Being Realistic With SEO Is Step 1
I come across some crazy things sometimes in this industry and I wonder how and why sometimes people feel they deserve to be successful online after one month when other businesses have spent years putting in hard work to build up their brands in the online space. If you are getting involved in the internet marketing space you really need to be realistic with everything surrounding you online.
I hear people say things like I want 500 quality links in the next 2 weeks. Or I need 1000 unique visitors daily fast. Seriously? Come on you need to be realistic. First of all why is it that you deserve these numbers? Have you put in the leg work in your industry to get these types of numbers? Or did you read how search engine optimization helps you with inbound traffic and you assumed you can leap frog the important part of building a business, time.
Being realistic with yourself should be the very first thing you do when you venture into the online space with any business. The reality is that the industry is something different than what it once was and whether you remember how it was back in the day or if you just started, things take time. I think it is crazy when I hear these types of requests because it really takes time and effort to create a business online. If someone got you 500 links in 2 weeks I would worry about the health of your website because that would most likely be a black hat SEO approach which you don’t want.
Search engine marketing takes time and patience and most importantly a realistic approach. Take the time to learn what it really requires to increase traffic flow before you throw out crazy requests in the industry. One thing you don’t want to happen is to be disappointed when your requests are not satisfied and your feelings towards the SEO industry make you feel like it is a scam. You just have to take a step back and realize that it takes time to rank and build traffic in almost any niche out there.
43 Responses to “Being Realistic With SEO Is Step 1”
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Good post Nick – we must remember that 12 months online is just a drop in the ocean – time is one major authority score that we cannot manipulate… Search engines are about providing relevant listings and in my meandering – if a new website… even if we smash 500 links at in in 2 months, it wont rnk first page for KWs – it takes at least 6-8 months to ensure google that it is the perceived authority we are creating…
Thanks for the read!
Hi JG,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
I think the concept of SEO as a long term and building strategy is the toughest aspect of most business and marketing people to really understand. You are totally right, 12 months online is a drop in the ocean!
Thanks again for reading!
Nick
So very true! You have to be real with your SEO goals!
You are absolutely on target with this. One of our reps talked to a prospect who was told by a company that they could get her ranked for 3000 phrases in 3-4 months. For too long, companies in our industry have been telling people what they want to here in order to take their money. Not only do the clients have to be realistic in their expectations, we have to be realistic in letting them know what is, and is not, possible for honest ethical companies to do.
Nick,
By no means am I a SEO expert but I am constantly educating myself on the subject. I can only imagine some of the bizarre requests and expectations in your industry.
Cheers,
@ryan_carchat24
Hi Joseph,
Thanks for reading and your comment. Yes, I agree it all starts with SEO service providers, firms, consultants, etc. being realistic and honest with clients and setting the proper expectations.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for reading! Yeah, I have heard and seen so many things, sometimes it is crazy!
Is 12 months really a drop in the ocean ? Thank god ! I have been working at my site for 18 months from a starting start and 0 knowledge. I get 500 unique visitors a month and one sale every 3/4 months. I know I am in a competitive market, I thought it was me doing something wrong.
Will keep reading your posts, I have learned a lot. if you want to take a quick peek at my site and give your opinion – that would be amazing!
Susann
Hi Susann,
Thanks for reading and your comment!
It sounds like you are on the right track, I am happy to continue to provide helpful SEO tips to help
I do agree with you.Its just not possible to grow any business in a month.it really takes time. Clients and seo should accept this truth.
Hi Rashi,
SEO does certainly take time to build and evolve…thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
So true, learning new SEO techniques daily is a joy and to hear clients tell me that they know best and if I just do what they ask then they would get more traffic is a joke. I will not be increasing your inbound links by 100 a day with crap websites, I will be using 1 hyperlink per 120 words not 20 for 20 words and I will use targeted quality keywords not ones you make up that no one uses….i could go on… Glad I got that off my chest, Thank Nick
If you are saying saying we should be realistic. But how long if there are no results even after one year. I have one travel blog since one year I am posting there 2 times in week but not enough visitors.
