and how to do it in the right way. It’s analysis, assessment and action. Wash, rinse and repeat. Again and again.
But you wouldn’t want it any other way. Today’s growth is just a repeat of yesterday’s growth. That’s a repeat you want to continue every day. SEO once at your own peril. SEO all over all over again, again at your competitor’s.
*If you’re looking for Part I of this post, try the DVD bargain bin at Big Lots!
