I was in my bank setting up a new stocks and shares ISA the other day and was asked the question which anyone who’s ever done any sort of investing will be familiar with- what is my attitude to risk?
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That question really resonates with me because I think this is a question we have to ask and answer everyday when doing SEO work. At the high risk end of the spectrum you stand to lose everything, your site could be recovably damaged by risky SEO. At the other end you might stay safe but the risk is never seeing any results.
So what would the risk profiles of typical SEO investors look like?
Level 1: No risk (aka cash)
You are not willing to take any chances with your website or brand. Your site is too high profile to risk any onsite tactics and in fact you don’t have any control over the website even if you wanted to. Compliance won’t let you, or your agency talk to any third party sites so link building is out the question. Should you even be reading an SEO blog- someone could be watching!
Your SEO tactic of choice: hoping for rankings
Level 2: Low Risk (aka corporate bonds)
You are highly brand sensitive so link building is difficult, you don’t really want anyone to know you’re doing SEO work. Recipricol links or putting your name to content is out the question. You don’t want to risk using SEO tactics like directory submission in case Google decides to start treating this as paid links and penalise you.
Your SEO tactic of choice: Onsite optimisation
Level 3: Medium Risk (aka property)
You accept that rankings can go up as well as down and are looking at a long and medium as well as short term strategy. You’re willing to try out some aggressive tactics but are aware that people are watching so anything onsite has to be completely above board.
Your SEO tactic of choice: A varied portfolio of link building activity
Level 4: Medium- high risk (aka shares)
You’re interested in the long term and don’t want to lose it all but are willing to fly by the seat of your pants when it comes to stuff like link aquisition strategies. You might run a couple of sites so if one gets hit by a penalty you don’t return to zero.
Your SEO tactic of choice: Paid links
Level 5: High risk (aka Complex investments)
You have a large number of sites and are willing to run the risk of one or more of them being completely blacklisted. You probably brought your domains from aftermarket or are hacking other peoples rather than growing them yourself. You have no organic links or unique content. You monitise your sites with Adsense, affiliate or paid links and just want traffic, and fast.
Your SEO tactic of choice: cloning and cloaking
My own attitude to risk sits in different places for the different sites I work on. For some of my own ventures I have no problem putting myself in the medium high risk bracket however for clients I mostly stay around level 3.
Obviously your own attitude to risk is your own choice and you have to do what you think is right for your campaign and the long term good of your site. Don’t forget though there’s indirect risk associated with the lower end of the risk spectrum- the risk of failure, which increases greatly if you dip below level 3.
