Why are people afraid of SEO?
In case you're an entrepreneur or a small business owner you have likely heard from everyone that you should learn SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and prepare an online strategy for your business. After all, most people frequently search for products or services on the internet.
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You are well aware of the fact that you require a website, and that it requires a little work for it to appear on the web search engines. Thus you invest some time and energy - possibly outsource the job - and built a website for your business. Possibly you utilize a pre-designed theme to get the site up and running.
Incidentally, in spite of your earnest attempts, the site isn't sufficiently improved.
You comprehend that; however, you would not like to manage all that "SEO stuff." From all that you heard, search engine optimization takes a lot to time and the techniques are too technical for you. You thought it (SEO) doesn't ensure critical outcomes. So why bother with it?
A ton of business owner feels along these lines. They find out about how vital SEO is, yet at the same time delay to begin SEO themselves or hire an organization.
Here are some facts that make people scared of SEO-
1. There is no magic formula-
If you believe that SEO is some magic elixir for quick online profit and success, you'll be sorely frustrated and disappointed. Search engine optimization is significant to your business' productivity, yet it will require some serious time and energy before you'll see an ROI (Return on Investment).
In business, each system and crusade must yield some profit i.e. some ROI. If there is something that won't help in developing your business, you won't do it. Since the ROI from SEO is slow in arriving, numerous people feel that SEO doesn't have any importance and in this way, they stack it to lower priorities.
Those new to SEO will put a considerable amount of time and money into it and are regularly frustrated by the absence of results. This makes many business owners hesitant to start a SEO campaign and to stick it out for the long haul.
One should understand that the results will come in the long run if the strategy is planned and executed well. They just won't come immediately. Search engine optimization is an important technique for one's business and ought not to be overlooked. Be patient and search for logical strategies and processes, not magic.
2. It Takes Too Much Time
Those new to SEO imagine that this sort of online marketing strategy is a quite complex and the process includes many steps and parts. While there are a ton of components to consider while enhancing your site, they shouldn't be altogether done at the same time.
Like points #1 above, those new to SEO are frequently hesitant to begin an expensive and tedious SEO strategy when it creates the impression that all the work and time invested is in vain. Once more, be patience.
There are several alternatives for busy business owners in handling SEO. The primary choice is to hand over all the SEO assignments and obligations to a digital marketing agency. When you essentially don't have sufficient time to do it without anyone else's help, obviously, you can appoint the whole procedure to a SEO organization. Along these lines, you can invest your time and energy into maintaining your business while the organization runs the online campaigns.
The other choice is to handle the SEO yourself. Try not to begin off by trying to do everything, except do it step by step. You'll save money and learn more about SEO; however, you'll have to invest a great deal of time all the while.
3. Search engine optimization is Too Technical.
Numerous business owners new to SEO have this thought SEO is a technical, complicated process that is done by a web designer or a "brilliant computer geek." They feel under qualified to execute SEO or even endeavor to learn it.
Many components of SEO can be performed by anybody. You needn't to have a computer diploma to perform SEO activities. A person with basic computer knowledge can easily perform some of these activities. Basic SEO is anything but difficult to learn and just takes a couple hours of learning. At the point when your organization is young and you're new to SEO, it is best to just focus on executing a few basic key SEO components and strategies.
There are numerous technical parts to it, as well and many small businesses are concerned that digital marketing agencies will attempt to overwhelm them with a huge amount of digital terms and odd claims. Try not to let that stress you, simply clarify your concerns and ask plenty of queries, and a good agency will walk you through all aspects of the procedure.
4. Not getting enough customers online.
One of the broadly discussed parts of SEO is keywords. Keyword research and target audience is a very common strategy that is promptly started when you start up any campaign. In case you're doing this all by yourself, you may immediately run into the tremendous number of relevant keywords and feel a bit overwhelmed with the potential outcomes. But how will you decide which keyword to focus on?
Finding out about keyword research can enable you to get an idea which words your site is as of now positioning for and which ones searchers are using to discover your site. You can also find keywords based on relevance, level of competition and volume of search.
The more that you analyze your website and discover patterns keywords, the easier and quicker it will be to identify keywords that will target the right audience that is looking to buy your product or services and thus converted from traffic to your clients.
5. The complexity of SEO.
You will be a little bit surprised if someone tells you that there are more than 200 factors that the Google analyze when ranking a website. How one can tackle all these factors?
