Why can organic SEO be such a slow process?
Introduction
In todays fast paced world most of us expect to get what we pay for quickly. So, whether that’s a brand-new smartphone that you may have just purchased online, or say a take-away that’s just been ordered through an app- we all expect to get out items as quick as possible.
So with this mindset some business owners think that this is possible when investing in organic seo, to obtain results quickly.
But how realistic is that?
Well, we wouldn’t be the only white hat SEO agency to say often its not possible.
Sure some agencies will promise the earth, and everything that is in it, but often organic SEO is a slow process, and we will explain why:
Your competitors will have already set the standard
So lets say that you run a construction business here in Cardiff, yet you’ve just started the business, yet you want to gain those high value contracts, the ones that the businesses in Cardiff have been obtaining for many years.
Yet, with that said, those businesses may have been investing in white hat organic seo for many years.
So this means that they will have a head-start.
This means that when Google’s algorithm crawls and indexes those websites, they will spot that they have strong ranking signals, over 200 signals, that’s why most of the time these businesses are on the first page of Google.
So, this means that not only will your business have to be working on improving your SEO to a greater amount than that business this month, but you have to catch-up with all the work that the business has done over the last say 8 years.
This is why SEO company’s like Top Space will charge a fee based on how strong your competitors are.
Google’s algorithm
Google’s algorithm is very sophisticated, it uses AI technology, through Google’s RankBrain, plus it uses over 200 “ranking factors” or as some SEO consultants call them “ranking signals” in order to work out how strong your businesses seo is.
Now, some businesses here in Cardiff, and right across the U.K will try and cheat the algorithm, but this is not a good idea, its more than likely going to result in the business obtaining a penalty.
For example the business may incur a Google Panda, or a Google Penguin penalty.
So, the algorithm rewards businesses that implement quality seo, which often referred to as being white hat.
Googlebot
Here’s why organic seo often takes such a long time to see results, some businesses think that it is just a matter of adding more blog posts, or obtaining more quality backlinks, but it is not.
Most digital marketing agencies, ours included strongly believe that Google’s algorithm wants to see work being added over a long timeframe.
That’s to say that its not just a matter of beating the current standard, that’s set by another company, no its also a matter of slowly feeding the work to the website, and building backlinks.
We think that doing a mass of work to try and catch up with the competition in a very short window of time, this is often a marketing strategy that fails.
Instead the work must be high-quality, yet it must be added over a long time frame.
This is so when Googlebot crawls and indexes the website, each week, or each month the algorithm notices slight improvements, over time you can then start to catch-up with your competitors here in Cardiff.
Crawling and indexing
Your web design company, and your SEO agency should make sure that Google can crawl and index your website.
If your website cannot be crawled or indexed, lets say for example the “no-index” tab was left on, then this can mean that it will slow the entire seo process down.
Sandbox period
Here’s another factor that not many businesses know, that is when they have a website built, because the website is brand new, that’s to say the domain name has just been registered, it means that the SEO process can be a lot slower, this means that the website may enter what many SEO consultants refer to as the “sandbox period”.
Cant be rushed
So now you may be starting to gather that organic seo cannot be rushed, if it is, the website could go backwards.
By rushed, we mean that some businesses simply get very impatient, they are not happy to pay an SEO agency to only move forwards say 4 places each month.
Instead every month they may want to jump a page, yet for a business to move a page forwards, the business may start to cut corners, by making mistakes like writing a keyword they want to rank for in meta titles, meta descriptions, alt tags, titles, content marketing, anchor text, in a way which may read unnaturally.
And this often results in the business incurring a penalty, and not moving forwards, but in matter of fact being removed or moving back down the ranks.
200 ranking signals
Here’s the thing, some businesses think that SEO is all about adding blog posts, and building backlinks, but there’s a lot more to it than that, most digital marketing agencies think there are over 200 ranking factors.
This simply means that Google’s algorithm is thought to take into account over 200 ranking signals.
Here are just a few of those ranking signals:
- Website speed- how fast is your company’s website?
- Bounce rate
- Time spent on your company’s website
- Schema
- Business citations
- NAP citations consistent?
