Chris Kelsey
Regular Contributor
After reading @InnovateDesign's post about having about having a blog on his site (to help with Google rankings), I decided to write this.
I just want to say beforehand that having your business come up on Google is still massively important, but it depends on your business and how you find customers.
There's a lot of irrelevant info in terms of whether you should have a blog on your site or not (I'll save that one for another time), as well as whether or not you should make a focus on having an SEO-friendly site.
I remember thinking that this would such a hassle to make an SEO-friendly site, because at the time (back when I started my first official website two years ago) I didn't understand how it worked, but I also didn't want to hire some "SEO expert" to rip me off, not to mention I had no money to hire one.
This leads onto my bigger point which is: STOP DOING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY IT'S GOOD FOR YOU, MOST OF THEM DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. IT IS ONLY IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF SEO EXPERTS AND BLOGGERS TO SAY YOU NEED A BLOG/SEO-FRIENDLY SITE.
Unless your website involves dropshipping or something where search rankings are super important, then SEO does not matter at all in the beginning.
To put it in perspective, if your business is based around finding clients by building personal relationships with people (whether online or in-person), then as long as your site comes up on Google when it is searched (not the niche or industry it's in), then that's all that matters. EVEN then, when I got my first $100k worth of development contracts in early 2015, I still didn't have a website. Can you see the massive amount of irony in the fact that I had a web/app development company and I didn't even have a website for the first three months? Maybe that sounds crazy, but the reason why it was fine was because I was developing personal connections with the customers I brought in (messaging them directly through Craigslist), in which case, my Google SEO did not matter at all. Even to this day I have not cared about improving the SEO on our site, why? Because the only customers I get are from people that were personally referred to me from the network I've built across the world. I've had maybe three people find and work with me after finding us on Google from searching "app developers" (not sure which term they searched actually).
Also, my market is very competitive and for us to get to the very top would be heard, locally it's easier but still. Maybe one day we will place a larger focus there but I just want to make it clear that even if your SEO is crap, it doesn't mean you can't have a "successful" business. It took me a while to see people breaking all of these "rules" of not having a blog or not having an SEO friendly site but succeeding to realize this. Everything is in perspective to your target market, look at some of the Fortune 500 company websites and you'll see what I mean (they look like crap but it doesn't matter because their clients don't find them through Google or care about their website).
My overall point:
Once you figure out how you will find your customers (or how they'll find you), only focus on the realistic mediums of finding them (or them finding you) that are relevant to YOUR business. Don't just try to spend time improving your SEO when it really has no impact.
I just want to say beforehand that having your business come up on Google is still massively important, but it depends on your business and how you find customers.
There's a lot of irrelevant info in terms of whether you should have a blog on your site or not (I'll save that one for another time), as well as whether or not you should make a focus on having an SEO-friendly site.
I remember thinking that this would such a hassle to make an SEO-friendly site, because at the time (back when I started my first official website two years ago) I didn't understand how it worked, but I also didn't want to hire some "SEO expert" to rip me off, not to mention I had no money to hire one.
This leads onto my bigger point which is: STOP DOING WHAT OTHER PEOPLE ARE DOING JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY IT'S GOOD FOR YOU, MOST OF THEM DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU. IT IS ONLY IN THE BEST INTERESTS OF SEO EXPERTS AND BLOGGERS TO SAY YOU NEED A BLOG/SEO-FRIENDLY SITE.
Unless your website involves dropshipping or something where search rankings are super important, then SEO does not matter at all in the beginning.
To put it in perspective, if your business is based around finding clients by building personal relationships with people (whether online or in-person), then as long as your site comes up on Google when it is searched (not the niche or industry it's in), then that's all that matters. EVEN then, when I got my first $100k worth of development contracts in early 2015, I still didn't have a website. Can you see the massive amount of irony in the fact that I had a web/app development company and I didn't even have a website for the first three months? Maybe that sounds crazy, but the reason why it was fine was because I was developing personal connections with the customers I brought in (messaging them directly through Craigslist), in which case, my Google SEO did not matter at all. Even to this day I have not cared about improving the SEO on our site, why? Because the only customers I get are from people that were personally referred to me from the network I've built across the world. I've had maybe three people find and work with me after finding us on Google from searching "app developers" (not sure which term they searched actually).
Also, my market is very competitive and for us to get to the very top would be heard, locally it's easier but still. Maybe one day we will place a larger focus there but I just want to make it clear that even if your SEO is crap, it doesn't mean you can't have a "successful" business. It took me a while to see people breaking all of these "rules" of not having a blog or not having an SEO friendly site but succeeding to realize this. Everything is in perspective to your target market, look at some of the Fortune 500 company websites and you'll see what I mean (they look like crap but it doesn't matter because their clients don't find them through Google or care about their website).
My overall point:
Once you figure out how you will find your customers (or how they'll find you), only focus on the realistic mediums of finding them (or them finding you) that are relevant to YOUR business. Don't just try to spend time improving your SEO when it really has no impact.
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