SEO Flight Plan

Anyone who’s traveled has inevitably had the unfortunate experience of airline delays or, heaven forbid, lost luggage. With the hassles of carry-on bags, checked bags, and bad weather, every airport visit increases your chances of near catastrophe on the ground.

What has all this got to do with search engine optimization or internet marketing? Well…

Lost your bags:

If you’ve ever lost your luggage, even for a day, you know that you have to have a contingency plan. Packing essentials in your carry-on takes skill, especially with liquids and medicine. Planning for the unexpected when working with your search engine campaign is no different.

Getting to the pot of gold in search engine optimization takes time. Page ranks will teeter up and down, search positioning will change and so will your profits, bottom line, it won’t happen overnight — no matter what anyone tells you! And once you are “there” you probably won’t stay in that exact position for those exact key terms, be prepared to see yourself fall before you rise. Long-term gains are made by using a flexible strategic growth plan, and sticking to it!

What baggage is your site carrying?

Does it have a brand new domain name that is now perched on the last page of the search engine? Have you installed a flashy new technology gizmo that makes crawling the site a virtual impossibility? Did you recently redesign the site and all the “old content,” while still present, is now at a different extension?

Every commercial website requires a bit of SEO on an ongoing basis, so thinking that once you are “on board” everything is okay is a mistake – your plane may not leave the ground on time and you may miss the next flight.

Guilty by association:

One bad airplane trip can taint your image of an entire state. For example, I still vividly remember the 9-hour layover I had in Denver (no it wasn’t winter), and I have made it a goal to never go that direction again, I’d rather go to Dallas to get to Washington thank you very much!

Just as the Denver airport left a bad taste in my mouth, bad links on the web can have the same effect. Links on an otherwise wonderful site leading to link farms or cloaked domains can ruin the reputation of the site that pointed you to the destination. Don’t succumb to hidden links on your site or use doorway pages to help you get better page rank, it simply doesn’t work in the long term and you’re site will be tainted in the search engines and the eyes of your visitors.

The best way to gain ground with links is to earn them the old-fashioned way, by having great content on your site that makes other sites want to link to you. You’ll gain more than great rankings, you’ll get credibility and trust in the process.

Upgrades:

Even though your current search engine plan may be running aground, you can look it up – even airlines give free upgrades and incentives. Things can always get better.

Search engines have improved greatly over the years in their quest to give the best, most relevant results. The search engine result pages (SERP) are now more in line with what the search user expects. So if someone enters a specific phrase, “cabin in Eureka Springs” the results are going to be much more likely to be a qualified lead for your business. In short, search engines are beginning to think more like humans.

While search engine optimization now has an equal in the art of visitor conversions, search engines are still constantly evolving, and therefore search engine optimization must be monitored. The opportunities to rank high for more tightly defined, revenue-generating, relevant phrases are more important than ever.

The key is to have your flight plan in advance, plan for contingencies, and stick to the plan even in the worst weather.