It’s been a long time coming now, but the blog at UnstuckDigital.com is finally up and running. This being the first post, I think it’s appropriate to extend something of an introduction.
My name is Mike Tekula. I founded Unstuck Digital after 5+ years of working in web development and search marketing mainly for small and mid-sized businesses. In these five years I’ve learned a lot about what works on the web – and a lot about what doesn’t.
Any honest web marketer will admit that sometimes, like it or not, we’re flying by the seats of our pants. It’s still a relatively new industry, things are changing constantly and when it comes to search engine marketing Google and the other big search players can, without any notification and at the drop of a hat, change the game entirely. What I’ve seen in reaction to this unpredictability in search marketing is a tendency for agencies to resist getting specific with their clients in terms of deliverables and goals – as a means of reducing the risk or liability of the agency.
I understand the resistance. It is tough to put your reputation and relationship with your client on the line by making promises that you don’t have any guarantee you’ll be able to keep.
Unfortunately, there are no guarantees in search marketing. From an agency standpoint, we have no control over Google, no inside knowledge as to the details of their algorithms and no assurance that a client’s website won’t mysterious vanish from search results six months into a campaign.
So what can we do?
We can work with our clients to put together solid strategies with specific goals and timelines for deliverables, and we can stick to them.
That will undoubtedly mean falling short from time to time. That happens. But a good agency is one who sticks it out with their clients even when things don’t go according to plan. It’s an agency who truly acts on the behalf of their clients and in their best interests, and who does so with a high level of transparency.
So I set out to build one myself, from the ground up.