Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for your website

What’s Your Excuse?

We often encounter people who offer the following reasons not to do SEO:

“I don’t have enough money.”

If you don’t have any money in your budget for SEO, simply fol-

low our plan with a focus on

organic

(that means low-cost or no-cost!) optimization.Believe it or

not,you can make substantial improvements without spending a dime.

“I don’t have enough time.”

SEO is a very flexible process. If you don’t have an , use

whatever time you

have and work through the plan over a longer period. Be sure to look at

Chapter 10,“Extra Credit and Guilt-Free Slacking”for advice (Not that we mean to call you a

slacker…).

“My website sucks!”

Don’t give up! This is a very common problem for folks setting out on an

SEO campaign.If everybody waited until their site was perfect before doing SEO, nobody would

do SEO.This book will give you some practical workarounds for your situation.

It is a rare site indeed that couldn’t use a little improvement in the SEO depart-

ment. And, with the importance of SEO on the rise, if you don’t need it today, it’s a good

bet you’ll need to brush up your SEO smarts for tomorrow. So even if you don’t think

you need SEO right now, we recommend that you take the time to work through the

questions in this chapter and make sure that your goals aren’t begging for a little help.

What Are the Overall Goals of My Business?

Most likely, the fundamental goal of your business, when you get down to the bottom

of it, is to make money by selling a product or service. However, there may be nuances

to even such a straightforward goal as this. And there are a whole host of other possible

goals and subgoals that your business is likely to have.

Perhaps yours is a large company with branding as an important long-term goal.

Maybe your company wants to make money with certain products but is willing to

take a loss in other areas. Maybe you are starting up with investor backing and do not

need to turn a profit for years. Perhaps you are a nonprofit, with a goal to improve the

world and inspire others to do the same. Whatever way you’re leaning, your business

goals will affect your SEO campaign strategy.

For instance, consider the fictional situation of Jason, a founding partner at

Babyfuzzkin, a company selling unique, high-end baby clothes. This business makes its

money directly through online sales. It’s a small operation, so there is a limit to how

many orders the business can handle. The Babyfuzzkin fantasy would be a steady flow

of, say, 100 orders per month. But there is more to the story: Eventually, the partners

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