Challenging the Grey Matter

Having retired at the age of 60, it was quite a reversal to again be challenged in the work place. Not only to be challenged after retiring, but in an industry about which I knew absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing. For various, complicated reasons, my wife and I were compelled to assume responsibility for a website that had been around since the year 2000 and was too good to let go. The website had enjoyed good rankings on Google for a number of years but was now unfortunately suffering. There had been quite a considerable sum of money invested in the site and having been around for a number of years, a fact valued by Google, we simply had to have a go. My wife took charge of the administration and day to day running of the business whilst I had the unenviable task of ensuring that the site prospered on Google's serp's (search engine results page). This involved acquainting myself with all aspects of seo (search engine optimization), a subject that had been dealt with by employees previously. Search Engine Optimisation means optimizing a website so that Google will rank you well when someone searches for your product. I, at that point, and still today, only have a very basic knowledge of computers. This is in large part due to my generation being too late to have been schooled from the start on computers and there having been no requirement for me at that late stage to have studied the subject. When I did enquire about some studies on computers with Tafe etc. I discovered that at my age there were no courses available. So I was it, and fortunately there is a large amount of information available on the internet on the subject. Only problem was that most of the data was too complicated for me to readily grasp. This posed quite a problem so I had to make notes on anything that I couldn't understand and then find people to ask. Also I had to ensure that there were no problems with the site as it was. I fairly quickly found out that seo was and still is today a very new function in society in this country. Overseas and particularly in the US it is at a far more advanced level. This is an amazing situation considering that everyone who has a website almost certainly wants it to rank well with Google. If you are not on the first page and preferably on the top half of the first page then you might as well forget about it. And that is after the paid results and also the local business listings. So I am only talking about the organic listings. To make matters even more difficult, Google does not communicate with anyone about anything. Their attitude is that they provide guidelines and that should do. So just live with it. I know many people who rack their brains 24/7 trying to figure out why something did or did not happen. The next phase of my challenge was to try and find someone in this country who could assist me on my quest. That is another story and is quite an alarming one at that. Suffice to say that the situation is very open to all sorts of individuals promoting themselves as Seo Consultants. My main source of information was from US newsletters and I was lucky enough to have been forewarned of this situation, as they had already been through this phase. Early on we could not afford in-house help, but as time progressed that changed and we were lucky enough to procure part time help from several very bright, ethical students. This changed things dramatically and enabled us to progress substantially without being distracted by would be "experts". The definition of an expert being a drip under pressure. Fortunately for us there is quite a number of well qualified in IT young people available in Australia today from all over the world. So, the result was that after about two years of studying seo newsletters, speaking to numerous people and retaining the part time help of some delightfully bright young people, the website has gained in strength and is now one of the leaders in its field. I often come across people in society today who have websites but are in the same predicament I was in about two years ago. Unfortunately there is very little I can do to assist as I am still unaware of any genuinely knowledgeable people out there who could assist on a fair and equitable basis. There are individuals out there who know, but they are already employed to do seo in-house for someone else. The problem is that if you employ someone who purports to be qualified, you are unable to know if this is the case as you don't have the knowledge to qualify them. Worse than that they can do irreparable damage to your site if they do the wrong thing, even get it banned. Considering the importance of performing well on Google in the commercial world today, it is an amazing situation for us all to be in. One of the best pieces of advice I received from newsletters was that if someone can't tell you exactly what they will do to your site in detail, then pass. If they do tell you, you can at least, with help, make a reasonable assessment of their intentions. All I can say is be very, very careful when you are allowing anyone to work on your website. And as for what course to follow, I found it had to be tackled in-house with assistance from other people. Young people without their own agendas, just the ability to process and apply IT information. Good Luck.