The Serenity Prayer Applied to SEO – Part One

Change is good. In fact, it’s an absolute in a world of inconsistencies and insecurity when it comes to the fickle world of search and find! We have to embrace change, to be ready for it at every turn. We have to have the ability to roll with the punches, and move with the times.

When it comes to our websites, things are usually in a state of flux. Change in necessary to success, as the world of search is constantly altering its focus to deliver more specific results, we must adapt to keep our site on the forefront.

Every tweak the search engines come up with must be met with some sort of corresponding action on our part. If they make links more relevant, we need to beef up our incoming PageRank giving links. If it is decided that quantity and quality of pages is of importance, we better find more content – like, yesterday!

Advertising by way of PPC is another area we are constantly trying to improve in, and attention to our keyword choices and search venues is required to stay abreast of search trends. In short, there are a hundred things that should be done at any given time to improve our sites productivity.

What do you concentrate on? Learning how to manage your time and your budget is critical if you hope to have a prayer of getting everything done. Prioritizing is an absolute necessity. How do you tell what you can change yourself, and what you need help changing?

Decide what your own personal strengths are. You can in all likelihood do some of your site work yourself and save budget dollars for advertising, but recognizing your weaknesses is as important as valuing your own possibilities as an SEO.

Knowing what to do yourself and what to hire out is important. There is no absolute formula for this kind of thing everyone’s abilities are different, and you might have a whole different skill set and level than the webmaster next door.

Most people need a little professional help to make their site ‘be all that it can be’ however, and tomorrow we will look at the different facets of a well done site, and discuss which avenues lead to success. Then you can pick out which ones you feel competent to push forward down, and which you might need a trained guide for.

Remember, there is no shame in not knowing how to do something! The only time to be ashamed of yourself is if you pass up the opportunity to learn. The ability to expand your horizons by (gasp) asking for help is what has made so many websites successful.

Believe it or not, there are hundreds of webmasters out there with accumulated experience who are more than happy to share their expertise. Hang around the SEO blogs and forums, and you might just learn a trick or two.

For those areas you still fall short in, there is always professional help.

Tomorrow: Figuring Out Your Own Capabilities.