If you build it, they will not come! Remember that!

Look…you cannot count on your hands and feet (because you don’t have enough) how many times I tell people that you cannot just put up a website and expect traffic to show up.  So what does that have to do with the Boston Red Sox and their EPIC Implosion during the 2011 Baseball Season?  A ton!  First, the Red Sox have the third highest payroll in the major leagues in 2011, behind only the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.  The Red Sox spent 160 Million Dollars this year on their payroll!  I think if you ask them, even their front office of Larry, John, and Theo, they would tell you that no matter how much you pay someone, that person still needs to perform.  I couldn’t agree more.  Even Theo tells everyone here that they did this to themselves.

So, let’s talk about relevance to your website.  Here is a scenario I see way too often:

A business buys a website – they design it themselves or they have a company do it – and they put it live on the web.  After a month, they begin wondering why they are not getting business.  So they call a website company like ours and in the initial brief 2-3 minute discussion, they tell me that they are not adding content, making changes or updates.

They are not doing any maintenance at all to their website!  So why did they expect to get results?  Because they don’t think that they need to do any work to “win” the search results game!  Ask the Red Sox how that worked for them in September!!!  It doesn’t.  Let’s face it…if you pitch for the Red Sox and you throw strike after strike over the plate all day long at 75 MPH…you won’t be pitching there for long!  Why?  Because you won’t win!

Reality is simple, but it is often hard to digest!  If you don’t produce results, you’re out of a job.  You need to be the Terry Francona and make changes.  Preferably you make better ones than he did in 2011, but remember that if you do nothing, you fail!

On another note, never assume that you have your rankings all set!  Don’t let anyone else think that you have things all wrapped up!  Boston Globe Columnist Dan Shaughnessy did this to the Red Sox during a rain delay of their final 2011 Season Game when they were winning and the Tampa Bay Rays were losing, he now he is eating crow.  Here is what Dan said:

We have all heard it before, it’s not over till it’s over.  Look, you might be doing very well in your search engine rankings, but you need to keep the pressure on or someone is going to come from the second page of Google and overtake you in a heartbeat and you will be crying foul!

Website maintenance is the key to getting, receiving, and constantly obtaining high rankings on Google!  If you don’t do it, no one else will – you will not make the top 10 and you’ll be out of the playoffs!  Your website is not, nor will it ever be, Kevin Costner’s Field of Dreams.  If you build it, they will not come!  Remember that!