5 Things to Keep in Mind During Your First 3 Months of SEO Services
Most business owners know that search engine optimization (SEO) is one of the most effective ways to gain prime real estate in search results, but the road to SEO success can be complicated. That’s why many entrepreneurs turn to a marketing agency that specializes in SEO services.
SEO campaigns can provide hope and excitement for increased leads. Unfortunately, many agencies often start them by giving the client unrealistic expectations. SEO isn’t an overnight process, and it can take several months or more to see a substantial shift in rankings and site traffic from optimization.
If you’ve just signed on with a new SEO company or are considering working with one for your brand, keep these five facts about the process in mind during the first few months of strategy implementation.
1. SEO Success Takes Time
As much as SEOs and clients want to see immediate results after the first few weeks of a project, the process takes much more time and patience than that.
The amount of work required just to get a website in a position for success depends may be substantial. It depends on the initial state of your website.
The first month (or more) of SEO should focus on different audits, research, strategy and priority corrections to your website. From there, your team should consistently track keywords, create valuable content, and ensure that your site doesn’t get hit with Google penalties as it climbs its way to the top of rankings.
In short, SEO is something that snowballs into an avalanche of gains over time. With the right team on your side, your project will eventually meet, get close to, or even exceed its marketing goals.
2. SEO Work Goes way Beyond Keyword Research
Don’t get us wrong, keyword research is an important part of SEO. In fact, at Dallas SEO Dogs, it’s something we perform before the project kick-off meeting with a client as a way of getting a head start on the campaign.
We constantly track changes to your top keywords and frequently update the list, but our success comes from using the targeted keywords in the right way. Great keyword use makes you more visible in Search Engine Results Pages and attracts more qualified traffic. The end result is more conversions for your company.
In the image above, the site’s average position in Google dropped. But site still generated many more leads. Why? Because we improved our client’s visibility not by targeting more keywords, but by targeting the right keywords.
Here’s what you should expect in the first few months of your SEO campaign:
- Service page creation/expansion
- Location page content creation
- Google My Business listing optimization
- Sitemap optimization
- Technical SEO Audit (404 errors, bad links, etc.)
- Initial title and meta description optimization
3. We Create Initial Content for Google
Creating and optimizing content is one of the biggest improvements an SEO company can make on a website. However, especially in the beginning stages of a project, content creation is more for appeasing Google than a specific audience.
At the start of a project, the main focus of content creation should be on the following criteria:
- It hits keywords a site needs to build its rankings
- It is linkable for future internal links
- It meets current Google algorithm standards
Right now, Google has its eye on websites with lengthy, conversational, and accurate content that answers common user questions about a topic. As seen in the pictures below when we compare 2 different reports within Google Search Console.
The Coverage report tracks the new pages added to our client’s site over a 3-month period. We can see that there are new pages added regularly to the site and how this has a direct correlation to the increase in clicks and impressions shown in the performance report during the same time period.
Yes, eventually your project’s content will veer into topics that you really want your SEO team to discuss. But during the first three months, it’s always best to let the SEO team guide your content towards creating a stable launching point for future industry topics.
4. Everyone is a Professional in Their Own Industry
Your SEO provider should specialize in all of the essential areas of site optimization strategy. If they’re an experienced, reputable company, trust them to make the right decisions for your website; even if it’s something that seems out-of-the-box for your tastes.
An experienced SEO team will take into account that you’re the authority in your industry. They should listen to your ideas, soak in your knowledge of your industry, and apply the results of successful communication to your SEO project. This teamwork approach leads to the best results and builds trust early on in the SEO process.
5. SEO is Ever-Evolving
Over time, you may start to see an improvement in rankings, site traffic, and conversions. While these changes are great, now is not the time to rest on your laurels.
Search engine requirements are always changing, keywords don’t always stay in the top ten lists, and your audience interests could unexpectedly shift gears. That is why the need for SEO services is endless. If you take a moment and stop while you’re ahead, your competition will quickly move past you and push your achievements back to square one.
A great SEO team will keep up with the latest changes to search engine optimization and SEO tools to ensure your website is competitive and authoritative during search queries.
Dallas SEO Dogs Helps Your Website Make a Long-Term Impact
Our best advice is to find an SEO team you can trust, let the project evolve as it must, and rest easy knowing that your specialists prioritize all of your site’s optimization needs.
At Dallas SEO Dogs, we specialize in every area of SEO and keep each of our clients in the loop about our practices and the “why” behind our actions. If you’re ready to work with an SEO team that tailors to your brand and website’s needs, we want to meet you!
Contact us today to learn more about our services and schedule your free consultation with one of our specialists.
