SEQFAQ - SEO Frequently Asked Questions
So this is something new here at WDYGU, it’s a series of articles that I’d like to help use as a reference. Somewhere to tell a current or potential client… “Hey you know what? I’ve got a perfect place for you to find an answer for that………. my blog!”
I think that I’m going to call it SEOFAQ. Why? Because I think I’m witty, that’s why. Any given day, I might be asked any of a myriad of questions that pertain to SEO. A great number of these questions can be asked a great number of ways and can be asked a great number of times. It’s not that I get tired answering them. Honestly, I really enjoy talking SEO. Just ask my wife, her friends, my family, or random people I meet on the street. I’d just like to have somewhere that I can send them to get the rundown without having to hear me speak at length and in semi-pleasing metaphors.
So since this is the first post I think that it’s prudent to begin with the most oft posed question that myself or any SEO firm is asked by a client. “How long is it going to take me to rank?”
I love this question. When I’m asked this question I am instantly queued into a number of factors about the person who has posed it. Firstly, I know that they are interested in SEO, that they have goals in mind, and that they actually need my services. Secondly, I know that they don’t have enough SEO knowledge to do their business or website any justice. And lastly, I know that they’re looking to me to help them out. When this question is posed during a “pitch”, my mouth begins to water as the prospect of the sale. This is the area where really earn my keep. As I told Todd the other day, “I could sell a Ketchup Popsicle to a woman wearing white gloves in the middle of August.” But PLEASE don’t get me wrong here; I’m not Alec Baldwin in “Glengarry Glennross.” I’m only interested in making the sale if what I’m doing can honestly help me improve a client’s bottom line.
For the rest of this article, I am going to pull a Mr. Rogers here and play pretend. I’m going to talk directly to you, faithful reader, as if you are my perspective client and I’m shooting straight from the hip. So here goes.
You’ve asked me ‘how long is it going to take you to rank?’ The answer is that there is no answer. I don’t know how long it’s going to take you to rank. I’m not being coy here.
I get it. You’re looking at potentially spending thousands of dollars a month with me and I can’t tell you how long it will be until you get to where you want. But let me tell you this. If you show me an SEO who will give you a concrete time frame, I’ll show you an SEO who is full of shit. Pardon my French. But that’s the truth. I’m speaking from experience here. I’ve worked with clients targeting GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE phrases and seen No. 1 rankings in less than 8 weeks, and I’ve worked with Mom and Pop local sites in non-competitive industries work for months to show up on the front SERP page. And the reason for this is the reason that I make a good living… SEO is neither quick nor simple. It’s a complex process, always evolving with literally hundreds of factors that go in to how you will rank. But trust me when I tell you that we understand them all.
I’m not going to look you in the face and tell you what you want to hear so you’ll sign on the bottom line. What does that accomplish? I get your money for a few months, and then you’re left with a bad taste in your mouth and our brand suffers when we don’t hit a goal that we never should have given you. That’s not the way that we operate.
But I understand that you want some sort of answer, something to make you feel better about giving me your hard earned money. I’ll say it this way. We’ll get you there in the quickest way as is reasonably possible. We’ll use every single tool in the book. We’ll take a long hard look at your site and give you the most earnest assessment that we can. Do you need to change your title tags? We’ll let you know. Do you have zero backlinks? We’ll get you a bunch of good ones. Can using Social Media work for you? We’ll give you an honest answer. We’ll do what it takes to get you to the top of your best phrases in the quickest time possible and we’re going to do it in a way that is going to keep Google happy and greatly piss off your competitors.
We want you to be happy. If you’re happy, then you’ll stay with us. What’s more, you’ll tell your friends about us. Our job is to get you where you want to be, and to do it in a fashion and at a speed that you are happy with. How long that is going to take is a question that I cannot and will not reasonably answer today. But if you sign with me, and you stick with us… you’ll get your answer shortly enough. I’m willing to bet that it’s an answer that’s going to make your wallet fatter.
