Okay. To be clear – I understand that ‘instant gratification’ is a psychological phenomenon that can cause disruptions in everything from families to countries, to continents, to planets and possibly the entire universe if left unchecked.
Today I’m invoking poetic license on this one. (I do that a lot, but I rarely tell anyone I’m doing so, and they either think I’m uninformed, uneducated or perhaps just plain nuts.) And after reading all about instant gratification, I think I’ll actually use the pieces and parts that suit my purpose in the context of web design, development and content management.
It’s not that I don’t fall prey to instant gratification myself. Like when I take a check to my credit union for deposit – from a major company – say perhaps State Farm. And the teller informs me it’ll take 3-5 business days to clear because it’s drawn on an out-of-state bank. Nope. I was born at night, but not last night Timmy. They’re just playing the float to earn a little extra interest on my money.
The odd thing about all of this is that generally, if I have funds in my account to comfortably cover the amount of the check, BOOM! I don’t get any hogwash from the teller and the money shows up in my account instantaneously. If not, I have no choice but to accept the reality that my cash is on vacation for 3-5 business days and skulk out, wondering if the teller even knows that while they’ve dutifully enforced company policy, they’ve lied through their teeth.
Walk toward the light Brent. On to websites and how instant gratification can wreak havoc if it’s not addressed.
Google rewards SEO-friendly content
It’s kind of a glaring glimpse of the obvious (GGO) when I say that most people want their websites to be found. Elsewise, search engine optimization (SEO) wouldn’t even be a thing. Some folks don’t care though – seems they just want a website because they feel like they have to have one. But for those that do want to be found, SEO is key to that end.
And SEO all starts with well-crafted content that search engines find pleasing. There are things such as keywords, site structure and SEO-friendly copy. I honestly don’t understand all that I know about much of this – it’s like some kinda magic to me Timmy. That’s why we have gurus on board who get this stuff. I just know what I’m told and accommodate accordingly. I’ll leave the heavy lifting to the adults.
Page one doesn’t happen overnight
What I do know is that SEO is a process. And to the dismay of many – much like my check cashing experience – there is no such thing as instant gratification. And I also know that when someone writes copy for a website, they don’t necessarily write for SEO. And this is where instant gratification – in a classic sense – can rear its ugly head.
Here’s how it works. Or doesn’t. You’re paying a copywriter a fair chunk of change to come up with some really, really, good copy. Bordering perhaps on poetic. It’s a thing of true beauty. But it doesn’t incorporate any of the key words or phrases that everyone agreed would be crucial for SEO. Seems your copywriter felt inclusion of those things would disrupt the flow of the ideas they so artfully conveyed.
Good copy and good SEO aren’t mutually exclusive
And you’re at a crossroads. If you defer to your copywriter because you value their expertise more than that of your SEO expert, well, things are gonna get messy. You know that SEO is the key to success with a website, yet you’ve opted to appease your copywriter.
You’ve willfully accepted a short-term gain (say copy that would be great for a magazine article that flows magnificently) for a long-term loss (say copy that’s completely devoid of things that search engines love). It’s generally not long before you realize that this was a bad decision.
Why? In a couple of months, you ask the folks who worked long and hard to develop your SEO strategy – way back when – why your site traffic hasn’t grown as exponentially as you expected it would. And this is where they might be tempted to say “I told you so.” But they won’t. Because they’re adults and saying such a thing would serve no purpose Timmy – save perhaps to raise your ire.
Good content reads beautifully to human and robot alike
Rather they might gently remind you that the copy everyone has so enjoyed reading hasn’t managed to please the search engines that incessantly crawl it. No keywords nor phrases. Good news is that it’s not too late to fix. Everyone just needs to get on the same page.
It’s all about compromise. Which really should have happened before the site ever went live. But that’s water under the bridge. At this point, your SEO experts need to work with your copywriter and figure things out. But beware. As the person footing the bill, you may well have to put your foot down. Clearly, you already know what didn’t work. Hopefully, everything will go swimmingly, egos won’t collide and the train will get back on the tracks.
Then it’s important to understand that whether you went down the wrong road with the copy initially or not, even the greatest SEO will not get you on the first page of Google by tomorrow morning. To reiterate – this a process that takes time, and there are a lot of people jockeying for position.
And no matter what all the people spamming you claim, there are no shortcuts. Unless maybe you want to buy The Google.
