About a week ago I got a phone call from a college buddy of mine named Paul who runs a soon-to-launch online business. Heres how the conversation went:
Paul: We want to hire your company to do the SEO for us. Whatever the price is, we can afford it.
Me: Tell me a little more about your company and exactly what you expect to achieve from search.
Paul: We want to rank #1 in Google for EVERYTHING in our industry, and I know you can do it for us.
Me: Id be happy to consult with your team to make sure you understand the principles of SEO and get off on the right foot, but I think youre better off doing the work yourself.
He was perplexed. Why wouldnt we want to take on his SEO work? It has nothing to do with him or his company. It has everything to do with the misunderstood nature of what it takes to consistently rank high in natural search. The absolute best companies Ive worked with make every decision with SEO in mind. Everyone in their organization from management to programmers to marketing is thinking about the search impact of their decisions. For that reason it makes sense to hire a consultant or to learn it yourself, but not to hire an...