It has always been an oxymoronic practice of large businesses that the moment they hit tough times they upped their ad-spend budgets. The rationale behind it was that since customers dropped their spending they needed a reminder of how great a company’s products were and needed to think about buying more.

As a stop-gap measure it worked well enough to simply blindly reinforce the practice and prevent too close an analysis between what was gained (immediate benefits) and what it cost (longer-term cost as ad expenses would not become apparent until much later). The smart businessman of course knows that while it becomes imperative for business to advertise in order to bring their products and services to the attention of those who need them, in order to work properly this activity needs to be highly targeted and totally intelligent, which means that when it comes to your website you need to take charge of much of your SEO activity and all of your SEO strategy.

For that to happen you need to understand the connection between what you do in terms of business, what your potential customers are looking for and how, all this, translates in terms of practical actions on your website’s search engine optimization efforts. If, for instance, you start the day without a clear idea on how to promote what you have then it means that your thinking in terms of how you sell is at odds with what your customers are looking for. This places you at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to promoting your website and it undermines your search engine optimization efforts.

It is important to understand that search engine optimization works in two distinct parts: the practical one (which comes down to dotting the ‘i’s and crossing the ‘t’s) and the strategic one (which requires analytical thinking and the ability to plan ahead). The difference between these two approaches is the same as working in your business and working on your business. Unless you do both well and in a totally synchronized way you risk getting into a cycle where you waste a lot of energy and effort for relatively few returns.

To avoid getting into this kind of rut give yourself the thinking space you need to plan what you need to do for your online business in terms of its internet marketing needs. Do not just get caught up in the nitty-gritty of SEO, ask the questions which really matter, in plain English and then work to see how SEO can provide the answers.

This way you get to make inroads, working like a corporate think-tank even if you are a one-man outfit, commuting to work in your PJs from the back bedroom.