Ranking in Google Will Help My Business, But . . .

I'll let Matt Cutts answer this. He is the Head Engineer at Google and acts as the de facto spokesman when they speak to the SEO industry about changes in their algorithm. He is often cryptic in what he says, and is rather evasive with answering direct questions.  You might say he's like the White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, but he handles PR for Google.

However, Matt does an excellent job of explaining how Google works in this video from a couple of years ago.

Even though this video was not produced this year, the concepts discussed are still at the core of how Google works. All the algorithm changes and special techniques and tactics that we use as SEO's are still designed to give Google what it wants - which are results that provide a positive user experience and keep consumers coming back for more.

None! Making you choose your SEO package based on keywords is a sign of an SEO Firm who is executing outdated strategy. Here's why . . .

Many years ago, crushing the search rankings meant building thousands of links to your website. The more the merrier. If an SEO was going to target 25 keywords vs 10 keywords, they would need to fire up their automated software and crank out even more links.

Google is smarter now than they were today. And they will be smarter tomorrow than they are today. Do we really think that the company at the forefront of building self-driving cars really can't tell the difference between websites that are trying to "cheat" their way up to the top of the search engines?

Google is smart enough to know that when a consumer searches for "drain cleaning Dallas" or "plumber to unclog my toilet in Dallas", that consumer has the same intent.  In fact, there are likely hundreds of similar combinations of keywords that all mean this same thing. So why should you be limited to just 5 or 10 or 25 keywords.

Next generation SEO strategy requires execution beyond a limited universe of keywords. And, in fact, limiting yourself to only 5 or 25 or 50 keywords can actually trigger an over-optimization penalty with Google.

​The Exception: Life is full of exceptions. If you are operating in multiple service areas, then this is where the concept of multiple keywords may come into play. I would still not define them as keywords for the purpose of asking you to make a decision. Instead, this would be a more comprehensive discussion around all the importance of various geographical zones.

100 press releases every month. 100 blog posts. 500 infographics. Let's go ahead and throw in 1,000 Facebook and Twitter posts, and 200 YouTube videos.

Sound reasonable?

Of course, I'm kidding.

I am ​amazed at how many SEO firms place the onus back on the business owner on deciding which SEO tasks are needed each month. Every industry and every geographical market has businesses competing for the first page with varying degrees of maturity.

For example, if you are a DWI attorney in Dallas Texas, the effort required for your search engine optimization will be far different than if you are a DWI attorney from my town (population 2,000 with zero competing DWI attornies).

Likewise, SEO effort is different if your website is currently on Page 2 vs currently on Page 8.

The business science of SEO is allocating limited resources to achieving your objective.

If you have no budget, then you would do as much as you can of all of the things every month.

But that is not how a business owner deploys capital to achieve a return on investment.​

First off, I am not disparaging all SEO firms that charge $295/mo.

In fact, once again, if you own a law practice in my hometown, then $295/mo is probably a very fair rate.

However, most firms that charge $295/month operate a churn-and-burn business model that means their #1 value-producing activity is not ranking websites, but acquiring new paying clients.

Let's define the Churn-n-Burn Business Model: Pay top dollar to acquire you as a new client, give you an automated report that looks nice, have an account manager string you along for as many months as possible, and release you back into the wild when you get tired of the cash outflow.

I have actually written a lengthy article about this practice called Theft by SEO.

Let's take this discussion to the opposite end of the spectrum for a qualified SEO firm - Lead Generation.

Focus & Scale's sister company ReallyLocal Marketing operates multiple lead generation sites, but let's use as an example TravisCountyRestoration.com, a lead generation website in the water and fire damage industry. We built the website. Rank the website. A local water damage company pays $150 for every phone call that comes from that website because they know they close 50% of the calls, and the average value of a job is over $2,500.

So effectively, the local water damage company is paying $300 for a $2,500 job.​

That website is in a geographical market that may generate 15 phone calls a month.  Or $2,250 each month.

Why in the world would any skilled expert execute SEO in that market for even $1,495 a month when it is worth over $2,000 at a minimum as a lead generation site?

So when a company is offering SEO at a value that seems too good to be true - you really have to question whether they see you as a partner or just another sucker.

Blogging is a fantastic way of providing value to your website visitors. But is that blog post optimized for SEO. How is it interlinked with other website pages. Does it link to other businesses? What businesses? Where are they? Do those businesses link to you? How long should the blog post be?

This barrage of questions is only meant to show you that just writing a blog in itself is not enough. The same can be said for posting on Facebook and Twitter.

One of the common myths in SEO is around the amount of content you publish on social media sites. Google certainly monitors social signals as is evident when Twitter hashtags are displayed when searching current events. Google had to incorporate this into their real-time search results or risk Facebook being the go-to place for people to see current events news.

However, it is rather absurd to think that your local business is going to see such a huge spike in social signals that it actually impacts the local search results. The only time this may be the case is when you are being talked about online for all the wrong reasons. Google's Matt Cutts has never confirmed the impact of social media on local search rankings.

Absolutely, I'm glad you asked!

Google did not create their search engine so that business owners would be forced to hire ranking experts and spend thousands of dollars each month. Especially when a business website is the obvious best answer to a user's search query.

Indeed, Google actually provides business owners with the playbook for how to rank on their search engine. The playbook, in their eyes, is very simple: Focus on delivering value to your website visitors by creating a website experience that answers your customer's questions.

That's it. Plain and simple. If you do that, then ​the rest will take care of itself.

But if only it were that simple.

If it were truly that simple, then every business would have the same website, set up the same social profiles, write the same blog posts, and everyone could be ranked on the first page, right?

Of course there is more to it than that. But at its core, you are trying to improve the relevancy and authority of your website so that Google says "wow, this website answers the user's search query perfectly".

But even more importantly, you must do this with limited resources in the most efficient way possible.

The business science of SEO requires allocating resources efficiently.

The value of an SEO expert is not in the time it takes them to click a few buttons on the computer, but rather knowing which buttons to click, in what order, and how often.

All of this to say that much of what we do can certainly be done by you as the business owner (or hopefully by a less costly staff).

This is exactly why we ​introduced the first of its kind in this industry - SEO Managed Services.

Simply put, your staff executes the activities that they can do well and our team executes the activities that we do well (and that don't make sense for you to do yourself).

For every SEO project, there are certain tasks that are highly specialized, such as strategy.  Then there are other tasks that are recurring each month that are not highly specialized, and with the right coaching anyone in your office can do them.

This is probably not unlike your business. Even the most highly trained specialists like brain surgeons still have operating room techs that hold instruments and make the surgeon more efficient.​

Depending on the number of hours that your staff is available to help, your monthly SEO costs can be greatly reduced. In fact, it is common for costs to be reduced by 40-60% every month.​

Here's how it works:

1. Our team thoroughly researches the current state of your website and the competing websites in your market. We then propose a full service monthly fee.
2. We tell you how much money you can save if your staff will commit to executing SEO tasks for "X" hours per month. "X" hours is going to differ project to project.
3. Our team will coach your staff on how to do the task, we will review their work, and provide feedback to the owner or manager on the quality of the work.
4. Separately from those tasks executed by your staff, Focus & Scale will execute specific SEO tasks that cannot be handled internally.