Improve the Web Search Engine Optimization, Usability and Design How Tos and Advice http://www.improvetheweb.com/node/180/atom/feed 2007-10-18T10:15:11-05:00 Do You Use Your Own Knowledge for Yourself? http://www.improvetheweb.com/do-you-use-your-own-knowledge-yourself 2007-10-18T09:58:07-05:00 2007-10-18T10:15:11-05:00 Yuri As an expert, especially, if you do consulting, you, probably, spend a great deal time of using your knowledge for your clients and educating them around the industry. But how well do you apply your knowledge to your own work and business?

For example, for any client, you'd probably advise:

  • knowing the industry (you do that already, hopefully)
  • building something of value and providing value on every step of the journey
]]> As an expert, especially, if you do consulting, you, probably, spend a great deal time of using your knowledge for your clients and educating them around the industry. But how well do you apply your knowledge to your own work and business?

For example, for any client, you'd probably advise:

  • knowing the industry (you do that already, hopefully)
  • building something of value and providing value on every step of the journey
  • participating in the industry by socializing with other experts
  • building good relationships with clients
  • keeping your site simple to use
  • always having an obvious way to contact
  • and so on

But do you actually apply these techniques for your own work or business? How much time do you spend:

  • improving your own website
  • actually providing value to your client, without checking in with your contract much
  • overdelivering
  • making your site usable
  • socializing with the people from your industry
  • building relationships with your clients
  • actually promoting your website using all the methods you know and doing it the right way

For instance, while I always aim to find ways to provide value to the client, such as examining every situation and case and applying the principle there, I don't obviously spend enough time on my site. I really should be writing and posting more.

Does a forgotten site mean you are a quack?

I'd say that if you are a pretty busy person, your website hasn't been drastically improved for weeks, months or maybe years.

A very good example would be a website of Ammon Johns. It's been only recently redesigned and while it only has masterpiece content, the amount of articles is very modest and probably hasn't increased for weeks/months.

Sorry to out you, Ammon, but I think it shows how good an Internet marketer you are that you are always working for the people (I think that's a good excuse I can use about my site, too :p). By the way, Ammon won't be writing a blog. You can always find him at Cre8asite Forums, though.

To give credit to Ammon, though, his site does rank high for web marketing and web promotion. Not to mention local searches. I think that's an outstanding achievement, since the work has been done elsewhere (or so it seems to me).

So, in essence, when it comes to SEO, I'd gather that

  • posting often
  • always tweaking the site
  • tracking stats and links attentively
  • promoting the site to stay visible
  • reading other blogs

is always limited by the amount of time you spend on your customers. And the site can get really, really overgrown with vines and other ilk of the past design eras.

So, apart from the initial question,

  • How regularly do you update your website?
  • Do you watch your stats, how often?
  • Do you always seek and find ways to make your site easy to use?
  • How many hours per week do you spend on your own website?
  • When do you plan to start working on your site?

Thank you for answering.

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