So you’ve got a website. Now what?

The typical website gets three visitors a month, one of which is the owner’s mother.

You’ve probably heard that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is the answer. That’s the idea of adding text in just the right places on your website, some visible, and some not, so that your site will rise higher than the competition in search engine results.

Don’t believe it! It is true that a reasonable amount of SEO can help, and that in a few kinds of businesses, SEO can be quite profitable.

However, there are thousands of snake oil salespeople out there who will try hard to convince you that they can somehow do some magical things to your website so suddenly, you will have thousands of targeted visitors. They’ll show you charts, and tell you exactly what they can do for your website. It will all sound very convincing. They charge anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands up-front. 99% of the time, they don’t significantly increase your business. When you contact them about the dismal results, they’ll tell you “You have to give it more time.” They may even say you need to spend more money. When you try to contact them again, they never manage to return your calls or emails.

This has happened so many times to so many of my clients, that I have trouble believing it. I had one client who was paying $2,000 per month for SEO maintenance. This had been going on for a couple of years.

I asked her, “Well, how well is that working?”

She told me, “As far as I know, not a single customer has come from that.”

One trick these SEO ‘experts’ like is to tell you that you are on the front page of Google and other search engines. That may be true, for the exact name of your website, but most people aren’t going to search for your website by name. If people knew your website’s exact name, they wouldn’t have to search for it, right?

Are there any businesses that benefit significantly from SEO?

Yes, if you’re serving a local clientele and doing something that’s not common, then it can be quite effective. For instance, if you’re doing organic lawn care in Pittsburgh, you can list the areas you serve, and you may be at the top of search engine results in your communities. Even still, you might like to do something more than to depend on SEO.

So if SEO isn’t going to do much for you, what will?

I highly recommend starting with social media marketing, and specifically, ‘organic Posting.’ That means publishing free posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc. I’ve written up all the details here: Social Media Posting