Critical Thinking Cafe

SEO Problem Solving

Two years ago if you asked me to define Search Engine Optimization (SEO) or if you asked me how my pay-per-click campaign was doing, I wouldn’t have known what you were talking about. Raise either of those questions now and I can confidently tell you that I know enough about SEO and PPC to be. . . well, totally frustrated!

Twenty-four months ago my vocabulary didn’t include terms like page rank, organic search results, conversion rate, page views, or bounce rate. Today those phrases flow from my lips with ease. My SEO efforts and my attempts to get Google to acknowledge our company’s presence has tempted me to use some other words too—but I won’t list them here. . .

When you rely on the internet as a primary source for prospects, you want your efforts to work and your investments to pay a solid return. We found using a critical thinking process to get to the heart of our problem and identify some solutions has helped us maximize our investment—and significantly reduce our frustration.

Define your problem. A problem exists whenever actual performance is less than expected and the gap is large enough to be of concern to you. Enhancing your internet presence may mean you need to identify and resolve several separate problems from page rank to better bid management to adding new content to your site.

Identify the cause of the problem. You can’t resolve a problem unless you know the root cause. Clearly identify what the problem is—and also what it is not. Is your problem not enough visitors to your website or are the visitors not going far enough into your site to find out what your business is all about? Is your problem a lack of traffic or not enough conversions? Take time to define what the problem is (and isn’t). Clarify the size and extent of the problem. Identify where in the process your problem occurs. Determine when the problem started, if it’s continuing, and any other times you have seen this happen.

Create a list of possible solutions. Get creative. If you don’t know what you don’t know, spend time with salespeople from SEO marketing companies and let them educate you. Compare what you hear and create a list of options you want to consider. Our SEO marketing company has given us alternatives we had not considered and has helped us prioritize our investments for the best return.

Select your best solutions using clearly defined criteria. The internet roller coaster can create havoc for you if you allow your decisions to be driven by emotion and gut reaction rather than objective criteria. Take time to determine how budget, time utilization, available resources, corporate strategy, marketing philosophy, etc. will guide your decisions.

Anticipate the problems that are inherent in every change. Even positive changes can create problems unless you take time to identify what could go wrong and plan for how you will prevent the problem from occurring. A dramatic rework of our website resulted in our disappearance from Google’s natural search results when we didn’t anticipate the loss of the hundreds of backlinks on our old site.

Internet marketing doesn’t have to be a source of endless irritation or a dark hole into which you pour thousands of dollars with out any certainty as to the result. Time invested in a critical analysis of your situation will pay for itself in multiples through a well-executed internet strategy.

Avoiding Pain

It's hard to watch people experience pain you know they could prevent.

I’ve given some thought to how the leaders in two non-profit organizations are managing their way through large-scale change. Both organizations are growing. Both are involved in large site expansion programs. Both have high levels of activity and rely on hundreds of volunteers to accomplish their goals.

Over the past several months, Organization A has seen several key staff people leave or move into different roles with little explanation given for the departures and changes. To an outside observer—and to some more directly involved—while there is general agreement about what each department is supposed to do, there is no cohesive vision or plan that glues all the activity together. During this change process, individuals leading this respected organization have communicated very little with the people trying to carry out the group’s purpose and goals.

Organization B is going through the upheaval and discomfort of expansion and growth as well. But in this organization, there is a deliberate, well-planned, clearly articulated change management process going on. The leadership of this organization regularly communicates what is happening, the challenges each step will bring, and how the organization will work through each stage of the growth process. There is a clear, easily-defined vision and everything the organization does is linked with that mission and purpose.

Apparently, Organization A doesn’t understand that all problems are the result of change, but not all change has to create problems. Even positive changes like growth and expansion can cause problems—major problems—unless deliberate steps are taken to anticipate and plan for those problems. Ohio State Professor Paul C. Nutt’s research has found that one of the most significant ways to increase the likelihood that a change will be implemented successfully is by communicating with and engaging the people involved in a change before the decision or change takes place.

During a time of organizational change you cannot over-communicate with the people involved—especially if those people are volunteers and not tied to the organization on a daily basis. If the leaders in an organization do not tell people what is going on—the people will make up their own story based on what they observe. Once that happens, it is very difficult to dislodge a false reality and convince people to believe and embrace the truth about the situation. People will tend to hold tightly to their perceptions of reality because of the often unconscious distrust of the organizations’ leadership that takes root during the silence.

Whatever changes you’re introducing in your organization—even if the changes are positive and wanted—take time to anticipate and plan for the problems your changes will create. Help everyone involved understand the potential problems, realize how they will impact your organization, and take steps to prevent problems from occurring by anticipating and planning for them. And throughout the change process—communicate, communicate, communicate. Often resistance to and delays in implementing new initiatives are directly related to not soliciting input from those involved with the facts, criteria, and reasons for a decision.

The Death of Innovation

Several years ago I met with a purchasing manager in a well-respected global technology company. In an effort to protect identities, let’s place him geographically somewhere in the western hemisphere. . . Two consultants and I had developed a dynamic process for implementing change in an enterprise and we were confident our system could bring great value to this mammoth organization.

After listening to our presentation, this purchasing guy leaned back in his chair and replied, “You know what I do whenever top management tells me to do something? I sit on it and don’t do anything.”

We must have looked a bit incredulous so he continued, “I don’t do anything because as soon as I try to do what they told me to do, they’ll read another book and tell me to do something else. So I just sit on it and don’t do anything.”

Somewhere in that company well-intentioned leaders pursue creative ways to bring innovation, new ideas, and fresh energy to all levels of that organization. And somewhere deep in the bowels of that company sit people like the guy I met who quietly smother those initiatives by inactivity and indifference. Perhaps he has been given too many great ideas with no plan for turning them into reality. Maybe he has run into problems when he makes changes so he has stopped trying to change anything.

I wonder how much time in senior executive strategy sessions the leaders in that company ask themselves, “Now what will we do if the people we count on to launch this don’t do anything? How can we prevent problems from developing as we implement this plan?”

Innovation without implementation creates aggravation. After watching one brilliant idea after another die on the road to implementation, it is easy to understand how people become like the manager I met. Many companies focus significant human and financial resources in the pursuit of innovation. I wonder how much energy those companies put toward ensuring their innovations are successfully implemented.

In an insightful article titled Innovation: The Classic Traps (Harvard Business Review, November 2006) Rosabeth Moss Kanter draws from years of research and observation when she writes, “Too often. . . grand declarations about innovation are followed by mediocre execution that produces anemic results, and innovation groups are quietly disbanded in cost-cutting drives” (page 73).

If your latest revitalization effort is stalled like a beat-up truck on a dusty road your problems might have more to do with your failure to anticipate problems than the quality of your new ideas. Anticipation is the first step toward prevention. The surest way to prevent a problem is to plan for it.

Welcome!

Welcome to Action Management's on-line community. Come back often for fresh ideas about solving problems, making decisions, and finding ways to prevent problems before they happen. I know, that sounds pretty optimistic. It can be done--we'll talk about how to do it in future postings.