Patience is SEO’s Middle Name

Everyday, SEO professionals come across as enthusiastic people who are looking to get their website optimized for the search engines and jump into the online ranking race. And almost every one of them will speak up and ask the elephant-in-the-room: “How long will it take for me to show up high in the rankings?” This is a very weighted question, and the answer varies upon several different factors. The answer depends on the age of the website, the competition, and what needs to be done to the site for optimization: changing tags, building links, or completely re-designing. Unfortunately, there are still sites out there that look like the inside of a cheerleaders’ bedazzled middle school locker. Fortunately, if you work with your SEO everyday and make the changes your SEO company advises you to do, then it may only take six months to climb the Google mountain. SEO is a patient man’s world, and the ‘get-it-done-yesterday’ mentality will only make an otherwise great campaign, sloppy and rushed.

Gaining Trust 

In most cases, sites new to SEO need changes that will make it more search engine friendly. It takes time for the search engines to crawl and index a site in order to build trust and rank well. It can take three months for the spiders to gain trust of your competitive terms and allow you to rank as a relevant site. But it isn’t just about changing title tags. You must continue to put out relevant, original, and interesting content that validates your ranking. This also helps build links back to your site, which further emphasize your trustworthiness. Your site is becoming friends with the search engines, and just like in reality, it takes time to build trust in any type of relationship.

Maintaining Rank 

If your domain is new, your brand terms could possibly see immediate rankings after the spiders’ first crawl. If you have a unique name, you will have no problem ranking, however, if you run into some competitive names and keywords, you will have a much rockier climb to the Google’s summit. If your competition are virtual Goliaths, such as Apple, then you may never see the top.

Just like physical exercise, search engine optimization tactics must happen consistently and effectively in order to maintain the ‘rank’ of your site. Set benchmarks for keywords and redesign efforts. It is unfortunately normal for a site to see a slight drop in traffic initially after launch, due to the re-indexing of your site with the search engine friendly components getting broken-in like a new pair of sneakers. Don’t freak out. Patience will see your rankings shoot back up after the spiders re-acquaint themselves.

Being a Good SEO Client

I cannot tell you how many times I have seen or heard about a SEO campaign not reaching their potential due to a client ignoring their SEO responsibilities. Great campaigns turns bad very quickly. Bad client, you say? Inconceivable. If you hire an SEO company to help implement search engine optimization for your website, it is a team effort. By no means should you sit back, put your heels on your desk and hit the voicemail button when the phone rings. Nor should you expect results and tons of content to be written overnight. It is a complicated and collaborative process. Most clients will need to help change basic elements to the site, help monitor and check the quality control of content, and be intimately familiar with keywords and phrases. If you are able to help in the team effort, then it is just the beginning of a beautiful and highly optimized relationship.

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