Take care of your customers and they’ll take care of you.

I didn’t make that up, but it illustrates what I think should be at the core of a good SEO practice: customer service.

There are a lot of technical aspects to SEO, for sure, but the essence is about customer service—and really empathy.

So when they come looking for you by way of a search engine, make sure you treat them respectfully. Don’t make ‘em guess. And don’t give them reasons to think that you don’t have your game together.

I love Tumblr, but I’m going to pick on them for a minute.  Take a look at their snippet below.

There’s no TLC here.  It’s a bit of a mess.

The snippet is really the welcome mat, the first impression—so , please, take care to make it resonate with the folks who are their way to meet you for the first time. It will literally,  and metaphorically, say a lot.