Last by Ego

For the purpose of not wanting to single out a specific company here, we'll use the term "widget" instead of the actual products this company sells and services.

SEO Smart Sites was approached by a Mid Western business that wanted to give us some free "Widget" services for linking to their website in return. We Googled their site in a specific way to get it to show up on the first page. We were amazed to find that the description of their site stated that they are in the business of selling Joomla software. This is absolutely not what they do.

This is a common mistake that businesses make. They think because they are great at what they do that they can do anything - including building their own web site. So they go online and see great reviews for software that lets them do just that. They start building their site with the generic templates and are impressed with what they have done. Part of the reason these software's show up on the search results is because they plug in their meta tags within the software so if you use it they benefit more than you do.

Let's face it, we all like to feel impressed with our capabilities, especially when it can be a complicated task. The president of the company decided to take on the task of building and maintaining the website. He might be good at many things in the business world including running his business, but developing websites is not one of them.

We approached this company out of professional courtesy and explained what is out there and why they will not be found by the average Google user. That was just for the technical reasons. We never even discussed the look and feel of the site that represented the company's image. That was even more embarrassing to say the least.

The challenge was that the president's ego was so invested into his work that he didn't want to hear from anyone criticizing his web site. It was like the story of the Emperor who was not wearing any cloths - nobody wanted to tell the president how awful the site was. Needless to say he is wasting his valuable time where he should be out maintaining his business as he plays around trying to learn something that he will never get - at least not with that software.

Egos should be checked at the door when it comes to a business. Most businesses are found today by a Google search. The money he is loosing by NOT being in the results pages would more than cover the cost to do it right and be on the first page. It's not about how much money you are saving by doing the web site yourself - it's how much money you're loosing and will never get back because you're site is not in the search results. Let's say someone actually enters enough information to get the site to show up - they probably won't click on it because they're advertising Joomla software and not widgets!

Congratulations! You built your own web site; however, we regret to inform you that you will probably never be found on Google. In this case the president's ego may cost him his business. And yes, currently the business description is still selling software not widgets . . . which is why they will be Last by Ego.