You’ve spent most of your focus on starting your business, with all the hours and work that takes. Then there’s your family to take care of and spend time with. Finally, your investment is starting to take off and you have some time to sit back and think. You’re ready to go to the next level and grow your business. You want to get the word out to your region or perhaps even to the world.
So you decide to start a website. Everyone else has one and you know the internet has to figure in your plan somehow. Only there’s a problem: you’ve spent so much time developing and implementing your business you don’t know where to begin. You’re expertise is in your business area. Sure, maybe your niece or nephew can build a site for you since they’re more computer savvy, but having a website is just one small piece of the internet puzzle.
So you research the topic: SEO, page rank, SEO Content. So much data—like drinking water from a fire hose! How can you even begin to understand it all?
Here’s a really brief look at what those terms mean to get you on your way:
SEO: Search Engine Optimization. It’s an internet strategy or process in which your website is written so that when a customer searches (on a search engine like Google) for a particular set of words, your website link shows up. The first page is the goal, because most people won’t look too far beyond that when they’re looking for something. As you can imagine, there’s fierce competition for showing up on the first page of a search engine.
Page Rank: Search engines like Google use a mathematical process (algorithms) to list websites from the most important to the least important. A high page rank means one closer to Number 1, which in turn means your site’s webpage link will be visible to more searchers because they’re more likely to see it and click on it.
SEO Content: In order to get a high page rank, it’s not only important to have a website, but also you must continue to update it and attract people to it. This is often achieved by publishing articles that link back to your website, drawing more visitors and telling Google (and other search engines) that your site is important. The articles contain specific words that are key terms (key words) that lead to your business. The more traffic, the higher the page rank…you’re beginning to see how it works.
Sound complicated? Yes, in a lot of ways it is, especially when it’s not your area of expertise. And if your business success rests on how well you do it, you need to ask yourself these questions: Can your business afford to wait until you learn all this and become good at it? Can your main business maintain its quality if your duties are split between it and website maintenance?
If the answer to either question is no, then truly consider contracting to an SEO expert to do it for you. They can do in one day what might take you months to learn and implement. Do yourself a favor and focus on what you know best…and leave the fire hose to the firefighters!
