Ready for a little reality check? I’m not going to hold anything back!
It’s time for a little SEO 101 for you, valiant church leader/web/IT professional.
Search Engine Optimization is real and there are entire businesses that make it their business to know what’s going on with it, how to manage it (and take advantage of it), and leverage it affectively.
For all intents and purposes we, as the Church, should be awesome at it (or try to be) since I believe our message is more important than search results like these to the right:
So here are 5 Harsh SEO Truths that you need to swallow:
1. SEO Takes Time
This truth is that it simply takes time for you to build up “credibility” with the search engines. You can not ever expect search results to turn in your favor even if you’ve made significant changes.
Sometimes it just simply takes time to build up those links and results. What this means is that you shouldn’t get discouraged but continue to optimize and plan for the long-haul.
2. Your Strategy is Not My Strategy
SEO is both an art form and a science. The problem is that too many people jump on the latter part and try to prove through various methods that they’ve “got it” in terms of how to rank the best and provide those results.
SEO, from my perspective, is much more of an art form than anything else. Lots of trial and error and just simply doing things differently than the rest of the competition.
The point is this: Your strategy is going to be different than your neighbor’s strategy down the street. Don’t be buy into the hype.
3. The Basics are Awesome
I’m sorry, but when I see organizations complaining about SEO and their poor performance and haven’t taken the time to do the basics, I don’t sympathize or cry with them; I scold them.
If you haven’t completely filled out your site on Google Webmaster Central, then you need to do that right now. The basic of SEO is doing what is obvious first and then expanding your strategy. Do the same thing for Bing, Yahoo, and more.
4. Your Domain Name Might Suck
Sorry, but “exact matching domain names” will win almost 100% of the time.
Period.
If your domain name is something like “http://TheHolySpiritIsAmazingInThisChicagoChurch.com” but you’re really just “2nd Baptist of Chicago” then you should probably own http://SecondBaptistofChicago.com.
In fact, the solution to that example is almost as bad too. The point is this: Your domain name matters, a lot. If it’s too long or too convoluted then weaker brands with better names will own you.
5. Links Win
Ultimately, at the end of the day, the more links that you have to your site the better. Search engines look for the following:
- Sites linking to you.
- Anchor text of these links.
- Relevancy of the links.
The more the better and the more relevant the text of the link is to your site the better.
Your challenge (or goal) is to get as many as you can. Start a program, an initiative, a campaign. Get people to blog about you (in a good way) and coach them to link in the right way.
Go Go Go!
The truth is a good thing. Now go do something with what you’ve just learned.
Brad Davis Seal says
To maximize local search results, gain control of your Google Maps location by creating a listing at Google Local Business Center http://www.google.com/lbc. You can add your logo, photos, videos and service times. Bing Maps and Yahoo Maps also have this feature.
John Saddington says
love it! yes.
PhillipGibb says
awesome – thanks for that. I am all set there now. kudos to Google for the sms validation, I must say that I was getting worried when I saw that (be that I am not in the USA) – wonder why Google Profiles can’t be verified like that.
Brian Barela says
wow brad thanks for this! have not engaged this part yet.
Brian says
Here’s a small bit I wrote about SEO. I’m not the expert, but there are some other good resources there.
http://www.misternifty.com/featured/seo-tips-for-church-websites/
John Saddington says
dude, awesome! love what you’re doing mr. nifty.
🙂
PhillipGibb says
man you can say all that again – especially about taking time. There are no quick and big wins. Lots of small wins that add up. However there are probably example of quick paths to SEO success, but that was because of the right strategy at the right time in the right market. I sound like an expert – I am not.
John Saddington says
time. ftw.
JayCaruso says
Mega fail on my part after seeing this. I have my photography site listed in Google Webmaster Central, but it wasn’t verified!
So thanks for posting this.
John Saddington says
doh. do it.
Kyle Reed says
Working on it right now. Or at least I am letting the standard theme do that for me.
John Saddington says
more than just standard…!
Nick Shoemaker says
Great post John! I second that motion.
I wish more senior leadership read this blog.
I suppose I could set up email RSS on their computers, and since they wouldn’t know what to do with it they’d have to read it. Or is that being sneaky and subversive?
John Saddington says
which means you gotta tell them about it! or email them.
😉
Brad Davis Seal says
Poor SEO in action:
I’m trying to download the latest version of ProPresenter, ProPresenter 4. I enter “propresenter 4” into Google. The official ProPresenter website isn’t on the front page of Google results. There is an official forum and twitter account, but no link to website. If you don’t know it’s made by Renewed Vision, you might be stuck. Then, if you search for ‘renewed vision’ the site doesn’t show up either on front page of Google–again, just the forum.
The name ‘propresenter’ is nowhere in the url or domain: renewedvision.com/pro4.php
Nick Shoemaker says
I experienced this same frustration when attempting to contact the company. It take a lot of digging to find them.
John Saddington says
sad!
vietchristian says
How’s about this for link building? Put your site on
1) Google Profiles
2) Facebook Fan Page
3) Twitter
4) LinkedIn
John Saddington says
yeah, that can work… but it’s mroe than just properties.
Scott Magdalein says
I’d like to add, if it’s going to be done right it’s probably going to cost some money in the short term.
John Saddington says
word.
Brian Barela says
at my current ministry (Chico State in Northern California, Campus Crusade for Christ) we saw a student trust Christ because of SEO.
he searched “chico state bible studies” and because posts from our site are optimized around those key words one of our links was at the top.
he left a comment, we invited him to our meeting, and two weeks later two of our student leaders shared the Gospel with him! if that’s not reason enough to jump in with SEO i don’t know what is!