- What’s the quality of the backlinks like?
- H1-H6 tags
- Meta titles
- Meta description
- Alt tags
- Internal links
- Anchor text
And this is to name just a few, as stated earlier there’s thought to be over 200 signals.
No shortcuts
As you can gather, there’s no shortcuts, and if a business does use a shortcut, then its more than likely that the business will incur a penalty.
So for example, let’s say that your business tries to build backlinks quickly, by buying low-quality links, then the business is more than likely to receive a Google Penguin penalty.
So there’s no shortcuts, the only method to get your website onto the first page of Google, and for your business to be ranked in the organic results, is to invest time or money into white hat seo.
Google penalties
It’s worth mentioning here that its not just businesses that implement seo themselves that can hit by a penalty.
Sometimes a business will ask an SEO company to implement seo, but sometimes seo agencies get it wrong.
Sometimes they charge such a low price that they cut corners, this again can result in a penalty, such as a Panda penalty.
Every aspect must be focused on quality
Every aspect of the work must be white hat.
Quality really does matter
You will always have those seo companies that offer their services at a really cheap price, and also promise that they can get your business onto the first page of Google.
However, as a business owner you have to think, well, how realistic is that?
This is especially the case if your business operates in a competitive business sector.
So, for example let’s say the business that you run is a dental practice, well normally this is a competitive business sector.
So, if the businesses that you are competing against are spending upwards of say £2000.00 a month on seo, and have been doing so for a very long time, well you have to ask yourself what can your business achieve if its only paying a fraction of this?
Of course, it’s difficult to evaluate what your competitors are spending on seo, but if the work is really good quality then they may be spending a lot of money.
So, in a nutshell, often if a business is offering SEO at really cheap prices, well, they have to be cutting corners somewhere. And, if the seo company is cutting corners, well this could mean that the business they are working for incurs a penalty.
For example, if the seo agency builds backlinks in a way which isn’t white hat, well the business in question could incur a Google Penguin penalty.
So quality matters.
The competition often set the standard
Some business owners do believe that as soon as they invest in SEO their business should appear on the first page of Google, that’s to say the business should appear within the organic business results.
However, before that can happen a business will need to have stronger seo than the businesses that are currently on the first page.
So, this is why the competition set the standard to beat, its also worth bearing in mind that sometimes the standard is set very high indeed.
So, for example, a business may have thousands of good quality backlinks for example, and just to beat the businesses that do have these links, well often that takes a great deal of time.
Does this mean there are no shortcuts?
There are not shortcuts, instead a business must focus on quality. The reason that this is so important that is if a business uses low-quality seo methods, well the business could incur a penalty.
For example, a Google Panda or Google Penguin penalty. However, its worth bearing this in mind also, that is if a business does find a shortcut, an SEO method it can use to its advantage, that is not white hat, well what’s to say that the business will not incur a penalty in the future?
So, we always recommend to all clients that white hat seo is the only method to use.
Marketing budgets
Here’s the thing that constrains many businesses, that is their marketing budget. Sometimes a website will require so much SEO work, that’s to catch up with the standard that the competition have, that it all boils down to money.
The really experienced seo consultants, and link builders, well often these can cost a lot of money, so often its this that will slow the seo process down.
Need a strategy
Because some businesses may well be spending many thousands, if not millions on SEO its really important that any business has a clear marketing strategy.
That marketing strategy should focus on which words and phrases the SEO strategy should focus on.
Plus, your marketing agency should be clear whether its even possible to rank for certain words and phrases.
For example, the term “car insurance” is a hyper-competitive term, and therefore many businesses are likely to be spending large sums of money for their business to be placed on the first page.
So if a business has a relatively small marketing budget in comparison, well, the marketing agency should be clear whether or not its even possible to get the business onto the first page for that term.
Slow process
So as you can see organic seo is normally a slow process, yet with that said our clients, and many other businesses that have invested in good quality organic seo have reaped the benefits that this form of marketing can bring.
So if your business would like to find out more about organic seo, well why not give us a ring?
