Measuring Up Your Expectations
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is an essential aspect of digital marketing that helps improve online visibility and attract more traffic to your website. However, there are several misconceptions that can lead to unrealistic expectations. Setting expectations for a marketing objective without understanding how it will work, and benefit you, is harmful to your strategy and its possible results! It’s time to halt the guesswork and start understanding the benefits of a well-informed search engine optimisation strategy.
Debunking Unrealistic Expectations
While our lived experiences tend to feel unique, we are sad to say that we have experienced every expectation that follows search engine optimisation. This does, however, give us expert leverage to debunk the most common of them!
Expectation: SEO is a one-and-done solution.
Reality: SEO takes time to achieve and requires ongoing effort.
Businesses venturing into the “newness” of SEO tend to hold an all-or-nothing approach. It’s modern, analytical, and involves Google – it must be instant, right? Well, not quite. While SEO is a treasured digital marketing technique that leverages the power of data and search engine giant Google, there is nothing instant about it. SEO requires a flawless strategy with equally excellent implementation. Once done, it also requires ongoing maintenance before everything combines and grows into valuable search rankings.
Expectation: I’ll be on page #1 tomorrow!
Reality: Page #1 ranking takes time and effort to achieve.
Much like SEO isn’t a “one and done” effort, neither can the results it can achieve! Building a trustworthy persona for Google, and benefiting from the page #1 rankings that follow, takes extensive research and plenty of tweaking, AKA time!
Expectation: SEO is enough to nurture my online presence.
Reality: SEO leverages support of various digital marketing methods.
SEO is an important component of digital marketing, but it is not the only factor that determines your online presence. Most believe that website optimisation alone is enough to nurture their online presence, but in reality, to truly thrive in the digital landscape, businesses must utilise a variety of methods to support their SEO efforts. This includes tactics such as social media marketing, content creation, email marketing, and paid advertising.
Expectation: SEO is going to bring me instant lead generation!
Reality: SEO takes time to build.
SEO equals instant lead generation, no? Nope. The short and sweet of it is that SEO takes time to achieve. It involves a series of technical and content practices to align a website page with a search engine’s ranking algorithm to rank higher in search engine results pages. Optimising your website for search engines requires patience, consistency, and continuous effort. Therefore, it is essential to set realistic expectations regarding SEO and understand that it is a long-term strategy for building organic traffic and generating leads.
Why SEO is Still the Answer
It’s important to remember that with any marketing strategy, success takes time and consistency. A well-optimised website can help drive organic traffic, improve user experience, and establish your brand as an authority in your industry. By consistently producing high-quality content and following best practices for on-page optimisation, you can create a strong online presence that will continue to generate leads and drive conversions over time – and far outweigh the benefits of short-term fixes.
