Patience
is a Virtue, Especially
in SEO
We hear this a lot: "You
optimized my web site last
week, why haven't my rankings
improved?" The customer
who has shelled out their
hard earned money to have
their web site improved
for the purpose of better
rankings is naturally eager
to see tangible results.
Unfortunately... this is
not an overnight process
by any means. Search engine
optimization is a constantly
evolving technology. As
the search engines improve
their processes, so does
the tactics of optimizing
web sites.
Let's look at the process
from start to finish. Your
site is bland and you hire
a search engine optimization
firm to improve it. First,
the site is usually revamped
to enhance its navigation
scheme (how easy people
can move around the site)
as well as other improvements.
Then the site must be created
and posted to the hosting
server. Only now can the
search engine spiders (those
little programs that crawl
around the Internet and
catalog web sites) find
the new and improved site.
It may take a few weeks
before the spider comes
around to your little corner
of the Internet. The search
engines then take time
to incorporate this information
into their indexes. Add
to this the fact that your
competitors are also trying
to improve their sites
so THEY will rank high
too. This will cause a
sort of "dog fight" as
you all vie for the first
page of results for the
same phrase. In the end,
it can take a considerable
amount of time before your
improved search engine
rankings materialize. We
tell our clients to not
expect results for two
to three months. Sometimes
you may get lucky and start
showing better rankings
in some of the engines
within a week or two, but
the closer estimate is
a few months. And don't
forget that unless you
continue to keep your site
optimized and ripe with
fresh, keyword-rich, targeted
content, you can be sure
that your competition will
pounce on you and those
enhanced rankings will
just show up as a temporary
bump instead of an ongoing
success story.
So don't think of it like:
your web site is fixed
and posted one day and
the higher rankings are
visible the next day. Patience
is indeed a virtue when
you are waiting for your
search engine optimization
dollars to pay off. And
keep the process going
or those wonderful top
spots will slip away in
no time.
-
Kaufman Web Design™
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