I was at a conference over the weekend. I was one of two marketing speakers and I always find it interesting (and validating) to hear another marketing professional speak. When she got around to SEO, I heard something that rang true.
She said, “Pretty soon, if we aren’t already there, it will be impossible to be on Page 1 organically on the most sought-after terms.” There is was. Someone had actually said it. And, it is something we all know. So, let’s talk about expectations for SEO.
There is a concept in sales called misplacement of values. This occurs when a sales person projects what they value onto the customer. Instead of finding out what is important to the customer, they rattle on and on about what they THINK is important. In the end, the customer does not get served and the sale is not made. In other words, it is unsuccessful.
Misplacement of values also winds up undercutting a lot of SEO investments. Except this time, it is the client that has a misplacement of values. In other words, the client has an expectation that is 1) not realistic or 2) not productive. And, by self-directing the campaign or evaluating it improperly, the client opts out what is a useful SEO approach.
Here is how you should evaluate your SEO program. Identify your ultimate goal: more contacts. More contacts cannot be attained without more traffic. This is the first realistic objective of SEO: to increase traffic.
Now this is where misplacement of values come into the picture. An SEO service will have an opinion and approach as to how to increase traffic. If you disagree with that approach, then right there, you are setting yourself up for failure. If you disagree with the approach, the results that do come in will not be satisfying because your expectations will not be in alignment with an approach.
We recently had a client whose traffic had increased by more than 5,000 visits per month in our program. There it was on paper. Our program started, we hung his new web site and BAM! the visits skyrocketed. So, why did he quit our program? His reason was that we were unable to acheive first page positioning on the terms he wanted in six months. See? Philosophies not in alignment. All indictators were that he was having smashing success with new traffic but because he thought placement within a short-time frame (which is never realistic this highly trafficked terms) was more important than actual, real beneficial traffic, he quit.
Like the marketing speaker I saw this weekend said, getting to Page 1 on the most popular terms is nearly impossible these days. From a practical standpoint, if you are growing in traffic each month, you are on your way to your ultimate goal of more contacts. I am not trying to downplay the fact that Page 1 is desirable. But is it realistic on some terms? And, if pursing that white whale is how you measure your SEO success or failure, you are not keeping your eye on what is reasonable and attainable.
Here is how we approach this issue in our SEO program. We only work on optimization we can measure, which is keyword optimization. We evaluate keywords based on efficiency. In other words, we choose words that are going to give you the best chance of rising quickly into a visible position. Keywords are considered efficient if they have good traffic and fewer competitors. They are like steady streams where the most popular keywords are like rushing rivers. Well, it is easy to get into a stream and it nearly impossible to get you into a river. So, if you can agree with a slow, steady, measurable approach, you would be a good match for us.
So, you move up quickly on more efficient terms. It results in more traffic, which is a down-payment on the delivery of increased contacts. Over time, once you have some production and high ranking on the efficient keywords, the added traffic adds to your perceived relevance for those terms. As you become a stronger and more well-traveled site, we move you into more efficient keywords, stair-stepping you upward. If you stick with this strategy, you will slowly and steadily climb into a strong and productive position in search engines. You will become part of what is an impenetrable position for others to take away. The key is sticking with it.
You have to ask yourself, what do I want? Do I know how to get it? Should I listen to someone who is in the Interet business? Is my ego causing me to throw out good strategies because I am not ranked #1? I encourage you to do as much research as you can before choosing an SEO service. This will help you find a good philosophical match which in turn will help you avoid misplacement of values.
If you are seeking a solid, steady SEO program with monthly metrics, please contact me donald@dogstarmedia.com.
