Do I need to know programming to do SEO?

Is great content enough?

Build it and They Will Come (Not True)

So if you’re a business owner, somewhere along the line you have to consider what it takes to generate leads from your website. That means that you need to make some decisions. You will either have to do something yourself, have your staff do something, or hire a third-party to help.

Spoiler Alert: This article is really just a glorified lead-in to a video by one of my influencers that I want you to watch. More about that in a moment.

There’s this myth that if you just produce great content, the rest will take care of itself. My observation is that the Digital Marketing world is broken into 3 camps:

Those who think that if you just produce great content, the rest will take care of itself.
Those who think that if you just produce great content, and promote the heck out of it, the rest will take care of itself.
Those who know that you have to do both, but without checking off the technical boxes, it’s unlikely that either one will work.

Common wisdom is that if you check off the boxes below, you’re golden:

Good on-site experience
Writing good content
Getting others to acknowledge you as an authority
Rising in social popularity
Earning local relevance

So this is the point where I usually loose the average business person because they think I’m about to launch into a diatribe about XML Site Maps and diagnosing page speed load time issues. Trust me, that’s probably nothing you want to get involved in yourself. If you need help evaluating someone to do it, download this book first: The Digital Marketing Smell Test

It’s not that I’m tired of explaining that SEO requires some degree of technical proficiency, in fact I actually enjoy the conversation. I’ve covered that subject so many times with so many prospects and clients that I can send out for lunch at the same time without missing a beat.

It’s just that Co-Founder of MOZ Rand Fishkin does a much more eloquent and compelling job in this video where he takes issue with a popular article proclaiming that technical expertise is not necessary to properly optimize a website.