Everyone that runs a business, no matter what size, needs and demands results, with those that are desperate for sales just needing any income and those that are doing really well wanting to get bigger quickly. When it comes to online marketing, the possibilities are endless if you are on the front page of Google, which is why getting there and staying there often presents massive pressures and challenges on the people tasked responsible of achieving this.
Online marketing can consist of many things, but three main online marketing methods are often considered to be:
- SEO
- Paid Traffic (Adwords ETC)
- Social Media
And on top of this you also have things like email marketing and permission based marketing as well, but generally, those three things above often stand the best chance of getting you sales and is where the majority of any online marketing budget will normally be positioned. Whereas Adwords and to some degree social media can provide instant results, search engine optismation (SEO) simply will not, because this method of getting traffic online is the one that requires the hardest amount of work and also the longest time frame of patience.
For many people that are new to the online world, maybe those that have just started in business or are simply expanding an existing business to have an online presence, there is an assumption that they should be able to get to the top of the search engines quickly and leap frog all their rivals because they think that they are the best. Of course, this is often not the case and nor should it, because the people who have worked hard to get to the top of the engines deserve to be there (in most cases) and therefore it should be hard work and a battle to get above them.
Your SEO should never be considered just a short term affair as this is just not what SEO is. SEO is a long term plan of action, an ongoing strategy that although has long term objectives, never really reaches a completion because once you get to your desired position in Google, you then have to fight to stay there, battling of all the other businesses below you who will also be fighting to get above you.
It is a tough industry and gets tougher and tougher with every algorithm update that the various search engines decide to release. Of course, depending on the keywords you are targeting for your campaign will determine just how long and how hard the road you take will be, but generally, there are no quick fixes in the land of SEO and you just have to realise that. It can be really easy to get frustrated when you see your site languishing below others that are simply rubbish, but, if you give it time and run a strong SEO campaign, you can do it.
Getting angry or frustrated is just a waste of time and a waste of emotional effort, so you just need to make sure that you respect the fact that this is going to take time and effort, but also at the same time understand that if you spend your time on the right techniques or use the right SEO company, then you are going to get there and once you are there, you have a good chance of sticking. You also have to be realistic and understand that some of these sites have been around for years, so why should you have the right to launch a new site and be above them?
When you first start out in the online world you are going to be really disheartened sometimes that maybe a website you feel is not good enough is above your site, and no matter how hard you try you are just not making the progress. This is where you then start to rush things and start taking your eye off the long term plan and maybe play around with stuff that is going to be detrimental in the long run. And then this is where you get hit, because you start to dabble in the world of the unknown and take risks, whereas if you had just of waited and carried on, there would of been a good chance you would of got there in the long run.
Remember one thing with SEO, it takes time.
By Ian Spencer
