Many a times, we have forewarned clients to dispel the wrong notion that SEO ends once the top position is reached.
Well ask yourself, do you ever stop marketing your product? SEO is one way to do internet marketing and as such, it is a continuing work. Slacken one bit and your competition will “bite off” your head – it’s that simple.
Here are 8 reasons SEO is a slow process and why you should continue doing SEO while on top:
- It takes time to prep your site for SEO. If you are doing offsite SEO without taking care of onsite SEO first, then you are lessening the effect of SEO for your website. Doing onsite SEO entails making sure your website is a ready SEO platform. Over at WordPress, which is one of the most prevalent content management system (CMS) believed to friendly to SEO, this means installing the necessary plug ins so that SEO content (more on this later) will easily be detected onsite. This means fixing url redirects, creating a sitemap, writing unique HTML titles for each page, installing Google Analytics to chart the progress of site visits, among other things.
- It takes one month before Google can recognize a new website. This is why older websites which have been doing SEO far longer than newer sites take time to beat. It’s not impossible, but it takes time. New websites must patiently wait for Google to recognize that it exists. If the new website happens to have low quality content, then Google might in fact sandbox it for a certain period of time until it sees that the site is contributing relevant content to the web.
- SEO must be natural. Your website must ascend to the search results naturally, organically. Natural and organic takes time. Google has penalized sites that have accumulated hundreds of links in a short time and in a way that didn’t appear natural. Don’t be tempted to rise to the top of the ranking by getting unnatural and low quality links. You will build links to your site gradually over time as you create more content and share and interact with other websites.
- Rural, local, national, global? I saw a curious car sticker that says exactly the same thing as I was driving one day. Upon closer inspection, I learned that it was about bringing organic produce from the rural lands to the global market. SEO is somehow the same. You have to determine which market you’re trying to bring your goods and services to. If you are only competing within the local arena then it might be easier for you to dominate the ranking. But if you are attempting to bring your product or service to global market then be ready to compete with global suppliers as well. This will definitely be a tougher and more competitive marketplace to be in. It follows that more aggressive and dedicated SEO will increase the prospect of you winning the coveted spot in a global marketplace.
- SEO involves Continuously Keeping Pulse On Significant Market Trends. You have to remember the importance of flexibility in choosing keywords to rank. One keyword may no longer be as relevant as it is today in the next 2-3 years. To make sure you are in sync with your market and the search phrases they use, do a keyword analysis. Chances are you will need to add new keywords to broaden and strengthen your brand. Adding more keywords is good because whatever new search phrase or keyword will be used to find your product or service, then you have a better chance of coming out on the search.
- There’s SEO’ed Blog, and then there’s Blog With SEO Value. You have to know the difference between the two, and you must go for the latter. You can simply ask your content writer: are you writing for people to buy your product or are you simply writing to rank? An SEO’ed blog article will often sound unnatural as it talks about the keyword only. A blog article with an SEO value converses more with people and, the writer was clever enough to be able to weave SEO value into the content.
- Your Competitors Are Not Sleeping. Just when you have reached the top, they quadruple the efforts and investment to snatch the position away from you! With a high ranking comes great responsibility! So be sure when you have reached the top that you will protect it against others who will use any tactic possible to bring you down. Continue with your SEO or one day you will slip off the ranking while your competitor takes over!
- The worldwide web is not stagnant. It is an evolving space where knowledge is always updated as well. Take the case of Google which launches over 500 algorithm changes each year. Because of their desire to keep improving, Google will release versions of versions of versions of good stuff – only given a more timely polish. So if you’re stopping SEO, then you won’t be able to fully enjoy the benefits of being at the top no matter what changes come.
Now that you know, it will be important to engage an SEO agency you can trust – and who you want to be with for the long term. Check on the principles and practices your prospective SEO agency abides by and if this be a perfect fit for you, then your partnership can bring you much success in sales and leads for the long term. Good luck!
