All 5 Myth-Busting Truths About SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATIONPosted by Hagen Yde on April 28th, 2021 If you struggle with how to grow, optimize and leverage your insurance agency's online presence to generate leads, you are not alone. I'm guessing there's no shortage of solicitations in your email inbox for lead programs and SEO makeovers for your website. Here are five myth-busting truths about SEO to help you cut through the smoke and mirrors whenever using potential providers. Filter any proposed solutions through these five "reality-checks" to save time, money and aggravation.This is simply not the rocket science of the SEO universe, but these five principles will remove the mystery, assist you to set realistic expectations and invite you to explore this powerful medium without getting burned by the posers and opportunists that flood your inbox with their often dubious claims. There are no secrets The proper way to do SEO is determined by the search engines in general and Google's algorithm specifically. Other than Google's closely guarded secret sauce, there are no privately held tips for SEO -- period. SEO guidelines are public information and there are many great books and training resources available that clearly break it into ducks and bunnies. Anyone who lets you know they have SEO secrets is wanting to exploit what they assume you do not understand about search 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 poor reputation than it is to make 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 is your goal, don't even consider short-cutting the right path there with questionable SEO tactics and gimmickry. Shortcuts 're normally attempts to fool the search engines into returning better results, at the very least temporarily. If these shortcuts gets you reported to Google's spam page, for example, the negative repercussions could possibly be far greater and long-lived than whatever momentary gains your shortcut might have produced. Don't take shortcuts or follow those that do. They will ultimately lead you down the incorrect path. Begin, don't finish with SEO SEO is the most important consideration in the look, design, development and ongoing maintenance of an effective web marketing platform and social media marketing brand. If Additional hints want your web touch-points to perform their intended reason for attracting and increasing relevant, convertible traffic to your website, your SEO needs to be baked into your site's structural framework. It is the cake, not the icing. Done properly, everything from your site's design, architecture, content and implementation is defined, supported and leveraged by your SEO strategy. Think of SEO as a blueprint, much less a plugin. SEO doesn't end until your site does Another reason to begin rather than 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 decrease. Leave it sedentary long enough and organism begins to atrophy. Good planning, quality implementation and vigilant maintenance are SEO guidelines. If you are thinking that it is possible to front-load your SEO initiative and back off to take pleasure from a perpetual harvest, you will be sorely disappointed to see your quick results just as 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 massive 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 example, designates all backlinks as no-follow, which renders the various search engines blind to those links. Facebook expressly doesn't want the search engines to follow outbound links as a way to discourage spamming. Google is thinking about 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 most of your website's search relevance or ranking. Search is organic. Social media marketing is viral. Keep the two separate and distinct in the look, development and implementation of one's online marketing strategy.Like it? Share it! More by this author |