In his classic book “The Most Important Thing,” billionaire Howard Marks concludes that the most important thing for investing is… everything!
Some within SEO think it’s all about backlinks. Perhaps you just need a beautiful, useful website. While these do form the more essential parts of the SEO equation, the details matter too.
The solution differs based on both the business and the client…
Ranking for informational searches will require keyword-rich content optimized to show featured snippets.
A multi-location solar contractor will need Online Reputation Management (ORM) that addresses important local review sites.
A massive industry conference website will find value in technical SEO, fixing sitewide issues disrupting their natural growth engine.
Not every business should even focus on SEO. Unless there’s a substantial keyword demand for their products & services, resources are better spent within other digital marketing channels. Small businesses rarely find a good return here.
A good SEO must adapt, adjusting to the needs of their situation. This is partially why a common answer within SEO is “it depends.” As Charlie Munger says, “It’s not supposed to be easy. Anyone who finds it easy is stupid.”