Thinking Thursday False Dilemma

False Dilemma; In marketing, and in life, we are often presented with choices, and many of those are of the ‘either/or” nature. “Either you list your website on these 100 directories (or create 100 backlinks), OR your website will not rank and never make it on the first page” is a popular SEO false dilemma.

A false dilemma is created because there are other options. You could list your website on a few directories (or create a few backlinks), you could list them on more than 100 directories (or backlinks), or you could not put them on any directories or backlinks. How your website will rank is based on multiple factors, and although being listed on some directories or having a few backlinks has been shown to be beneficial to ranking, NOT being listed or having zero backlinks is not going to ‘hurt’ your search engine ranking (you will not be penalized by the search engines). We discussed these options about backlinks and directories on a previous blog.

If anyone presents you with an either/or situation, whether in sales, politics, professionally, take a step back and think about the persons motivation for only providing you with those two choices (one ‘positive’, one usually very bleak and ‘negative’), and realize there is probably more options. If that person is unwilling to provide you with more options, then you may want to step back and and reevaluate your decision to work with them.

Note: this is part of our “Thinking Thursday” series. For previous editions, please see our Facebook Page.

Thank you for reading!