Search Engine Marketing (SEM) & Search Engine
Optimisation (SEO) FAQ's
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- 1. How long will it take to see any results?
The time it takes to see results from a
campaign will vary due to a huge number of variables that come into the equation for example how competitive is
the niche, where am I now, how far behind the curve am I in the first place, is it a new site or an established
site etc.etc.etc.
It is almost impossible to define a timeframe when web marketing unless you are using short term tactics like
actually paying for traffic or using paid linking which is strictly against Google guidelines and could get
your site banned.
As a rule of thumb I would say between 4 - 9 months for the average website depending on taking
all of the above factors into account.Of course the smaller the niche or target phrase the quicker the results
and with a sound focus and low competition it is entirely possible to get a first page position in a matter of
weeks . Just take action and your results will improve over time. top
2. How often should I be checking my rankings?
See answer 1 and also bear in mind that Google is a huge monster with approx 30 different data centers
around the world.It has to sift through billions of pages a day to check for changes. once it has checked the
changes and decides to move a website up the rankings it then has to synchronise that change across all the
data centres.
The ranking you see now for example may be different later today and new sites wash in and out like waves on a
beach. so my golden rule is to ask myself this when I get the temptation to check too often "Is there something
else I can be doing that will help my website be more successful like writing more great pages" rather than
wasting my time checking for rankings.
As a rule of thumb I would say for a small niche with little competition probably every couple of weeks or so,
for a more competitive arena then probably once a month and for very competitive arenas definately over a
month. top
3. What is the absolute best strategy?
The best strategy will depend on the competition in the niche,the type of market and what other marketing you
have previously conducted. A good rule of thumb is to build up your marketing slowly (don't go mad all at
once), balance your strategy with home page links, deep links, anchor links and articles and then refine
with an ongoing maintenance campaign because your competitors will not be standing still. top
4. How long should I keep up my web marketing campaign?
As long as you want to maintain your existing position or move it forward. Once you stop you are giving your
competitors a chance to catch up. If you operate in a relatively small niche you can do less going forward but
if the niche is highly competitive then you need to keep banging away.
If you operated a retail outlet for example you wouldn't expect to shut your shop halfway through the day when
the competition is staying open till late in the evening. Once your website becomes succesful you need to
maintain its competitveness. As the saying goes "If you snooze you lose." top
5. Should I just do one big campaign upfront?
Very good question and one with varying opinions. Our preference is to build up on things and ramp them up and
down slowly as this is much more organic. Google reacts unfavourable to massive sudden change in our
opinion.
In many scenarios especially with new or previously unmarketed websites, providing the site owner fully
understands that solid ranking improvements happen over time and not over night then starting with a more
affordable campaign is a sensible option as this may be enough to secure a good position anyway.
Pogress can then be reviewed around the 4 month mark and the campaign can then be scaled up or down
accordingly.
If you have previously marketed your site then it would be wise to explore the results of previous SEO
campaigns before setting a budget if required.
To go back to our fishing scenario if you suddenly bombed the lake with a massive fish food ball the big
fish would probably run and hide and then wait a while before it came back out but if you increased the amount
of food gradually it would be much more happy. top
6. Can you guarantee a first place in Google?
If you wanted us to get you
a first place ranking for the search term numberonespotingoogleplease the answer would probably be yes as there
are no results for this search last time I checked. However this is a question that really needs a reality
check from the clients perspective and are they really being realistic.
Google also warns potential site owners against any SEO company offering guaranteed search engine
rankings or soliciting your business via e-mail.
Google states:
No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.
"Beware of SEOs that claim to guarantee rankings, allege a "special relationship" with Google,
or advertise a "priority submit" to Google. There is no priority submit for Google. "
and
Be wary of SEO firms and web consultants or agencies that send you email out of the
blue.
"Amazingly, we get these spam emails too:
"Dear google.com,
I visited your website and noticed that you are not listed in most of the major search engines and
directories..."
Reserve the same skepticism for unsolicited email about search engines as you do for "burn fat at night"
diet pills or requests to help transfer funds from deposed dictators."
To put a reasonable perpective on any marketing campaign by any SEO company lets take the Red worm scenario
for example,
If your site is nowhere in the rankings then given you can write equal quality content the
challenge will be be to get over 1000 decent deep links to your red worm page (assuming the opposition
does nothing). You will still need to get home page links as well to beef up your web sites authority as well.
Have you enough budget to maintain a long term strategy.
Also bear in mind that this niche is not what we would consider over competitive but the number 1 spot has a
web page that is over 12 years old as well so it would be a good challenge.
If you have a large budget then we would have a far greater chance of getting you to number one as we
could employ other tactics to help this along, but in reality you would be far better shooting for a page
one placement initially or a secondary keyword.
It would take an incredibly brave (and some would say foolish) person to guarantee a number 1 spot on Google
as Google advises. We would do our best for you given your budget of course. top
7. Are there other web marketing strategies?
Yes there are but in reality if you are not employing any of the web marketing strategies discussed so far
then it is a bit like making the icing before you have made the cake. We would discuss these as part of our
advance web marketing program,
specifically during the Marketing Intelligence Review. top
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