This complexity of SEO is enough to frighten off business owners who would prefer not to waste the time and energy to manage everything. Or on the other hand, they may go the other way and start to focus on a single ranking factor. Some entrepreneurs or business owners are content with finding out about SEO and implementing a couple of fundamental SEO activities for their sites. This is a start; however, the full power and capability of SEO will never be completely realized.
Search engine optimization takes time, money and sincere efforts. The scares that SEO is excessively technical, complex, and gimmicky are common delusions among people new to SEO. The more you learn about SEO yourself, you'll more comfortable and confident to do your own SEO or work closely with any digital marketing agency.
The volatility that we recently experienced in the market is very troubling to some investors. Unfortunately, those investors who hit the panic button and sold off are recognizing large losses in their portfolios only to turn to investments that are perceived as safer places to invest.
The fact of the matter is that we invest our money to earn long-term rates of return that will exceed the rate of inflation and help us preserve our purchasing power. Historically, cash has been the worst place to invest over the long term.
Losing Investment Capital in a Volatile Market
According to Fidelity Investments, investors who sold their 401(k) holdings while the market was crashing between October 2017 and March 2018, and then stayed on the sidelines, have only seen their account values increase by about 2%, including contributions, through Citizenship by descent June of 2019. This compares with those who held on and saw account balances bounce back by around 50%. During periods of extreme volatility, wealth managers will often tell clients to stay invested rather than sell and lock in large losses in a seesaw market.
Building confidence in your strategy is a way to keep from making the mistake of buying high and selling low. Having the mental conviction to tell yourself that you have a carefully planned portfolio of high quality investments goes a long way toward getting through the toughest days of market volatility. If you are unsure of how to select high quality investments, consult with an financial manager or registered investment advisor.
The question is; how do you reach that state of mind? It's not easy if you are the type of person that tends to get knots in your stomach when the market drops. We outline some steps below that might be able to increase your level of confidence.
Conquering the Fear of Volatility
One step you should take to better handle volatility is to make sure you have adequate cash reserves for a financial emergency that might arise. This way you are not depending on your portfolio for unforeseen expenses and your anxiety level will be lower, knowing that you don't need to sell your investments when they have declined in value.
Make sure you have a mix of investments that fits in to your risk tolerance and time frame. This can be accomplished by considering how you have felt when past market declines have occurred. Your wealth management advisor should be able to provide you with a thought provoking questionnaire that will give you a score when completed. The score on the questionnaire will have a corresponding asset allocation that you can use to determine the split you will have between stocks, bonds and cash.
Once your allocation has been determined, stick with it. It is a good practice to reallocate your assets on a regular basis to keep your risk level the same. This means that a portion of those investments with better performance will be sold (sell high) to purchase in order to purchase shares in those that have not performed as well (buy low).
Other ways to hedge volatility can be through the use of options. Two simple strategies can be applied. One is the sale of covered call options against underlying stock or ETF positions. In this strategy you (the seller of the option) collect money from a speculator (the buyer of the option) in exchange for an agreement to sell your stock only if it reaches a specified price (higher than where it trades at the time of the transaction). The option must hit the price target (strike price) within a predetermined time frame (expiration date). If it does not, the contract expires you keep the money paid and are free to sell more options against that stock position.
The other strategy is to simply buy a put option. This gives you the right to sell your position in a stock or ETF that you own at a predetermined price within a predetermined time frame. For this privilege you will pay money (a premium) to the potential buyer (seller of the put option) of your stock. This strategy should be implemented in periods of low volatility, as the cost of the transaction will rise as markets begin to fall.
Buy With Conviction
Let's say you've owned a stock that has done well over time. The stock has had a history of increasing revenue, profits and dividend increases. It seems like the stock is usually going up when the market goes up, only now there has been a big selloff in the market, and the stock has dropped dramatically due to market conditions. It may be time to do some homework on the company and make sure that the drop is due to just a generally bad market. If it that turns out to be the case, maybe it is time to buy more of the stock. Great companies often go on sale in market declines, only to have dramatic upturns once the market decline is over.
Speak With Your Wealth Management Team
You should also consult with your financial manager when markets are volatile. Investment professionals are in the business of understanding what is causing the market volatility and can often provide some insight. Often times your investment professional can help ease your anxiety and remind you of your commitment to your allocation and financial goals.