Have you ever gained a little knowledge on a subject, completed the work yourself and stuffed it up?
I did recently.
And it meant except for individual blog posts the website didn’t exist as far as Google was concerned.
I waited and waited.
I looked at what I had done, tried to find answers via search engines and forums.
No luck there.
As I was busy with work and clients I forgot about it for a while.
Weeks went by and finally to admit I did something very wrong and did not know how to fix it.
I know I should have asked for help earlier but just thought due to the changes it was taking a while for the search engines to notice.
This was actually pretty dumb thinking as the search engines pick up my posts within a couple of hours usually.
It was only last week when I left a comment that it became very apparent that I was living the “a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing” episode.
Thankfully Sherryl Perry from Keep Up with the Web and Michele Welch from NewBizBlogger came to my rescue.
They pointed out the problem, explained why and told me how to fix it. Sherryl emailed me to follow up together with a screen shot to make sure I had done it correctly.
Voila!
From not being indexed, in less than two days my site was back in the loving arms of Google.
There are a number of marketing lessons from this little episode that could help you avoid my stupid mistake:
- If you do not have the skills or experience ask for help from those that truly know the answer.
- Get away from information overload around you as much of the information does not contain the important “what this means” and the all the steps to take. I see this all the time regarding marketing strategy.
- Out of frustrating experiences ideas are generated. This experienced confirmed an idea I have for a new product which is being developed.
- Free information is not always the right information for your business or customers. Check to see if it makes sense before you jump in and use it.
- This is obvious but a good reminder; surround yourself with others who you can learn from as nobody knows everything.
Mistakes happen when marketing your products or services so if you are unsure seek help or ask trusted friends who have the skills and experience.
Over to you. How do you make sure you don’t land in trouble with the marketing of your brand?
