The truth about SEO, experts prefer hiding from you
Search Engine Optimization is often misunderstood as a wasteful exercise. Every now and then someone complains to me about their site not performing well on search engine despite efforts. It often goes around the lines of “I tried this for the last month, but nothing happened.” Or “I’ve been doing this for some time now, no luck yet.”
From what I’ve seen there are two types of problems here.
One – People try just too much that they get frustrated seeing no results.
Two – Only one part of the SEO process is executed, not laying the proper foundation to the whole campaign.
The basic principle for any SEO campaign to be successful is a proper strategy. Not quick fixes. It has to start from the basics to a proper full fledged plan that might sometimes run into several months. Not to forget the two most important factors – patience and observation.
Those are the two most important things about SEO, experts often hide from you.
SEO Experts will always give you the steps to do for a successful campaign, but most often in excitement, neither do webmasters nor SEO consultants focus much on the patience and observation part.
Why patience ?
There are no top 10 lists to SEO. Well, there are, and I’ve written many a times about it as well. But the truth is that, those aren’t enough. They are guidelines, not the “only ten things you have to do”. For example, keyword research is the basic step to any SEO campaign. But how often do you do it ? Either people stick to the first set of keywords they find and focus their entire SEO efforts towards it or they would pick up the top easy/comfortable keywords and go on. This is probably not the right thing to do.
A better SEO strategy would be to create a list of all keywords, categorize them into difficult, moderate and easy and start from bottom up. This ensures that you can work in phases through out the year, gaining authority and traffic as you move along. You skip the process, and pick either one set of keywords and the whole strategy goes unbalanced.
Similarly, in the case of offsite SE optimization, what often brings accurate results are well thought out, spanned link building strategies and not quick three month link building programs.
SEOs are advised not to go for quick link exchange and mass link building programs as it might harm you more than help in SEO. Unfortunately, many folks opt for this method as it doesn’t require the kind of time consuming attention and parenting, and expect results in months. Sorry that wouldn’t help.
So, what’s the truth that SEO experts hide from you ?
As you might have guessed, the two biggest truths about SEO experts hide from you are the fact that it takes a really long time to get real and accurate results for SEO, and that without keen observation and monitoring skills, you probably would be wasting your time with a “really long” SEO campaign. Both the facts are complimentary to each other.
You have to have a well thought out, “calendered” SEO strategy and all the while be open to tweaks and changes along the way because how aggressive you have to get with your strategy is based on what your competition is doing not about how good your strategy is on paper.
So even if you have a well thought out, planned strategy, and if your competition (the scale of which depends on how many you have) is moving along a different path while you were focused on yours, you need to re-think yours and make sure you catch up, or you’ll be lost in your own space.
So you know what’s the truth when you see that “Results in two months” SEO program..
Its as good as the six packs in two weeks commercial you saw on TV.
This is really a nice article Mani, But the fact is our client said that why should we pay you for whole month as other companies are charging us for the top ranking keywords only. I am a small fish in this big ocean (SEO industry). In todays competitive time special for SEO companies the main problem i saw is client don’t want to spend much money on SEO, they said they will only pay if they see good results. If we ask client that SEO required lots of time & efforts then for them it means they have to spend some money on it & it might be a reason we lose our client. Please share your inputs how to convince clients here & how we can save there money as well.
That is not an excuse not to give them results. And Im sure no client wants a bad result. If good results is what your goal is, then there is no shortcut, it will take time.
But think about it in this way, you might have to rethink as to what the desired results are. If its first page ranks, even if they have you enough money to bribe Google, you wouldn’t be able to do it.
So instead, try taking baby steps and deliver short term deliverables to begin with.
Mani,
This is a great article. I am just about to get to grips with SEO and your post is a great start I think. I was always wondering whether to do SEO there are just a few guidelines to get started and that’s it. But really, even though I am only tinkering with it for a few days, your advice is exactly what my first experience was already.
It’s an ongoing process, which you can’t “figure out how” at the beginning and then stick to it, but you have to iterate and iterate again with your campaigns and try many different things to get it right.
Thanks again, this is great encouragement for me to know which path to follow. I will be back for more!
Happens when the industry is new, dynamic and there is no documented ways of doing it right. As long as u get into the first page, the clients are happy . ..the ROI factor about the keyword traffic, the leads generated and stuff comes much much later . .
no one probably cares much about due diligence that goes into the selection of keywords . . .probably its like, whats ur business about, thats your keyword . .lets start, sign here here and here…and a cheque pls. . . .
Loved the closing line – ”
So you know what’s the truth when you see that “Results in two months” SEO program..
Its as good as the six packs in two weeks commercial you saw on TV.”
Nice article as always Mani,
I always make it clear to clients that results will take 6 months to start….however we may get lucky and get results quicker….like in a few weeks. But for lasting rankings, you need to be patient, and do it properly.
To the guy that wasn’t being paid until results come in…..I wouldn’t take a job unless there was a clear payment structure.Just be firm with your clients regarding the way SEO works. If they do not want to spend money to get results, get a different client….no point working for nothing, then not getting the results….you’ll just get yourself a bad name.
Oh, BTW, I particularly like that the google ad was for a company that guarantee’s rank one in two months!!
The truth is, SEO needs time. No instant SEO
I agree to you to some extent. I am an SEO service provider and my clients want immediate results too. Well you can rank high in the search engines quite quickly and lose your place at double pace too. A strong SEO base is necessary but most of the people don’t even know what SEO is, let alone the things they have to do to improve their rankings.
thanks for valuable info. it’s opened my eyes.. will put more efforts n patience..
Nice article Mani. In fact many times when one goes for the interview, the company hiring (even if the company is Online Marketing Company) fail to understand these points…everyone expects fast results. So even if the expert says the truth, the guy is not supposed to be an expert by the client. Actually somehow all clients feel that they know website optimization even better than the SEO…its like everyone knows how the game of cricket should be played other than the Team Captain.
After teaching myself and getting impatient I going to take your advise