It’s always tough to find the balance in life between being content and getting complacent. Contentment means you’re happy where you are. If you’re not careful, contentment can lead to complacency, which means you’re no longer striving to be better.
Yet, if you are always striving for something more, does that mean you’re not content? Not necessarily.
As with life, we try to find that balance between being content and complacent in our web marketing efforts. Translated, we want our clients to be happy with the work we’ve done but not so happy that they don’t see the value in continuing to push ahead.
Think of SEO as trailblazing. You can reach a point and say, I’m happy with the progress we’ve made. But that doesn’t mean you stop blazing new trails. If you keep going, you can still discover new things. Once complacency sets in, you’re done discovering and you just want to rest on past successes.
The world is full of companies that died (or are dying) of complacency. Those are the companies that became so happy with their success that they stopped proving themselves. It didn’t happen over night, but over time they lost their leadership status. Anyone remember Netscape, AOL, Gateway Computers, and BlackBerry? All of those brands once dominated their respective spaces, but no longer.
Why? They got complacent.
They stopped innovating. They let themselves be content with their success and soon lost it. Microsoft, once in danger of being split up by the government, is now trying to catch up to rivals such as Google and Apple. Those two were able to come in and gain ground on Microsoft’s turf. Now Microsoft finds itself trying to steal some of that back.
Web marketing works the same way. Success isn’t created. It’s built on past successes. As soon as you say, “that’s good for now,” someone else will soon be taking back what you took from them. Or a new competitor will surge to the front because they are fighting for their very survival and know what it mans not to get complacent.
You got rankings? Great! Now what are you going to do to keep them? [Tweet This]
I often say that in web marketing if you’re standing still, you’re falling behind.
That doesn’t mean you can’t be happy with what you have today. It just means, you can’t stop and revel in your success. You have to be happy but keep pressing ahead so you can stay ahead.