The concept of “Build it and they will come” (that gained popularity with the movie Field of Dreams) ranks among my favorite philosophies (if you can call it that) in life – it is a passion driven leap of faith, that often requires substantial investment of resource (time, money, sweat, etc.) into something you believe in at your core—something that is original, pure, and unique—without the promise of any return (gratitude, sense of accomplishment, money, etc.)…it is an approach that can easily put you in a position where everyone else in the room thinks you are a little bit crazy (I know, because I’ve been there before!).

At some point in their career, many SEOs have found themselves in a situation where a client is gives a funny look, and says something like, “you want me to invest how much into SEO, and wait how long before potentially seeing any kind of return…with no promise of any kind? You are nuts!!”…although this kind of response has become less common over the last decade (as the c-suite sees organic traffic counting for a large share of total traffic and revenue), the fear that drives that kind of reaction is the same: when you go big on SEO, it often feels like you are being forced to take the ‘build it and they will come approach’. The truth of the matter is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

Great, sustainable SEO strategies are not a mystery – they start from a drive within your company to create a rich user experience that is simple, relevant, unique, and value-add; not to simplify too much, but that’s what a great SEO strategy comes down to. The challenging part for most organizations often ends up being on the execution side – the “who/what/where/how” of building SEO processes & best practices into the operations of their respective companies.

Here are a few things to focus on when thinking about laying the foundation for a great SEO strategy:

1. Be Unique (build unique content that comes from within your organization, and is value add to to the user)

2. Be Accessible (make sure your site is flat, easy to navigate, and loads quickly!)

3. Be Methodical & Persistent (Incorporate best practices into everything you do, and hold your course!)

4. Be Social (Incorporate Facebook, Twitter, and other social platforms into the fabric of your site, and enable advocates!)

It turns out that Ray—the main character in the movie Field of Dreams, who is compelled to build a baseball diamond in the middle of his farm (no pun intended for those SEOs out there!)—and modern day SEOs, actually have quite a bit in common…they are both inspired to build things that are unique & user centric, are both persistent enough to get past the adversity that comes along with taking that route, and most importantly, they both reap the benefits of traffic, inbound signals (links!), buzz, and authority / popularity, that comes along with executing their plan well…

Build it (the right way), and they will come!