The more things change the more they stay the same. This seems to be especially true when it comes to SEO. No matter how many times you tell a client that SEO will take some time and require some effort on their end many still don’t get it. 5-10 years ago this was somewhat understandable because SEO was still fairly new and not really understood by most organizations. Many really did not understand how important a well optimized site was to their overall marketing plan. Now it seems that more and more businesses understand the importance of SEO but far too many still believe we SEOs can just sprinkle some magic pixie dust on their servers and watch the traffic roll in.
All The Magic Pixie Dust in The World Won’t Help
SEO is not like paid search. SEO requires a total buy in from everyone within an organization and the commitment to implement all recommendations to achieve success. You can’t just hand your SEO some money and sit back and watch the customers roll in. You are going to need to make changes to your site. Implementing SEO recommendations is the only way to achieve the fantastic results that an optimized site can provide. And in the current economy it makes no sense waste your marketing dollars on a bunch of recommendations that will never be implemented.
Forget the Pixie Dust and get to work
I have been doing this for a while and I have been involved in too many engagements where we provided detailed recommendations with explicit instructions that are never acted upon. We have had discussions with IT departments, writers, editors, marketing teams, usability experts, designers, and developers and explained what needs to be done, how to incorporate the recommendations, and how the change will help the site perform better. Everyone was excited about SEO and supposedly ready to get to work but as time went on it became apparent that nothing was ever going to be done. Back in the day we would even be asked why a site was not improving even though none of the recommendations were implemented. Now it has gotten better but there are still businesses out there that plunk down a significant amount of money and expect miraculous results without any effort on their end.
Get the most out of your SEO
We have gotten better at qualifying SEO clients and only take clients who understand that they need to take action to achieve results. Businesses in search of an SEO need to understand that we can’t just sprinkle some sparkly dust on their server. It is a collaborative effort and everyone involved needs to do their part. If you want your SEO budget to achieve the desired ROI you must make the effort to understand and implement the recommendations provided by your SEO. Don’t rely on Tinkerbell to sprinkle her magic dust and herd traffic to your site.
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{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Pilo – I’m on the client side and I’ve seen my company spend $125K a year on a SEO agency. First off, I told them this was stupid because I know more our account supervisor at the agency and secondly nothing ever got implemented. It was nuts and I hear ya……….
Yo Jody, it is just insane. I truly don’t understand the reasoning for spending that much money and not doing anything with the recommendations.