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Services: SEO Information & Articles
Realistic SEO Expectations
by Jill Whalen
In Advisor Issue #140 <http://www.highrankings.com/issue140.htm#seo>
I talked about setting SEO client expectations in terms of their
role in creating a successful campaign. Today, I'm going to talk
about client expectations in terms of realistic results.
Those who've been in the SEO biz for a number of years know how
much more competitive it is these days as compared to a few years
ago. The number of webpages indexed by search engines has doubled,
tripled, and quadrupled in past years. On top of that, a good portion
of site owners and webmasters know just enough SEO to be dangerous.
In the golden age of SEO, the vast majority of websites hadn't given
a thought to the search engines, and when they did, it was only
to place some keywords in their Meta tags. (Which, incidentally,
didn't help then either.) Those were the days when anyone who knew
even the slightest bit about SEO could easily rank highly in all
the major search engines, with very little effort. Even competitive
areas were doable with just a little more work than their non-competitive
counterparts.
These days, it's almost the exact opposite. Even keyword phrases
that nobody's searching for can sometimes be difficult to obtain
high rankings with unless you really and truly know what you're
doing. And even then, those rankings may be here one day, and gone
the next. The problem is magnified for new businesses and new websites.
If your site isn't at least a few years old, your SEO efforts will
be less likely to provide the results you want. This is one reason
why your website optimization should always be seen as a long-term
proposition.
As we move forward in this industry, webmasters, site owners, and
SEOs need to shift their focus from that of asking how they can
get this keyword to this position in this engine to how they can
get more targeted traffic and convert it into customers. Unfortunately,
a large portion of those looking into SEO services are still seeing
the small picture. For instance, on the contact form on my site,
I ask people to tell me a little bit about their "business
goals." A good portion who fill it out want something like
"top-5 rankings in Google and Yahoo for this keyword."
Huh? That's not a business goal! A business goal is more like "Bring
more people to my website who are searching online for the types
of products we sell." (As a side note, soon after writing this,
I got an email from someone whose goal was to have their Flash site
be "#1 in all the search engines for the word 'spring.'"
I kid you not!)
Don't get me wrong, I very much understand why people would love
to move their rankings up from #11 to #1 for a highly sought-after
and targeted keyword phrase. I'm quite sure it would very much increase
their targeted traffic and their sales (assuming they're doing everything
else right). My frustration lies in the fact that there are people
who believe that somehow an SEO company can magically snap their
fingers or wave their magic wands and make it so. They probably
found my site at #2 in Google for search engine optimization and
expect that I can just do to their site whatever it was I did to
my site, and voila -- instant rankings!
Even the best SEOs are not magicians. They can't simply place a
site at the top of the engines when there are hundreds of thousands
(if not
millions) of others that offer basically the same thing, and provide
basically the same information. If they could, you'd see a whole
lot more millionaire SEOs.
Does this mean that SEO is dead?
Absolutely not! But SEO that focuses on rankings for the most highly
sought-after keywords in any given space is most definitely dying.
This doesn't mean that you have to settle for keywords that receive
few searches. It just means that you have to broaden your horizons
and see the big picture.
Almost every time I review one of those "put me at #1"
prospects'
websites, I see tons of opportunities for fixing the site in general
so that it will work better for both their users and the search
engines. They are almost always so focused on their "money
phrases"
that they completely neglect many areas of their site. Instead they
put their special phrase on every page and never research the thousands
of others that are being typed into search engines every day.
Another trend I've been seeing a lot lately is the creation of
content simply for the sake of creating content. What's that all
about? SEOs certainly throw the words "good content" around
a lot, but why is it that nobody seems to know what that means?
We now have a whole cottage industry of companies who will allegedly
write "good content" for you.
Worse, there's even one that will *rent* you content! Newsflash...good
content has nothing to do with the history of your products. Nor
is good content a bunch of madlib spam pages where you simply substitute
keyword phrases from one page into the other. Good content isn't
stuff you write for the search engines.
Good content is unique. Really and truly unique. It is creative
ideas that simply popped into your head which nobody else in your
space has thought of yet. The key to good content is creativity.
Unfortunately, creativity itself seems to be a dying art. Being
creative isn't looking at what your competitor is doing and copying
them. It's being a leader, not a follower. It's having your own
voice and your own opinions and expressing them, regardless of what
others might think. It's pouring your heart and soul into your website,
not looking for the next quick fix. And it's (say it with
me) making your site the best it can be for your site visitors AND
the search engines. It's what's made my site rank highly for the
most competitive phrase there is (among thousands of other phrases),
and it's what will make your site rank highly for whatever phrases
relate to it. But it's not easy, and it's not fast. And it can't
be done with the flick of a switch.
So please...if your pet phrase isn't ranking highly enough, don't
call me and don't email me. In fact, don't call or email *any* SEO
company. Instead of calling, you need to reassess your goals. No
SEO company in the world will be able to help you unless you are
ready to forget about what you think you want, and learn more about
what you really need. Read that last sentence again until you really
understand it. Forget about what you think you want, and learn more
about what you really need.
And remember, there are plenty of companies that will say they
can do whatever you want them to do. You want to be #1 for spring?
Sure, no problem. They will happily take your money, do some work,
and promptly get no results. Don't blame them though -- they were
just telling you what you wanted to hear.
Jill Whalen of High Rankings® is an internationally
recognized search engine
optimization consultant and host of the free weekly High Rankings®
Advisor search engine marketing
newsletter. Jill's handbook, "The Nitty-gritty of Writing
for the Search Engines" teaches business owners how and where
to place relevant keyword phrases on their Web sites so that they
make sense to users and gain high rankings in the major search
engines.
Jill specializes in search engine optimization,
SEO consultations, site analysis reports, SEM seminars and is
the co-founder of the new search
marketing and website design company, Search Creative, LLC.
Contact us to receive more information on our SEO
internet marketing and web site promotion services.
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