SEO is Kind Like a Credit Card
It is important to realize that optimization is something that businesses never stop doing. I think when SEO was created it should have just been called “proactive marketing” because essentially that is what SEO really is. Do you think large brands just marketed their business for 30 or 45 days and then took a step back and grew into the giants they are today? No. SEO is an ongoing effort that is always changing and evolving. There are no magical pills or universal steps to getting it done because every business is different and requires different steps to achieve their goals. Marketing is an effort that you never stop doing for your business which is why it is important to realize the connection between SEO and marketing. Yes rankings are important but rankings alone don’t grow a business into a large brand.
Treating your website like a business is what will cause it to grow. Rankings don’t build a brand and keep customers long term. Being proactive and getting involved in social media and positioning your company as a leader in the industry is what will get your business to grow as a brand. SEO should always be approached with a quality versus a quantity approach. Spamming the search engines only to achieve high rankings is not going to help you or your business in the long run. Every website SEO campaign should be treated like a full grown marketing campaign. A well written press release topic announcing something very news worthy could go much further than one written just to help with rankings. The well written PR topic will also help with rankings because more websites will choose to link to it rather than just a keyword heavy press release designed to achieve rankings with little to no substance for the readers.