Reasonable Search Engine Optimization Expectations

Expectation #1: SEO is not an exact science.
All of these and many other uncontrollable factors influence the success of an SEO campaign.

• The SEO efforts of competitors
• changes to search engine algorithms
• a client's SEO-unfriendly Content Management Software platform, directory structure, file-naming protocol, or META tagging standard that’s not going away anytime soon
• an upper-executive’s selection of keywords to target

Expectation #2: Rankings are important, but not the whole story.
A narrow focus on rankings alone ignores other important considerations, ones that can make the business case for SEO much more effectively and concretely than rankings alone.

Rankings are affected by many factors, not all of which are within our or the client's, direct control. For instance:

• Traffic from organic search-One of the major reasons for achieving high rankings in the first place is to increase the amount of traffic to a site. If traffic numbers increase noticeably after SEO improvements go live and maintain over time, SEO efforts can receive the credit.
• Conversions from organic search traffic-The quality of organic search traffic can be another measure of SEO’s success and value to an organization. One way to measure this is to track conversions from organic search traffic, and compare the quantity pre- and post-SEO efforts.
• Branding, credibility and competitive advantage-While less easy to measure directly, improved rankings (even if not the #1 spot) translate into more visibility for your site and less for your competitors. Every results spot filled by your page is one more chance for you to appear in front of your potential customers.
• Location from which the ranking report is done-Google search results are not consistent throughout their server network.
• Your location-partly same as above, but mostly local, univeral and personalized search has changed the picture dramatically.

Expectation #3: SEO is judged by improvement, not arbitrary targets.
Move away from a hard numeric goal ("We have to be #1 for ‘lawyers’") to one of improvement over time is key to managing an SEO project. While we may not guarantee a specific ranking, in our experience we can guarantee overall improvement in rankings, traffic, and visibility.

Expectation #4: Trends are important. Minor fluctuations are not.
Everyone’s experienced it. An optimized and link-built page finally hits the top five, only to drop three positions the next day. Panic time? No.

We’re more interested in data trends than individual data points. We need a broader view than a single day’s worth of data to give quality advice. Yes, perhaps we dropped three positions today. But when we look at performance over the past month or quarter, what’s the trend? Of course, we slice and dice trends in various ways to gain as much clarity as possible. For instance, we might look at an individual page’s performance for its targeted keywords, or look at organic traffic trends for a group of strategic keywords. And of course we pay special attention to trends pre- and post-optimization efforts.

Expectation #5: Improvements depend on implementation. 
A caveat to Expectation #3 is this - our recommendations have to actually be implemented in order for them to work. For some clients this is no problem, but many have technical or other restrictions that limit the amount or type of tactic we are able to employ for them. So, to help set expectations in this area we set priorities, indicate which approaches would be most effective for the client, and clearly communicate the possibility of reduced results if the most effective tactics are not implemented.

Expectation #6: A ranking is more valuable if it’s for the right page. 
Here is an area where we differ with some SEOs, because it goes directly to visitor experience. We think a top ranking for a page that provides a poor experience isn’t much of a win because it’s not sustainable.

Visitors who click through a result listing only to find a confusing, difficult or irrelevant page aren’t likely to return or remember your company’s brand with affection, if at all. So what do you have to show for your top ranking but a bunch of useless, bouncing traffic? (unless your business model is based solely on traffic numbers).

Use our toll free number, 1.866.864.2836 to speak with one of our Search Marketing Specialists, or use our Contact Form and a member of our Marketing Team will call you to discuss a Search Marketing Strategy that will work best for your business.

Back to Top