2.1. It's Your SEO Plan

When you heard about this book, you may have had one of two reactions. Maybe you thought, "Great! A quick and easy SEO plan that I can follow!" Or maybe you thought, "Uh-oh! An oversimplified approach to something complex." Both of these reactions are perfectly reasonable. A simple approach is important, but you should be wary of anything that promises a one-size-fits-all SEO solution.

So let's make one thing clear: There's nothing cookie cutter about your SEO plan. And because nobody knows your organization and website like you do, guess who's in charge of the fine-tuning? You!

Small and large companies, brick-and-mortars, bloggers, and nonprofits—each type has its own set of needs, advantages, and challenges. Your assignment is to identify which categories your company is in, read our tips and guidelines for those categories, and think about how you can apply the customization to your own SEO efforts.

This is a "check all that apply" chapter—your company may fall into multiple categories. For example, let's say you run an independent toy store in Des Moines, Iowa. You would want to read at least three of the categories in this chapter: brick-and-mortar, B2C, and small organization. If you're the world leader in granulators for the plastics industry, you'd want to read B2B and large organization. Read what applies to you, but also consider reading what may not seem to. After all, part of being an SEO expert is knowing the breadth of what the Web offers. You never know where you might find something interesting and useful for your own site!