SEO: A Marathon, Instead of a Short Sprint for Your Business Growth

It’s overwhelming to see many people coming up with the “get rich quick” ideas. But do you ever question the authenticity of such strategies?

The same case is true with many SEO providers promising instant search engine traffic.

The question here is “How long does SEO take to be effective?” With the hope to see results sooner than later, many business owners end up getting upset when they realize it is taking quite long than they expected. They are even tempted to switch SEO providers when their expectations are not met instantly as they expect.

If you happen to be one of the entrepreneurs who believe in conquering Google with one quick campaign, it is time to think again. The truth is that SEO is a longer journey than you think. It takes hard work and patience before you start seeing the fruits of SEO.

Increasing your organic search traffic demands a lot of hard work as you put your house in order.

SEO is an investment, not a cost

According to Moz, Google changes its search algorithm around 500-600 times per year on average.

This statistic indicates how difficult it is to optimize your website one time and still believe you can get instant and long-lasting results.

It is therefore upon you to be lured by SEO providers promising to improve search rank by a specific date or following due process by giving experienced service providers a chance to take you through the process of improving your organic search ranking.

According to Trond Lyngbo of Search Engine Land, entrepreneurs need to remain optimistic about investing in the best SEO strategies to boost their organic search no matter how long it takes to roll out and nurture.

To achieve higher search engine ranking using high-quality SEO tactics, you need time. This is in line with the hard work, patience, persistence and fine-tuning needed in achieving better results in life.

The following are some of the crucial tasks undertaken for effective SEO strategy

1. Creation Of Quality Content

Content marketing is considered king in digital marketing today. In this regard, many SMEs and established organizations prefer receiving information in the form of articles rather than advertisements. Search engines too tend to rank better websites with high-quality content. In your quest to boost your organic search rankings, it is important to start with revising your current content then proceeding with the creation of new, high-quality content.

The quality of content to be created must be characterized by the following;

Unique– your content needs to be original and able to offer something different from what your competitors create. Your customers need to find something special from your content which they cannot find elsewhere.
Relevant– quality content is also needed to provide information focused on your business and industry. The content should be able to provide answers to the questions asked by your customers and provide solutions to the problems they are facing.
Substantive– the substance of your content should be seen and accepted as being valuable. Customers and online visitors should use the information provided in your content as a reference, something they can share or use as a ground for discussion.

In the quest to achieve this, you will need to undertake a quality content action plan by following these steps:

Reviewing the content you already have on your web pages, blogs brochures and other published content to ensure it is unique, substantive and relevant
Including the right keywords that answer the queries and keyword phrases searched by most online visitors. You may decide to use relevant tools like Mondovo’s Google Search Console in this case to see the common and incoming search queries and phrases. You will then incorporate these keywords when revising current content and writing the new content.
Check for the freshness of content using search measurement as Query Deserved Freshness by Google to find out new content on topics trending online. Publishing fresh content may help your website to start ranking better on search engines.
Assess your engagement to see whether online users share your content on social media platforms and how long they spend on various web pages. Quality content usually captures the attention of your readers and likely to take longer reading the content. In case it is poor quality, you can tell this by checking out the bounce rate of users from your website.
Create or curate new content- while it is important to create own and original content to publish on your website, it is equally important that you share great content created by others on your blog and social media platforms. You can as well share your content on other people’s websites to build your search traffic. However, you have to be very keen to avoid low-quality inbound links that come out as a result of tit-for-tat schemes whereby you agree with other content marketers to guest-blog for each other.

2. Social Networking

Many people did not take social media marketing seriously a few years ago.

However things have changed, and today, search engines use social media reputation and engagement to rank websites better than others.

Your authority on social media directly influences your organic search the same way active engagement does regarding sharing quality content.

With an effective social media networking, you are likely to influence a massive following that like and share your content. The more your social media followers share your content, the better search engines rank your website.

To be effective in social networking, you will have to undertake a social networking action plan by following these steps;

Select a single social network and do the best you can on it. Unless you have a social networking team, you have to direct all your energies to start with one social network and be the best you can. The choice of a social network should, however, be based on the type of content you intend to share and where you think your target audience hangs out most.
Engage with your customers as much as possible to give them that personal touch and for you to learn more about their needs as you interact.
Stay off the pay for-followers schemes and concentrate on building a high-quality follower base that is interested in your products or services. Paid for followers can only boost the number of followers but not your social engagement.

3. Inbound Links

It is no longer about quantity when it comes to link building; it is rather about quality.

While many businesses enjoyed top ranking by having as many inbound links to their websites as possible, Google’s 2012 penguin update got rid of this system and instead promoted the use of quality links to a website for better organic ranking. Getting links from someone in the same industry may boost your rankings as compared to links that are coming from outside your industry.

To achieve this, it is advisable to undertake an inbound links action plan by following these steps;

Examining the quantity and quality of all inbound links to your website to know their origin and possibly contacting the webmasters of sites with spammy links to take them down. This is a process to be undertaken by a specialist, so you need to contact one.
Evaluate anchor texts used by people to get connected to your site so that you can better understand how Google takes your site.
Use the Nofollow attribute- this is where you will use Nofollow tags to allow you to use outbound links without necessarily supporting the content. This way, you will protect your website from attempts to link to your site with irrelevant site links.

The long and stressing, yet the most effective road

Due to the strong urge to make new customers, more revenue and get-rich-quick mentality for many business owners, it is quite difficult to view SEO as a long-term investment rather than an instant route to riches and business success.

Conclusion:

SEO is crucial in any digital strategy that needs time, hard work, persistence and patience before you start seeing improvements in your organic search traffic. However, you can be sure the journey is worth every effort and investment put into realizing results.

Awesome, share it:

Thanks!

Stevan McGrath

Technology enthusiast | Digital Marketing Expert | Freelance technology

Stevan Mcgrath is a digital marketing professional who possesses expertise in brand design and development. Stevan is passionate about utilizing his diverse skill sets for new and innovative online marketing strategies. He has worked as a freelancer and a contributor to ProvenSEO. Despite having a wide influential reach, he seeks client satisfaction as his topmost priority. He also writes blog posts on recent digital marketing trends.