They Don’t Promise Overnight Results
If you’re trying to increase your website traffic, then we commend you! After all, the point of having a website is usually to increase your online exposure for the purpose of getting new customers or clients. In order for your website to be successful, it’s a good idea to get website traffic. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice of making a website rank better on Google or other search engines. You may decide it’s time to select an SEO company to help you with your rankings. When that time comes, there are several key factors to look for in an SEO company. In this series, we will present 10 tips for selecting the best company to hire. The first tip is that a quality SEO company will not promise overnight results.
Google Needs Time to Index Your Website
With approximately two billion websites on the internet, it can take time for Google to find new websites or realize your existing website has been updated. Just because SEO has been completed, it doesn’t mean Google will notice that SEO enhancement within 24 hours. Here is a screenshot of when our own website was last indexed by Google:
An SEO company will start by implementing some SEO work. Then, the company will give it time and see how that work impacted the rankings of the website. After that, if the change is good enough, mission complete. But, if the results aren’t good enough, the company will implement different SEO tactics. Then the process starts over again, and they will wait and see what the new results are. This process continues indefinitely until the results are what the client wants or the client decides to focus on a different keyword phrase to improve their ranking for.
This is a process, and it doesn’t always happen overnight. We’ve had some clients see phenomenal results in less than a month, but that doesn’t always happen. Also, there are a number of factors that impact how much time is needed to see great results from SEO. You can read more about this in our blog post titled, “How Long Does it Take to See Results From SEO?”
Low-Value Keywords are Easier to Improve
We won’t “guarantee results in 24 hours” but we can likely make your website skyrocket to the first page of Google in less than a month. But that isn’t necessarily what you want. For example, we can probably make our website rank on the first page of Google super quickly for someone searching “I want my blog to show up number one when searched in Pensacola, Florida.” It would be easy to rank well for that phrase, but how many people are really searching that sentence on Google? It’s way too specific and long. So, we could provide our clients with quick results for phrases like that, but there isn’t much value in ranking well for a keyword phrase that’s never searched.
When you select an SEO company to help you, make sure they are targeting keyword phrases that are frequently searched in your target market. Those should be a priority, not the easy keywords that are seldom or never searched. You will usually have some competition if you’re trying to rank well on Google for high-value keyword phrases that are frequently searched.
The Strength of Your Domain is a Factor
A very popular SEO company, MOZ SEO, created an algorithm of their own. Their algorithm analyzes websites and assigns them a domain authority (DA) score. The higher the score, the more valuable and powerful the website is. The scale is from one to 100, 100 being the highest possible DA score. You can check and see the DA score for your website by running a quick check on this website: https://www.seoreviewtools.com/website-authority-checker/.
Let’s say you have several competitors with well-established websites. If you suddenly decide to build a website and want to rank on the first page of Google, you will probably need to work extra hard. The longer the time a website is around and the more it grows, the higher its DA will be. As your website gets a higher DA, it will be easier for you to outrank another website. It is still definitely possible to rank better than a website with a higher DA score than what you have, but it may require a little extra elbow grease from your end. If your competition has a high DA score, and you want to rank them on the first page of Google, it will be nearly impossible for any SEO company to guarantee overnight results. It takes time to outrank high-quality, competitive websites.
Thoughts on Selecting an SEO Company
Once you find a potential SEO company to hire, ask them this question: “Can you guarantee you’ll get me on the first page of Google in about a month?” If they say “Yes,” then tell them thank you and look for someone else. An honest company will tell you they can’t guarantee it, but they can promise to do their best and possibly get to the first page of Google in the future. The general rule is that SEO takes three to six months to see good results. If they tell you something like that, and they educate you on why they can’t make a guarantee, then they pass the first hiring test.
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About
Joshua Lyons Marketing, LLC was established in 2015. Since that time we have provided digital marketing services to business and professionals. We help our clients increase their online exposure as a means to increase sales and revenue. Our core services include search engine optimization (SEO), website development and content creation. We also provide other online marketing services, such as email marketing, marketing consultations and various types of advertising. Our team is based in the Milton, Pace and Pensacola, Florida area. However, we work with clients throughout the United States. Read More
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