Yes, believe it or not this still is anything but a Do It Yourselfer industry. Now that we got that out of the way….here is the path you need to follow if you want to take your business seriously.
Be the business owner or manager and focus on your business. Micromanaging processes that are outside of your scope of expertise will only frustrate and irritate the people who are getting paid to help you.
SEO, Technical SEO, Internet Security, hacker threat prevention, fraud detection and a myriad of other things are best handled by the people who do it for a living.
Even for a small town auto mechanic the online threats are alive and well waiting to get into your website and anything you have online. It only takes one point of entry to cost the unsuspecting, or non believers, into paying sometimes thousands of dollars in lost revenue, reputation and other possible crippling effects.
Even though you might continue working offline the online business can be affected by negative reviews due to a breach of a website. This can affect your reputation in the community if people think your website is not unsafe.
This is just a cross section of reasons why the DIY needs to re consider trying to DIY. It’s not worth it.
WHY should the work be outsources to experts (plural) and not a friend who “knows computers” or a Web Designer?
1.) Web Designers are web designers. I personally can build websites but work in the technical side of the industry by choice.
Mechanics modify race cars to make them outperform the competition. These are your Technical SEO and performance pros.
Body shops paint the cars to make them look nice for the sponsors and the fans. These are your website designers.
Race car drivers drive the cars. This is the business owner and the customer.
Artistic work is a different mentality altogether than a high level technical aptitude that is needed to manage the 100s if not 1000s of factors that make managing a powerful website successful. A business owner and a website designer can’t have the cutting edge if they have to focus on their normal every day work.
How to avoid getting screwed by a service
Keep ownership of everything. Accounts should be set up by 3rd party services in your name, company name, internal emails addresses, etc. You should always be able to walk away from a service provider with minimal complications.
Sometimes it’s easier to let someone else set things up but at the very least try to have them add your email as Admin or otherwise in order to maintain ultimate ownership control of an account.
Listen to your Google Analytics
This is where people get screwed. The most common response I get is that Analytics is too complicated and doesn’t seem important.
YES IT IS!! It’s complicated and it’s important.
If you’re not studying your Analytics you’re only hurting yourself and your business. If your SEO team is not giving feedback on Analytics then something needs to change.
Analytics shows you where the sources of customers are and what strengths from your website are the most effective. A good Analytics reading every 30 days can change the course of a business marketing strategy.
Ignoring the importance of Analytics and not responding to recommendations can cost lost business and turn current customers away.
Bathroom Reading
If you’re not already in the bathroom reading this along with People magazine and Reader’s Digest then I suggest a quick read here from one of my favorites regarding Technical SEO. This is one of many articles that sums up some of the basics. There are others and I encourage reading them as well. Ultimately you need to understand that there things that average people don’t understand. Performance tuning a website and the machine behind the scenes is critical for security, speed, multiple mobile devices, viewing sizes, browser types, payment methods, sharing, and more.
Technical SEO checklist: 7 essential tips to implement now for 2017
When you’re ready to do it right speak to an expert about evaluating your current situation. There is no such thing as a cookie cutter solution to SEO or website development. All websites are built differently to function with different types of businesses. The back end as well needs to be tuned to work with your method of running the business.
For this and so many more reasons there is no shame in outsourcing because you’re “computer illiterate”.
I visit a doctor for medical and a transmission specialist for my car.
I go to a Technical SEO expert to handle my site. In this case it’s myself but you get the idea.
For more info send me a note on any social media and I’ll be happy to help you out to see where you’re at.
Cheers!
