One of the first things I learned about running a small business, was the longer you leave the accounts – the worse it is to put it right. Bookkeeping and Search Engine Optimisation are very similar in that regard. Consequently, for less stress and more success, I get both up to date very regularly.
When I took some time off over Christmas and New Year, I returned to a bulging laptop screen with several hundred backlogged emails. One of the quick and easy things to clear out were the invoices – which I forwarded to my accounting software.
After a few days and a lot of email catch-up, I logged in to my accounts with the intention of getting my numbers up to date. To my dismay, the software told me I owed over £206 million to suppliers … yes million! Strong coffee was needed! It took me nearly a whole day to recover from that three-week break in my accounting routine. There were a lot of transactions and it took far more time than usual to wade through the sales invoices and supplier invoices in order to identify what should go where and identify the ‘rogue numbers’. Fortunately, the £206 million was the result of a cross-eyed computer misreading the numbers and mis-posting as a result … which meant I wasn’t
actually bankrupt. Thank goodness!
That stressful day, reminded me of the 1980s and my first business when accounting was done with big red ledgers and hand-written entries … and invoices were hole-punched and filed into lever arch files. My accountant at that time used to nag me and nag me to keep my records up to date each and every week. Some weeks there was very little to do and it hardly seemed worth it. But it soon became a habit – and a habit I enjoyed, because being up to date had a happy feeling – and I could answer any question about my numbers at any point – which also had a happy feeling.
Skip to four decades later and I have the same attitude to my website and my search engine optimisation [SEO]. The longer I ignore my SEO actions, the worse my website performs in terms of “Google friendliness” et cetera. It doesn’t take long for little things to go off track – and each of those little things takes longer to resolve the longer they are uncorrected. It is far better to constantly complete a few little actions, every day, so you get that same happy feeling – and you see happy Google results too.
The other thing which my accountant taught me all those years ago, was “up to date means cheaper”. He had clients who would leave their accounting all year. They would turn up a few days before the filing deadline – carrying a cardboard box full of unsorted invoices and bank statements … and they’d expect him to work night and day to hurriedly sort out the mess. He and his Trainees worked miracles to collate the information – write up the big red books – and crunch the numbers. They always did it on time – but it came at a cost. Trainees working nights and weekends involve overtime – and overtime is far more expensive. Consequently, the accountant’s bill was far more expensive for those delinquent clients.
Conversely, his nagging and nagging me to keep my red books up to date – meant I could hand over my numbers to the trainees at a quiet time of year. There was no stress, no nights nor weekends, and no overtime … and consequently it was a happy process for all concerned. It also resulted in a favourable hourly rate and a smaller fee at the end. More happiness!
Regular small actions for SEO have the same result. They can be fitted in during the odd quiet moment. They are stress-free and flexible. There is constant progress and consequently better results. Yet more happiness!
At HoneyBee-Marketing & SEO, we encourage all our clients to “do a little every day” and keep it stress-free. Our SEO tools provide a constantly updated list of actions to take in the following areas:
- Onsite Actions
- Our SEO Tools (find out more here).
- Keyword Actions
- Backlink Actions
- Local SEO Actions
- Content Actions
- Pagespeed Actions
… and each one has “the why and how to” so clients learn whilst they progress. Clients get that happy feeling – and that encourages them to do more – successfully. I will always be grateful to my first accountant. His wise words and ‘nagging’ taught me the good habit of being up to date. And because “Bookkeeping and Search Engine Optimisation Are Very Similar” … I get that happy feeling when I regularly complete each task.
If you want to get up to date with the SEO on your website, click here to get a Free SEO Audit and check out our HoneyBee SEO packages.
By Bernie Wales at HoneyBee Marketing and SEO ( https://HoneyBee-Marketing.co.uk)
