We started talking about SEO results a few weeks ago when we wrote our 150 blogs in 50 days content marketing case study. (We wrote 150 call tracking and marketing blogs in 50 days and saw amazing traffic results). Then we posed the question: How Much Time Should You Give an SEO Company to Demonstrate Results?
Michael Fleischner is, perhaps, the foremost expert in the SEO world not named Matt Cutts. And we emailed him to ask this same question. Three months ago Michael did an incredible SEO webinar with us called ‘Evolving with Google: SEO in 2013.’ He’s appeared on the Today Show and in USA Today discussing SEO. He is the CEO of Upward SEO Consulting. We emailed him the question: how much time should it take an SEO company to demonstrate results?
Here is his reply:
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of any company providing SEO services, there are a number of things to consider. An experienced search engine optimization provider should be looked at as a partner who can help to optimize your existing website, blog, and other digital assets as well as advise you on SEO best practices.
The most effective SEO companies start with a comprehensive website analysis and optimization plan. This should take approximately 2-3 weeks to complete. Once the plan has been presented, you should look for weekly management and collaboration towards getting things done. Where most SEO projects stall is in the implementation phase.
For example, we’ve worked with a number of clients who wanted to handle all of the website updates but moved at an extremely slow pace, resulting in delays. If your SEO company isn’t making progress, evaluate what’s causing the bottleneck. It’s difficult to place blame on your SEO company unless you’ve implemented all of the suggestions they’ve provided for true optimization. Having an open and honest conversation with your search optimization partner is the only way to meet your organic ranking goals.
Once your website is truly optimized from both the technical perspective as well as other on-page optimization factors like keyword integration, meta data updates, and optimized navigation, that’s when you’re in a position to measure progress, and not before. Assuming you’ve made all of the site changes required, you should start to ranking improvement in about 3 months. I say “movement” because there are a significant number of factors that influence rankings such as your competitors, keyword competitiveness, and new entrants. Our goal when helping clients is to show month over month improvement. Think of SEO as a marathon, not a sprint. If you see instant results, they won’t last. When optimizing results you want month over month progress – slow and steady wins the race.
From my perspective, there are a lot of factors to consider when evaluating your search engine optimization company. At some point however you do need to decide if the cost/benefit works in your favor. Are you seeing progress after all the suggested changes have been implemented to your site? If nothing seems to be moving after a few months, it’s time to move on.
He makes several great points in the email. Among them…
1) Don’t blame your SEO company unless you’ve implemented everything they’ve asked of you.
2)You should start to see ranking ‘movement’ within 3 months.
3) SEO is a marathon.
4) BUT…at some point, ‘after a few months,’ with no results, it is time to move on.
