I would say the most important lesson I have learned working in this industry is that sometimes you are not always going to get the answers you want when talking about SEO. I have been in the belly of the SEO beast for the last five years now, and considering how much it has evolved and grown I thought it was important to share some of the most common questions I have been posed.
What exactly is SEO? (I still get this one to this day)
Basically, SEO is your way of getting organically ranked by the major search engines. This is your way of being found by prospective customers outside of the paid advertisements section. It has historically been the best option in terms of return on investment for clients because being found within search engines is imperative to the reach of your business online. It is more of a commitment than paid search, but the return is well worth the effort and wait.
I have been with you for two months now, why am I not seeing results?
Remember when I said you were not going to like all of the SEO answers; unfortunately, here comes one. Normally I would tell clients, that the rewards of the hard work and money spent would not come until the six to eight month mark. Well, this is because it takes <insert preferred search engine here>, to recognize the changes to your site along with the off page work that would have been completed on your behalf, which is why we cannot guarantee a timeline. Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of <insert preferred search engine here> to reap the rewards of rankings and higher volumes of organic traffic.
What do you mean by on and off page?
Google and all of the other major search engines use 100s of different variables when they are determining the ranking of your site. We group them into two bundles:
- On Page – This consists of making changes to your site. Basically, we would be optimizing your site to ensure we are following best practices to get those coveted first page rankings.
- Off Page – This involves us growing your authority online through a number of different channels. Most people refer to this process as link building.
Why are you charging me X amount a month when a company has told me they can do it for $100?
Honestly, this is a simple one. If a company is saying they are going to guarantee you results with a $100 a month budget run, run fast. You cannot expect to get gourmet five star meals for McDonalds prices; unfortunately, it does not work that way online. The more that you invest in SEO, the more time and energy our teams can put into your account which will equal better long-term return on your investment.
That’s all for now folks; more questions to come! As you can imagine, you build up quite a few questions over the span of five years.
Bye for now.
Gemma
