I used to say that small business owners and other executives fail with an SEO strategy because they ignore it or it really never makes it on the priority plate.

But that’s only part of the story.

They try and fall short because of the overused Field of Dreams scenario.

I just spoke with an owner – a very smart guy who designed a great fashion product. The problem is that he doesn’t know much about marketing. He trusted some folks who did his SEO.

They assumed with their SEO strategy that it’s a one-time exercise. It isn’t. They have keywords in some of the ideal places. So what? What if they’re the wrong words? They had no plan to test different scenarios. Complicating matters is the scarce content. You have to love the images – hard to miss. But how will the site excel without content?

It’s a niche business. So guess what? He’s on the second page of Google for some keyword phrases because of the provisional effort. But then you just walk away and hope? He literally told me that’s what happened. They built the web site and expected the natural traffic to follow.

I offered to give him ideas, practical steps to take to get on the first page of Google. Hopefully he’ll take me up on the offer.