Q: I built my website. Shouldn’t the traffic just appear after a certain amount of time?
It depends. If your web designer was also an SEO whiz, then he or she would have asked you a lot of questions about your pages and targeted them around unique terms and you’re probably ranking great. But most aren’t. They don’t understand SEO, because it’s not their specialty – graphic design and coding for the web is. Just as you visit different doctors depending on the ailment, designers design and SEO people create a plan to help you get rankings. SEO is a research intensive, data heavy science that takes years of experience to fully master. So, unless you had some sophisticated SEO land in your lap which you didn’t pay for, your site is probably ranking for a bunch of random terms, not your best business phrases.
How long will it take before you rank and know what you’re ranking for? Most people don’t know. They don’t have the reporting tools set up. Search engines index much faster these days, and you will show up for searches in as little as two weeks once your site goes live. If you haven’t had a big traffic spike (you do know how much traffic you have, right?) then there’s something wrong.
Q: I can’t follow the discussion on SEO and my eyes glaze over whenever I interview a business that wants to provide it. How can I know what I’m getting if I can’t understand it?
We get most of our business from referrals so we don’t have to advertise. Most of our clients come to us knowing that they want SEO, but maybe not too much about its nuts and bolts. It’s good to ask around and see if someone can’t recommend a reputable search firm in your area. Using our doctor analogy again, you don’t know how the doctor will conduct the operation, just that he has a good reputation and can demonstrate good results.
It comes down to, you want more traffic and you want the right traffic. Unless you are really fascinated by the process, then we simply provide a list of what we’ll do and you can compare it to best practice SEO on the internet. Some of what we do involves proprietary information, so we won’t reveal exactly how we got you from A to B. But when you bought your network servers, you didn’t have to understand all the ins and outs of the hardware. We will show you our features and their estimated benefits, and explain the eco-system of search so that you can make a competent decision.
Q: What about guaranteeing that my site will come up for a specific search? Do you do that? I want Google Page 1.
No reputable SEO firm will promise you specific positions because it’s not under their direct control. What we will do is show you how competitive your desired keywords are and give you a plan for achieving high ranking.
Q: How many people use search engines anyway?
The most recent data says that 80% of Americans use a search engine on a daily basis. People are increasingly more sophisticated in their searches and the fastest growing keyword set is four words, so they are really narrowing to find what they want.
Q: I still want to appear on page 1 of Google.
There really is no page one of Google anymore. That went out years ago with customized search. Most people see results that are based on their location, especially when hunting for services. So if you’re a local attorney, there’s no reason to focus outside your immediate area unless you are scouring for nationwide leads. In that case, we DO recommend the best national search there is: paid advertising so you can leapfrog over the organic results.
Q: Should I buy links like my competitor does?
All the search engines have invested heavily in detected “gaming” of their indexes. It’s to their advantage to figure out who is buying links to boost their rankings, because they want their index as pure and as helpful as possible. If an index starts delivering spam (results based on a bunch of paid links), then people will find another index. Bottom line: if you are discovered as a link buyer, your website can be devalued and removed from the search engine. Many sites never make it back in.
Q: What can I expect to pay for SEO?
There are a variety of firms out there which charge varying rates, from all inclusive flat prices to hourly to monthly retainer. Have a look at this chart courtesy of SEOMoz.com which shows some of the current pricing out there.
