Real Expectations You Should Have for SEO

Most companies today understand the importance of search engine optimization (SEO). These companies know that having a decent page ranking on the search engines can help boost business, and they employ the right tactics in order to increase the success of their SEO.

Though some companies have found success with their SEO strategies, many companies have made the mistake of pulling the plug on their SEO efforts because they’re not seeing the results they want as quickly as they wanted.

While SEO is a great marketing tactic, companies need to understand that it’s not a strategy that can be implemented and achieve success overnight. Too many companies expect SEO to boost their website from Page 11 on Google to Page 1 in the matter of a few days, but that’s simply not possible. If you want to employ an SEO strategy into your business, you need to have patience and learn how to make real expectations.

Understand you’re competing with more than your local competition.

Your newspaper ads, signage and TV ads were only competing against your local competition, which is why you probably were able to find some quick success. With SEO, you’re no longer only competing with local businesses, but you’re now competing with every website, blog and social network implementing SEO, and that’s a much larger group than what you’re used to.

If you just implemented SEO into your marketing strategy, your new efforts are competing against sites that have been implementing SEO for years. You are the newbie, and you need to give your own site time to marinate.

Understand you need good content.

You can’t just throw some words on your website and expect it to boost your rankings. Your SEO will benefit from good content, not any content, so make sure that the content that is being produced is valuable to your users and contains natural keywords. If possible, add videos or images and use links when it makes sense.

 

Understand it needs constant updating.

Some companies think that once they select their keywords and generate good content their SEO efforts are complete, but this is wrong. SEO is a tactic that needs to constantly be monitored and altered to fit the needs of your audience. The same keywords that worked for your business last year are not the same keywords that will work this year. Make sure that you’re constantly monitoring trends and keyword analytics to determine the best efforts for your business.

Understand you want conversions.

If you have the #1 ranking on Google, but you don’t earn any business from it, your SEO tactics are not successful. Some companies focus too much on climbing the rankings and forget why they want to do so. Ultimately, you want to earn business. Yes, traffic to your site is important, but if this traffic isn’t being converted to customers, your SEO has no ROI. Make sure that all of your online marketing efforts are working together in order to give you the best results.

Understand some SEO companies are lying.

Companies fall victim to deceitful SEO companies on a regular basis. Successful SEO campaigns that are done organically take time to show results. If you employ an SEO company that promises to boost your rankings overnight, they’re using deceptive methods, and if caught, your site can get de-indexed from the search engines. Use the old approach—if it sounds too good to be true, it is.

SEO is a great marketing tactic, but it’s important that if you want to implement it into your marketing strategy that you understand the real expectations. This will help keep you on track and knowing the right results to look for.

T. Parker is a marketing professional with a passion for online marketing to read more of his work or download a copy of his most recent book visit www.seomap.com.

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Gary

CEO at 3Bug Media
Gary Shouldis is the founder of 3Bug Media, a web marketing company that helps businesses create 360 Marketing Strategies to dominate their market. His blog is read by over 20 thousand small business owners a month and has been featured in the N.Y. Times Small Business, Business Insider and Yahoo Small Business.