Today I looked at a website from a company selling technical services.
Found this phrase “… you need to improve your companies services…” I went to see my business coach to recover.
She said “think about the people who won’t see the mistake.” To which I said “Yes, and only do business that part of the market! Who would buy a high-spec engineering service from a company that made such a spelling mistake?”
One of the problems with websites is that people focus on getting on to the front page of Google Search. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is not the right place to start. Better to remain un-found until your website is right.
If you are on page one, and have your fly open, you would be better on page 161.
[PS: you can find Trevor Coultart's image here
http://www.flickr.com/photos/coultart/3746701667/ and his blog here http://trevorcoultart.wordpress.com/]
3 Comments
Paul,
Nice post. Two points occur to me.
1. Many do fall into the trap of trying to optimise something that isn’t very good. I would encourage taking a further step back. Why is a business online in the first place? What is your strategy? What are you trying to achieve? With whom are you trying to connect? Clarify this first. Then work on content. Then think about promotion. (I know there are ways of doing things right the first time from an SEO perspective to avoid unnecessary rework but don’t let this obscure the focus on the big WHY question).
2. I agree that there’s no point in promoting something that will damage your reputation. But I would caution some people on the temptation to make things ‘right’. From working with procrastinators, I can see how many put off bringing their ideas and work to the world as they fear it is not yet ‘right’. A commitment to excellence is a wonderful thing but taken to an extreme, perfectionism can be a paralysing force. In this regard, maybe the ‘ready, fire, aim’ approach is best?
If your content is good, you can work to make it great. If it’s plain bad, then that’s a different matter.
Aodan,
Thank you very much for sharing your view. I agree with everything you say.
This made me feel pleased that I’d said so little. There was space there for you to add your view. The thought I have is that it may be good practice to leave plenty of room for others to chip in – rather than try to write a comprehensive post that “kills” the issue.
In other words, write a bit of your thoughts on a topic, only a bit. In this case, time was the great determiner…
Thanks for using my photo, and including a link to my blog.