You’ve heard the phrase “out of sight out of mind”? You might think this only has to do with life, but it’s also pertinent to websites and social media.
Out Of Sight Out Of Mind
We’ve taken quite a few days off this summer. We decided that we worked way to hard last year, and that this year would be different. So, we used our motor home quite a bit. We took several smaller mini vacations. Wisconsin was our destination for our most recent trip.
So what does this have to do with the topic of our blog?
Google Cares
Yes, it’s true. Google cares about what you do with your website. Lots of small businesses feel that if they have a website out there, that should be adequate. They don’t have time to update it, because they are working at their business. But, Google cares how active your website is.
Prior to this year, we diligently added products weekly. Blog posts were added once or twice a month.
This year, however, was different. It’s harder to spend the time working on business things when you’re trying to vacation. We respond to queries we get from potential customers. And, we fit in their orders when we return to the shop.
It’s not that Google penalizes you for that kind of behavior, but kind of. When you are out of sight out of mind naturally follows in Google’s eyes. You aren’t higher in the rankings. Not as many people see your website, so Google perceives you as not as important or desirable.
How To Correct This
As disappointing as it is, the fact of life is we have and will drop in the rankings. The only way to correct this is to raise our visibility by frequently updating content or by advertising.
This requires that we stay home. And refocus efforts on raising our visibility. We’re not sure that we want to do this.
What Next?
We aren’t retiring from the business. We’re refocusing our efforts. Our customers are still contacting us. Just not as many as before. But that’s okay.
We just have to figure out the best balance for us. We provide a unique service and product that many people apparently want. So we hope that out of sight out of mind really doesn’t happen in the long haul. We’ll try to remain visible and figure out how much is the right amount.
So, thanks for sticking with us. We still enjoy what we do and want to keep our creative juices flowing. We just need a little time off now and then. 🙂