My trusty Jeep wouldn’t start on Sunday. So, being the son of a GM retiree that spent many years working on the line and teaching me at a young age which wrench to fetch, I was sure I had diagnosed the problem – it was the starter. However, since the Jeep is more difficult to work on than my old Chevy Nova (and my dad lives four hours away), it made sense to visit the mechanic.
Sure, I wanted to do the repair work myself, but I simply don’t have the time, tools, and workspace I wish I had. Through word-of-mouth, I knew of a good mechanic in town to contact. He arranged for the tow truck to haul the ole’ Cherokee in and soon began his diagnosis.
A few hours passed and the phone call came. Sure enough he had my Jeep running. Knowingly, I asked, “It was the starter, right?” All those years of holding the flash light under the hood, fetching the wrong size sockets, and dropping tools into the engine compartment had taught me a little something about car repair.
But surprisingly, the starter was just fine. Thanks to new spark plugs, a distributor cap, new wires, and $350, my trusty Jeep was back on the road.
The Jeep’s engine is more complex than a 283 Chevy small block, and more complex than I had thought. And as many business owners with a website are now realizing, Google and Yahoo! are complex engines to understand as well.
Fortunately, I understand how these engines operate, at least well enough to diagnose what needs to be repaired in order to get a client better results.
Much like my mechanic’s customers, our clients need to trust and understand that this is what we do, every single day. We are search engine mechanics… I mean marketers. Website owners may think they have an idea of what is wrong, from all the articles they have read or the advice a colleague gave them, but the truth is you need to get your hands dirty to discover the real problem.
Once the problem is uncovered, then the repair begins, and it takes time. And just like a car, regular maintenance is needed to keep it running smoothly.
Have you been pitched a quick SEO fix for an attractive price? Tempting, I know. I’m not sure about you, but I want a trusted mechanic to do a thorough job so I’m not back again next week, or so I don’t break down on my way to the ski hill. And I know it’s going to cost some money because my mechanic is a professional and not some friend of a friend who happens to know a little about car repair.
I know a little about car repair. Do you want me fixing your Jeep?
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