I say to my kids from time to time that something they're doing or requesting to do isn't a "best practice". Whether it's staying up too late or drinking a soda, I'm trying to instill in them the idea that it's important to try to act in a manner that will benefit them in the long run, which is more valuable than the short term pleasure a Dr. Browns may offer. I think by the time they get a job, they’ll appreciate the meaning of the term; regardless of how much they dislike hearing it now.
Thinking about the long haul over short term gains, not surprisingly, has tremendous applications for your website and overall digital strategy. You may remember in the early days of internet marketing and SEO in particular, that people would try to optimize their sites for popular terms like "Britney Spears" in hopes of driving traffic to their websites. Not only was this an early attempt to trick the search engines, but it completely threw the notion of quality traffic out the window.
We try to drive home the points to clients that:
- It's extremely important to follow all of the published guidelines from the search engines and social channels with respect to how your site is architected and the type of activity that is occurring. For example, our SEO team routinely uncovers situations where websites have inbound links from non-relevant or spammy sites that would be considered out of line with a best practices approach.
- Quality is so much more important than quantity for cultivating web leads. While it can be exhilarating to experience the "Britney effect", it isn't a winning formula for profitably driving revenue. Optimize content for the themes and keywords that can deliver the most targeted leads possible. Investing time in a research-based content / keyword strategy will pay huge dividends.
There's always a shortcut being promoted to gain rankings or generate traffic. Google has moved beyond the tricks and is focused on delivering the best possible search results for each query. It's essential that your strategy employs a similarly exacting philosophy.
