SEO FAQ “How Long Until I’m #1?”

This is probably the most asked question we get as SEO consultants. They are paying us to get them to the top of the search engines, they don’t care about how, but when! Unfortunately as an SEO we have to let them know that we can’t make any promises. Why? Simply we have too many factors that are out of our control.

SEO FAQ - How long until i'm #1 on Google?

The Factors An SEO Can’t  Control

Clients hate hearing that you want to charge them thousands of dollars to do search engine optimization without a solid commitment of when they can expect to see results. They are putting a lot of trust into you, but after explaining how we as SEO consultants don’t control the following factors helps the client realize that what your doing is important but you can’t give exact time tables.

Google’s Algorithm

We don’t work for Google and they are very secretive about there algorithm that determines ranking. Over the years we have figured out what tactics improve, hurt, or do nothing for ranking. Since the algorithm is constantly changing we might be doing something that really helps ranking now, but in a year does nothing. This is why you want to make sure you hire an SEO Expert, not just anyone.

EX:In the early days of Google, meta-keywords were actually something that had some ranking power on Google. Where as now meta-keywords have absolutely none!

Competitions SEO Efforts

We work our hardest to get the best ranking for our clients, but what happens when the competitor above you is also actively doing the same thing? This makes it harder for you to pass them in the ranking

Searchers Habits

The way we know what words to optimize for in on our sites is by past statistics of what people were searching for. If you are in an industry that gets new buzz words often the old data my not be accurate to what people are currently searching.

EX: 80GB Ipod use to be a heavy searched keyword, but since Apple stopped making them and started making Ipads the search terms have really changed.

Whats Your Answer?

I know that this is a very common question that all of SEO consultants have to face on a weekly basis. What statistics, analogies, or other magic tricks help you to get more clients without making commitments that you may not be able to keep?

SEO FAQ Week

Every day this week i’ll be writing about the most asked questions we get as SEO’s. I’d like to hear what your most asked questions in the comments below. You can also follow @ben_beck on Twitter or the tag #seofaq.