February 29, 2016

Why Does SEO Take Time To Deliver?

Speed Is Not Of The Essence When It Comes To SEO

SEO achievements can be frustratingly slow, but it pays to use an experienced agency to manage an ongoing search campaign and achieve great long term results, says Danielle Haley at Freelance SEO

Are you a new business with a fresh website that needs to start attracting web traffic? Or perhaps you already have an existing site but are struggling to obtain a great position in the organic search results? In either of these cases, an SEO campaign for your website will give you better exposure and send more visitors to your site to be converted into leads or sales.

SEO agency or DIY?

If you have the expertise or are willing to learn, then you could try learning some basic techniques to improve your website’s position in the SERPs. Doing so is cost-effective but is extremely time-consuming and can take you away from other more productive business activities that you’re not able to outsource. Alternatively, you could hire a reputable SEO agency to produce an effective ongoing campaign for you. Whichever option you decide, it is important you realise that SEO campaigns can take a long time to deliver the results that you desire for your site. Although good results can be obtained in a relatively short time-frame of three to six months, if you’re looking for long-term success then your SEO efforts must be ongoing.

New websites

It can be frustrating for new businesses who are desperate to mark their presence amongst their competitors when they can’t even rank on the first page of Google for related key phrases and search terms. The problem with new websites is that they hold little authority and have few or zero backlinks, which Google uses as an indicator of relevance in its search algorithms. In addition, it can take several weeks or even months for Google to discover all of the content on your site and index it.

Competitors

Website owners are often irritated when their competitors rank higher than them in almost every combination of keyword that is relevant to the niche. This may be because the competitor has invested in a good SEO campaign, or it might simply be that they have been applying SEO techniques for a longer period of time. Longevity matters when it comes to SEO, but with persistent efforts you can make some substantial improvements which will see you beat competitors, particularly if you focus on long-tail keywords.

Speed is not of the essence

Site owners who are investing in SEO campaigns understandably want quick results in return for parting with their money. However, it can be difficult to get across the message to customers that rapid SERP improvements are not usually a good indicator of great SEO work. In fact, some disreputable agencies will engage in ‘black hat techniques’ in order to cheat the Google algorithm and obtain short-lived success at the top of the SERPs. Google’s algorithms have improved immensely over the years and these types of methods will always be discovered leading to penalties with the search engine which could see your entire site being de-indexed completely.

Unfortunately some businesses lose patience in SEO when their campaigns take several months to achieve results. If you trust in the process and work only with a quality SEO agency who has a proven track record of success, then this will be one of the best investments you make to the marketing of your business.