When it comes to SEO, most people think that it takes too long to see any positive results. You might be able to get a lot of traffic with pay per click advertising but, SEO has a lot more return on investment. Unfortunately, it takes a long time to see it.
A lot of clients will ask their employed SEO Company why their campaigns are not showing positive results and it might only be month or two into the campaign. This is a conversation that many clients have with their respective SEO companies.
But, there is no cause for alarm. The results are good, but you just cannot see them yet.
With a marathon, you have to pace yourself so that you can win in the end. It is commonplace for runners to slow down in the beginning so that they will not give out of strength at the end. Running out of energy at the end is called hitting the wall and can happen to runners that don’t pace themselves.
The same concept can be applied to SEO. If you start the race too fast, meaning that you build loads of links to your website and put loads of keywords in your articles, you will get that top coveted spot. However, in the end or when Google does another quality update, you will lose your rankings.
It’s the same thing as putting food in the oven and turning up the temperature too high, it is going to burn. Turning up the fire too quickly on your SEO efforts will force your website even lower in the search results. As a result, you should always use a long term strategy when it comes to SEO.
This article will talk about three steps of the SEO process, which are ranking for long tail keywords, increasing your rank for your main keywords and ranking for keywords that have a high value. Each step will advise how long it takes and why you must not work through these steps too quickly.
Rank for long tail keywords
Long tail keywords are valued highly, but they are not able to bring in a lot of search traffic. For example, ‘good pillows for sofas’ is a very specific keyword and would be easier to rank for than just the generic one word ‘pillows.’
Long tail keywords do not have a lot of searches, but they are a lot easier to rank for. If you are doing business with a SEO company in order to get higher rankings for long tail keywords, you will see a lot of progress in as little as six months.
Increasing your rank for your main keywords
The hardest spot to get is on the first page for your particular keyword. Being on the second page of a Google search should be viewed as a temporary status and not the main goal of any SEO campaign. It is still an okay spot, but not the best.
If your main keywords are short tail keywords such as ‘pillows’ that have tons of searches in a month, you will probably get on the second page in about six months to two years of your campaign. This will depend on the amount of competitors that you have and their expertise.
For a majority of companies, the goal is to rank very high for valuable keywords that have tons of monthly searches. With a majority of short tail keywords having a lot of competition, this kind of SEO will not happen overnight. It can take a very long time to get by using dependable and steady SEO tactics.
If you want to rank for a short tail keyword such as ‘pillows’ or ‘insurance’ you will have to have a lot of money, a good SEO company at your disposal and the ability to be patient. This is not for anyone that does not have patience because valuable keywords are known to be extremely competitive. Most importantly, you are not going to accomplish this by using short cut strategies.
In conclusion, if you think that your SEO campaign is not showing results fast enough, then remember the analogy that was presented above. If you start the marathon off too fast, then you will most likely lose speed before you get to the finish line.
There are thousands of black hat SEO strategies that will get you the top spot real fast, but they will not make you a winner in the end. Use long term strategies and others will take that top spot in the very beginning. But, you will have enough steam to move forward as your competition tumbles. You will end up with the top website in the end.
