Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a long-term process to optimise your business website. In turn, SEO-friendly websites rank higher, attract the right audience, and make a business get more sales. As a marketing manager, your time is money. And SEO takes patience, dedication, and proper strategies to achieve results.
However, there are times when the pressure of delivering quick results gets high. This can be a challenge when the upper management expects SEO results in less time and you are already familiar with the long-term nature of SEO.
For this reason, understanding why SEO takes time and knowing the various strategies, including expert SEO services in Melbourne, to manage the expectations within your organisation is crucial. In this blog, you will learn strategies to align the expectations with the long-term SEO strategy. Letβs begin.
Understanding the Long-Term Nature of SEO
SEO for a business website means optimising the content, structure, and authority of the website to rank it on the first search engine results page. As Google keeps changing its algorithms and competition for high-traffic keywords keeps on evolving, there is a need to update the SEO strategy consistently.
Here are some reasons why SEO is known for long-term investment.
1. Crawling and Indexing:
Search engines like Google crawl and index a website. During this time, crawlers follow links from other websites and the internal links on your website to discover your website authority.
They will discover each content, understand the pages, content, and check if your website is relevant before ranking it. This can take time, more specifically when your website is new or lengthy.
Even if your website is in existence for many months and you are still working on earning backlinks, Google will wait till your website earns reputable backlinks.
2. Optimising the Content:
The next possible reason why SEO for a website takes time is the requirement for optimising the content over time. Expert SEO services in Melbourne also agree to the fact that content is no longer about keyword stuffing.
Building a quality content that addresses the pain points, is well-researched, and engages users in a meaningful way takes time. Google favours high-quality, impactful, and keyword-focused content.
If your website has good content, search engine crawlers check if the content stays relevant, engages users, and can create the same powerful impact after 5 months before ranking the website.
3. Earning Backlinks:
Google prioritises quality backlinks and rank websites if they have a few impactful links. But earning these links from high-authority websites demands time and attention. You will need outreach, create powerful content, and build trust within your industry to see the results.
4. Competing With Similar Businesses:
Every business needs SEO to rank their website. As more and more people begin to invest in various SEO services, competition reaches its peak.
The increasing competition to rank a website can make it difficult to sustain higher rankings for a long time. It is not enough to optimise the website and expect Google to rank it. To see big changes, you will need to evolve your strategy to outrank competitors, and this can take time.
5. Search Engine Algorithm Changes:
Search engine updates evolve quite often. Staying alert and adjusting your SEO strategy as per the new changes can take time as well. This is another reason why SEO in a website for new ranking factors takes weeks or months to achieve best results.
Managing Expectations Within Your Organisation
Now that you are aware of all the reasons that tell why SEO takes time, letβs find out how to manage the expectations of the leaders in your company.
1. Educate Leadership on the SEO Process:
As straightforward as it may sound, educating your managers on how the SEO process works will be the most effective way to handle the expectations.
Your managers might have a limited knowledge of SEO and can expect immediate results. When they will have a time in hand to see results, you will be able to create a positive image in your business. Normally, SEO takes 6-12 months of time, but considering expert SEO services in Melbourne can reduce the time length.
2. Have a Real Goal:
Begin with achieving small goals. Promising that the website will rank on top within a month can set unrealistic expectations. Instead, focus on smaller wins like improving non-paid traffic by 12% in 2 months or increasing quality backlinks within the next 7 months.
3. Show Short-Term Wins:
Updating short progress over time to your leaders can help them understand the significance of efforts. Whether it is a small increase in impressions or a rise in keyword rankings, signalling that the SEO strategy is working can allow leaders to understand the SEO process clearly.
4. Use Reports to Illustrate Progress:
Regularly track SEO metrics, such as organic traffic, keyword rankings, bounce rates, and conversions. If the results are improving, allow your leaders to see the growth through charts and graphs.
Final Words
We hope you find this blog useful. Clearly, SEO is a long-term strategy and achieving big results takes time. However, it is your responsibility to provide constant updates about the SEO process to your upper managers and manage their expectations in a healthy way.
As we mentioned, all the above steps can bring both you and your managers in line with the similar objectives. If outsourcing works well, expert SEO services in Melbourne can be a key investment. Companies like Make My Website in Melbourne offer free SEO audits worth significant value.