TILT – Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology
Marketing Toolbox
Clinton Power
If there's one think that bugs me to no end, it's the myths that abound about Search Engine Optimization (SEO). In my work with therapists and coaches, I'm often hearing bizarre ideas about what people think SEO is and what they need to do to improve it. SEO refers to the factors on and off your website that contribute to where Google and the other search engines rank you according to similar websites (aka your competition). Not many people are aware that Google takes over 200 factors into account when it's ranking a website. So there is some incredible complexity involved and no one really knows exactly what their search algorithm contains, though many people dedicate their careers to researching SEO to try and understand some of the most important elements. What's more, there have recently been a number of updates to the Google algorithm in the last year, namely the Penguin and Panda updates, which have hurt some websites significantly in their rankings. So let's put some of these myths to bed once and for all.
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MYTH #1
I can get on the first page of Google if I pay someone a large monthly fee. Many of us have heard this promise from slimy SEO marketing companies that constantly harass and spam small businesses. One of the ways they target small businesses is to prey on the lack of education or information that the general population has about SEO. And because many of us therapists and coaches don't come from a business background, we can be vulnerable to being sold something that we don’t understand in the hope it will deliver results. If you hear a company or individual promise they can get you on the first page of Google for many hundreds of dollars a month, what they are talking about is Google Adwords, which are the sponsored listings at the top and down the right side of the search results. Adwords is very complex to set up effectively and you can potentially lose a lot of money in a short amount of time if you don't know what you're doing. Also, only a small percentage of people actually click on the sponsored links,