This video keeps it simple and explains exactly what SEO and SEM are:
“Good web design is SEO and SEO is good web development.”
SEO is not a side item that can be ordered like a basket of fry’s. In this analogy SEO itself is Culinary. One does not order up a side of “extra culinary” at a restaurant, nor ask “does it come with Culinary?” when at a drive through.
If the whole point of having your website is to make money then the SEO needs to be planned at the start, in fact SEO is the work that is being done when a website is being coded. Starting with a “design” is a good way to launch a failure.
Acquiring back-links and inbound links is what most people “call” SEO, but its the road not the car, here is the truth about SEM and SEM:
- When Google’s algorithms change your SEO should not be effected one single bit (if you did it right).
- When Google’s algorithms change if your SEO team is panicking then that means something is being hidden from you (usually Blackhat/Greyhat SEO).
- SEO and SEM cost exactly as much as you want them to: decide a budget and pay only that.
- If your budget is unreasonable then your results will be too.
- If your need for speed is unsafe then your campaign will likely crash and burn, resulting in a waste.
- Yes, you can do SEO and SEM yourself for free, just like “technically” anyone could rebuild a car transmission.
- If your keywords do not appear on the page, then its not “in there”. (Just like RAGU’s slogan “its in there”)
- There is no point in optimizing SEO in a website’s code after it’s built (because building a website should be onsite SEO).
- Like the weather one can forecast and make predictions (even very accurate one’s) but no one can truly guarantee page 1 results.
- The way you see your company is not necessarily the way the public searches for you.
- Your competitors for SEO and SEM may not be the same online as they are in the physical world.
- Its better to do paid SEM marketing first and then learn from that campaign what SEO search terms should be focused on.
- Yes, it is possible for enemies to sabotage your SEO efforts and pass negative rank to your website, but it’s rare and usually temporary.
- There is no secret path to success with SEO or SEM, only direct experience and knowledge. Its linear.
- Social media does NOT PASS RANK to a website, getting links there may pass traffic, but will not bring you to page 1 directly.
SEO, SEM and Web Design/Development are inextricably bound, one and the same.
The purpose of this blog post is to do one thing and do it very well: Inform potential clients about SEM and SEM, arming them with the knowledge they need to thrive online, identify scams and even get the job done themselves if they desire.
Questions? Call me 412.725.7354
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Here is a list of tools that you can use to get the job done.
Website Diagnostics tools – how to check if a website is optimized