MSPs: Get Over Your Obsession with SEO Ranking

No more excuses. SEO isn’t the answer to online marketing – good quality content is.

Listen, it’s tempting to think that all it takes to be number one on Google is a clever SEO strategy. SEO is all the rage, and it’s all too easy to get complacent and think that tinkering with keywords and link building is the answer to your online marketing needs.

Don’t kid yourself anymore.

Seriously, it’s time to abandon the idea that SEO is the end-all-be-all of online marketing. Your site isn’t going to start ranking high on search results because some aggressive SEO company tinkered with it. In fact, the efforts of many “SEO experts” will often lead to backlashes from search engines like Google, knocking down your site’s rankings. There’s only ONE sure-fire way to start improving your site’s ranking:

Good content.

Seriously, that’s it. All the link-building and careful keyword placement in the world cannot compare to simply doing your best to offer high-quality content that will be of actual USE to your reader.

Google changes its ranking parameters all the time, and anyone who claims to have the algorithm is a snake oil salesman. Stop stressing over the tiny details and focus on the bigger picture of how your site appears to real humans reading it.

Remember, this isn’t a big secret that Google is keeping. They state it clearly upfront in their webmaster guidelines: “Make pages primarily for users, not for search engines. Create a useful, information-rich website, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.”

So that means you shouldn’t waste all your money on those SEO “gurus” that promise the moon and more. The best person to improve your site’s rankings is YOU. Focus on making your site a great experience for the human reader:

• Include relevant and eye-catching images and videos. RELEVANT, I said. Not just pictures of ladies standing next to servers with their arms crossed over their chests.
• Publish useful white papers, infographics, tips and tricks, and other helpful content that readers can take away after reading your site.
• Include a blog and update it regularly. Talk about anything you think your readers would find interesting or helpful, and link back to your main site.
• Share your blog articles across social media channels and invite commentary and collaboration. Answer questions and engage with your reader.
• Produce case studies showing off how you’ve helped real-world clients with your services, and don’t be afraid to ask your pleased clients to leave reviews about you on sites like Yelp.
• Post interviews talking about topics of interest to your readers. Maybe you talk with a security expert about the latest data breach, or a happy client whose data was saved because of your business continuity plan.

Look, I could go on forever about the different ways of improving the quality of your content. The point is that you need to focus on what’s useful and interesting for your reader, not what will trick a search engine into bumping up your ranking.

And here’s the final, uncomfortable truth: This is not a quick process.

If you think you’re going to see long-lasting results after a few days of SEO work, you’re dreaming. Online marketing is a long-term game that you need to put the work into. If you keep publishing good quality content and do the work, you WILL see results. You just need to get over the idea that there’s an Easy Button for web marketing and be patient. Good things will come.

Only 1 in 100 IT firms think marketing first, but 100 out of 100 want more leads. Ulistic is here to help managed services providers think strategically about their marketing to get more leads while still focusing on running their business. Our team engages with your team every day, providing expert marketing materials and advice to create a foundation for stratospheric success. Learn more at Ulistic.com.