Hi,
Thanks for this tips, as a newbie I have been somewhat overwhelm with everyone claiming to have the elixir to instant success for only $97. I am finding out that even with a so-called business in a box if it is real then it requires some of the same things a regular business requires such as time, money and knowledge.
Richard H.
After 18 months in the web I have very little results, but I fully agree that times is in my best friend. Great comments Nick.
“500 quality links in the next 2 weeks” sounds spammy, I would ask instead for 50 REAL quality/targeted links. Thats around 100 links per month, which I think is not bad and enough to go on the #1 page. Or not??
Exactly my view too. I must admit that in the beginning I was kinda amazed how these fake deals would work. But then I thought one should actually go out there and work hard at “earning” visitors with great content and wide exposure but BS fast-track approach – quantity without quality never really take you anywhere now does it?
As Ryan, I’m no SEO expert neither but I’ve came across some advice in the forum about building links naturally. A sudden surge of links within a short time could raise the Google’s eyebrow or worst senario if you get slap…..off you go to the sandbox which is not funny either.
Thanks for your honesty! I am very new to this but have been bombarded with emails and information promising outrageous results. Who in their right mind would believe that you could work two hours a week and in 30 days your income would soar to $10,000 (that’s with absolutely no experience). A little common sense would save some of these people a ton of money.
Again, thanks for “keeping it real”.
Mel
If a web site acquires 1000 inbound links all the sudden then close nothing for the next 3 months then that web site owner has some explaining to do to search engines.
I receive such requests almost every other day of the week yet those websites offering such services have nothing to prove that their tactics actually work: they all have a Google Pagerank less than 4.
So much for pretending to be an expert or authority in link building!!
Thanks everyone for reading and sharing your thoughts!
The bottom line is that SEO takes a good amount of time, energy and effort to build and “earn” your organic visitors…
I had a client tell me that some company had them up on the top listings for thousands of keyword phrases. My first thought was mirror sites, which are frowned upon by search engines. Another thought was that this client was grossly scammed.
That’s the problem that people who are not familiar with the internet face. They believe everything they are told. They have no idea that the internet can be cut throat and there is a rat around every corner. Eventually they wise up, but not before spending a lot of money.
Hi Barb,
Exactly! It is horrible to hear some of the SEO horror stories…SEO clients that I take on that have not been scammed tend to be much better clients. Ones that have are horrible pains and always look at you like the enemy from day one instead of on the same team!
Hi,
I read your articles very carefully, especially the excellent SEO tips.
Certain SEO tips you wrote are very useful, which helped my proxy list site, http://proxylist.co to go viral big time.
Believe it – please check Alexa rating – you’ll be surprised.
I have so many clients asking me a couple of days after we start start working on the on-page optimization: “Why am I still not there?”
Next time, my answer will be: “Go read this article from Nick Stamoulis”
[...] To read the rest, go to: http://www.searchengineoptimizationjournal.com/2010/07/16/realistic-seo/ [...]
Good post, Nick. This is a reality that cannot be circumvented with effectual SEO practices. Hence the problem I’ve faced with clients asking for “3-month pilot programs” to “see if SEO works.” Therefore, I intend to refer folks to this discussion. Thanks for the effort!
Thanks Julien for reading and re-publishing!
Hi Steve,
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and referring people here! Every time I hear a “3 month test to see if SEO works” type of thing from a potential client, I totally pass on the project since, it does take much longer for on site optimization and link building aspects to build positioning and visitors…
Thanks again & Take Care,
Nick
Yup I agree with this. Organic seo really work good, and give you positional visitors. Some one approach me to buy 5,000 xrumer back links services. Quite shocked 5k links ? lol…I think it is batter if i have 50 quality links instead of 5k links.
what you think?
Nick do you believe xrumer back link service does work?
