SEO: A Long-Term Internet Marketing Investment
This blog was originally posted on 09/14/2009.
When it comes to investing, it is often recommended to “ride out the market” to achieve the most rewarding results. History has shown that patient investors are often the most profitable, not to mention the least stressed out.
Now think of SEO as an investment…for your business. But unlike mutual funds and other financial investments, an SEO marketing investment will require a significant amount of work - not just time. (the work can be done by yourself, your staff or an SEO marketing consultant). But before you get started on all that content, you need an SEO marketing strategy.
Your SEO marketing strategy will help you define:
- who you want to attract
- what web site goals you want to achieve
- which keyword phrases you need to work for
- which keyword phrases are easy wins
- how competitive your SEO landscape is
- what tactics you will need to achieve your results
- which baseline web analytics are important
- what kind of maintenance and support you'll need to retain your rankings
After your strategy has been refined, you are ready to work on marketing and refining your web site. Then you'll most likely find out that a few of the keyword phrases you felt were exactly the right fit, are actually driving traffic, but the wrong kind. It's funny how marketing works. Sometimes you have to be careful what you ask for.
