A few Myth-Busting Truths About SEOPosted by Hagen Yde on April 28th, 2021 If you struggle with how to grow, optimize and leverage your insurance agency's online presence to create leads, you aren't alone. I'm guessing there is no shortage of solicitations in your email inbox for lead programs and SEO makeovers for the website. Listed below are five myth-busting truths about SEO to assist you cut through the smoke and mirrors whenever using potential service providers. Filter any proposed solutions through these five "reality-checks" to save time, money and aggravation.This is not the rocket science of the SEO universe, but these five principles will take away the mystery, help you set realistic expectations and allow you to explore this powerful medium without getting burned by the posers and opportunists that flood your inbox making use of their often dubious claims. There are no secrets The right way to do SEO depends upon the search engines generally and Google's algorithm in particular. Other than Google's closely guarded secret sauce, you can find no privately held tips for SEO -- period. SEO guidelines are public information and there are lots of great books and training resources available that clearly break it down into ducks and bunnies. Anyone who tells you they have SEO secrets is trying to exploit what they assume you don't understand about search engine marketing in a likely effort to split up you from your money. A well conceived and executed SEO strategy can produce miraculous results, but there is no magic involved. There are no shortcuts It is much harder to rehabilitate a negative reputation than it is to create a positive one. Poorly conceived and executed SEO campaigns, aside from unethical approaches to "gaming" the various search engines will eventually backfire. If sustainable organic growth can be your goal, don't even think about short-cutting the right path there with questionable SEO tactics and gimmickry. Shortcuts 're normally attempts to fool the various search engines into returning better results, at the very least temporarily. If any of these shortcuts gets you reported to Google's spam page, for instance, the negative repercussions could possibly be much larger and long-lived than whatever momentary gains your shortcut may have produced. Don't take shortcuts or follow those that do. They will ultimately lead you down the wrong path. Begin, don't finish with SEO SEO is the most significant consideration in the planning, design, development and ongoing maintenance of an effective web marketing platform and social media brand. If you want your online touch-points to execute their intended reason for attracting and increasing relevant, convertible traffic to your website, your SEO has to be baked into your site's structural framework. It's the cake, not the icing. Done properly, from your site's design, architecture, content and implementation is defined, supported and leveraged by your SEO strategy. Think of SEO as a blueprint, not as a plugin. SEO doesn't end until your website does Another reason to begin instead of finish with SEO is that, until you shut down your website, you won't ever really be finished with SEO. The most obvious metaphor is physical fitness. Developing maximum gains requires consistent and persistent activity. As soon as you slack-off, the growth trends begins to diminish. Leave it sedentary long enough and organism begins to atrophy. Good planning, quality implementation and vigilant maintenance are SEO guidelines. If you are convinced that you can front-load your SEO initiative and back off to enjoy a perpetual harvest, you will end up sorely disappointed to see your quick results in the same way quickly evaporate. A wedding can be an event. Marriage is really a process. Think process. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING builds your community, not your search ranking Social media is a powerful tool to build your community. It's viral nature can easily introduce you as well as your services to a vast and ever-churning audience. What most don't know is that links from your social media marketing presence does little to improve your internet search engine relevance or pr. Facebook, for instance, designates all backlinks as no-follow, which renders the various search engines blind to those links. Facebook expressly doesn't want the various search engines to follow outbound links as a means to discourage spamming. Google is interested in search relevance, not viral flashes in the pan. Your social media strategy is vitally important alone merits. And while you can SEO your social media marketing sites, they have virtually nothing to do with your primary website's search relevance or ranking. Search is organic. Social media marketing is viral. Keep carefully the two separate and distinct in the look, development and implementation of your online marketing strategy.Like it? Share it! More by this author |