Setting SEO expectations

[Reyed Mia (Apprentice, DIU)]

Setting SEO expectations

- Search Engine Optimization is a process that requires a lot of work, a lot of time, and a lot of patience. Throughout this course, we'll dive in to more about how to do SEO. But before that, it's important to set some expectations. SEO is a bit different than other marketing strategies and understanding these differences will help us to stay on course for running and measuring a successful SEO campaign. Patience is a virtue. And that couldn't be more true than with SEO. Approach this as a long term process that builds long term value. There's a reason that all those rank-number-one-in-Google-tomorrow scams are called scams.

It takes time to develop and execute on your strategy. Research your keywords, create new unique content, build more links and authority, and to resolve any technical issues with your site. And it's a never ending process. There's always work to be done. SEO is not a one time project. It's a process that you'll continue for the long haul. You also wanna keep in mind that search engines don't necessarily interact with your website immediately. It takes them time to discover changes to your content, new links to your pages, and overall structure of your website.

And it will take them more time to put all those factors and their algorithms to re-assess your relevancy and authority before those changes are reflected in the search results. Being patient and true to your strategy will help you stay focused on the SEO process that you will have laid out. Another thing to expect with SEO is change within the search engines. And it's important to realize and accept that we have no control over this. Search engines are always trying to improve their product to help deliver results that people want. And they're always trying new things.

Sometimes, these changes are algorithmic. Other changes are more about features or different ways of presenting different kinds of contents to users. Search engines will keep making changes to enhance the experience for their users. So it's in our best interest to work with these changes as best we can. But one of the biggest expectations for a successful SEO campaign is to realize that you're really optimizing for two audiences; the search engine and real human beings. It's really easy to focus in on what we think the search engines will like about our site, but the real audience that generates business on your website are people.

While they may never find us if we don't show up on a search engine results page, it's people that drive the bottom line. The fortunate thing is that the search engines know that. Search engines have the ultimate goal to generate search results that people will find useful and helpful. If you build your authority and create content that's interesting to people, and if you do it in a way that's friendly to the computerized audience as well, the long term and consistent goal of the search engines is to reward that.

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/seo-foundations/setting-seo-expectations