The problem is not all that..
First all businesses follow the motto litle in a lot out, whether it is time or money that is investing work, so when these market comes along with the solutions that can get you to where you are going of course it make business sense to make that investment. do you have the knowledge and time you build you a super duper laptop? and even if you did have time your time would not be invested wisely if you it building one when you could buy one for $2500 and use it to make $10000 in lets say a week. ford and the early guys got the thing started, we continue to build it. It is not progress to say because it took you 50 years I should spend 50 years in building. just imagine if you had the $1 zillion to buy out bill gates wouldn’t you do it. It is either time or money, sometime a little of both, we are self employed because we want to have control of our time, talent and income so It is not bad for me to wish I had the money to pay you to build nad optimise my sites so I can go play soccer with the fellows.
forgive all the errors guys I was writing in a hurry to get out the door, my son has to get a physical for his football game today
Thanks Nick. Good, honest advice, as always. Very much appreciated in the SEO world. I hope all these SEO people do get the word out about your site.
I am a legitimate business owner. My husband and I started our website over 3 years ago to sell our organic fudge. We were newbies and it has been quite an education. In the beginning, we were suckered into paying a lot of money for website development which was supposed to include SEO and marketing of our website, (with all the promises you mention here). We paid for Google ads and because we chose keywords unique to the industry (because we ARE unique) we shot up to page 1 right away for those keywords. The problem is that most people don’t enter those particular keywords, because we are so unique. It’s a catch 22. We finally stopped paying for Google ads and began concentrating on marketing our organic product in the physical world. We get lots of visits to our website because we are marketing ourselves to real people. I feel that trying to launch a website JUST to make money is a mistake. It’s as if the search engines sniff out scams. They love legitimate businesses and blogs with authentic, educational content.
Hi Reonne,
Thanks so much for sharing your story!
Exactly! Launching a website and SEO is much more than just trying to make money. it is about building a long term and trusted business.
Take Care,
Nick
Amen to that….We’ve all had clients who dropped the seo campaigns only to lose any ground they’ve gained. Crazy…especially when you consider how cheap internet marketing is as compared to older mediums.
Thanks Nick.
Hi Rob,
Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts!
It is truly amazing to see this, I think companies DO forget how expensive offline marketing mediums really are and how low cost SEO and other forms of web marketing are…
Thanks again & Take care!
Nick
I agree I have been working on gaining links for my website http://www.citylifecard.com and it takes a lot of work to get other websites of quality to link to you but you have to stay true to your niche.
Hi Chris,
It sure does take a good amount of work and energy to build the SEO side of things…
Take Care,
Nick
You ain’t kidding about fast link building being penalized. We purchased a featured link on a directory which added about 10,000 backlinks, all keyword-rich from one domain and 2 weeks later they dropped 30 spots. Frightening. We are now building links like that with name of the company in the link.
Hi Shell,
Thanks for reading and sharing your SEO story…
This type of activity and end result is indeed very frightening!
Take Care,
Nick
i agree with all of you im working so hard every day and imtrying to tell costumers that is not 100m racebut a marathon
Hi Nick!
Your article was right on the money! I read your newsletter. It is informative and accurate.
Presently I am preparing to redo the front page of my website to update the look and enable viewers to immediately see what I do on the front page as opposed to using it mainly as an online businss card.
I would like to share links with you. I’ll put yours on mine, if you put my on yours!
Thank you for your honest and practical input!
Marguerite Fair (Kosciewicz)
Hi Marguerite,
Thanks for reading and your comment!
At this time we do not exchange links with anyone, but your comment is linking back to your site
Take Care,
Nick
Good post and – which is even more important – I read it in the right time
Thanks for rising the motivation to continue 
Alona
I second that notion! This post has everything that employers need to read. SEO is not just a game for kids. Search engine optimization needs to be done with strategy and dedication. Quality backlinks are not gain in just a split of seconds. Remember that victory loves preparation and this is what SEO means.