Over the Holidays I spent a lot of time reading fairytales with my nieces and nephew. The Little Mermaid and Mulan are the current favorites. It reminded me how nice it is to have something you believe in so unconditionally. To my nieces there is nothing more exciting than the magic of those fairytales.

That's when I realized when you are 3 or 5, it's OK to believe in fairytales. As you get older, it becomes more important to face reality. Don't get me wrong, I still believe in a little magic myself, but not when it comes to my business. I still like the idea of Tinkerbell, but I know she isn't going to sprinkle fairy dust on my website and make all my traffic dreams come true. For that I need to look to my SEO Director, so she can work her own special kind of magic.

Just as my nieces fantasize that they are princesses, play dress up and make believe that they are Ariel or Mulan, many website owners are playing the same kind of make believe (likely without the dress up though!).

It's a special kind of adult fairy tale -- the one where you throw up a website and imagine all the traffic and sales that will come in.

But when reality sets in, and you realize that the traffic isn't coming, what do you do? From my experience, I can tell you a lot of people still do nothing!

After much thought about this, I realized it comes down to 2 main factors -- themes that are present both in the fairytales my nieces read & watch and in the adult business world.

One is fear - and while it is easy to imagine quaking in your boots at the sight of a fire breathing dragon, it's harder to imagine an adult being afraid to hire a marketing or SEO consultant. Yet it happens, every single day. People are afraid they will be scammed, afraid they will spend money and not make money. In some cases people are even afraid they will succeed! It's more common that we realize, we just don't think or talk about it.

The other factor that holds people back is inaccurate perceptions. It's judging a book by its cover. Just as there was more than what met the eye in Beauty and the Beast - deep down the Beast was really a prince, there is much more to search engine optimization than people realize.

SEO is considered risky, expensive, sometimes even sleazy and ineffective, by some. As with most generalizations, those are not accurate. True, there are sleazy ineffective SEO companies out there. But there are also highly skilled, very ethical and hardworking Firms that deliver actual results.

Without facing your fear and finding out the truth, your site isn't going to grow up and reach its goals -- your goals!

Top rankings are not a myth, they really do exist -- not in a land far, far away but right here and now -- for those willing to take action and get their site optimized.

While I fully encourage getting lost in the magic of a fairytale with the young ones in your life, in the business world I encourage you to face reality and realize there is no magic fairy dust for websites.