Search Engine Marketing Expectations

Sage Luce, President of SageRock.com shares his thoughts on what to expect from a brand new search engine optimization campaign.

1. A brand new domain will not come up on Google for 6 months – 1 year.
Absolutely — it is a long hard slog, and it is all about quality and content.

2. Getting good positions on Google is harder than ever. You must have good quality links and you have to have a good site to get good links.
Quality is everything now. Who you link to and how you link to them, and who long you link to them — plus who links to them, and how long.

3. You have to have lots of content — you have to be a resource and offer something that is unique. Absolutely. What separates you from the pack? Why should anyone visit your site when there are a million others to choose from?

4. You have to use phrases that you want to rank for in your content. If the keyword phrase you are targeting for doesn’t appear on the page, you won’t rank for it.

5. It takes as long as it takes. Every industry is different, and every website is different. The older your site, the easier it is, the newer your site, the longer it will take. I tell client expect 2 – 3 months for MSN, 2 or 3 months after that for Yahoo, and a year for Google. Maybe we will get a pleasant surprise and it will be earlier, but coun’t on a year.

6. Stop the multiple domains — this makes your project exponentially different. Have one site and focus on it. As each domain gets tougher and tougher to place on the first page, it is less and less attractive to operate multiple sites.

7. You have to have good content and lots of it. Some people even say SEO is dead and it is all about content optimization now. Maybe that is a little strong but they do have a point. Content is very very important.

8. Trust your SEO for a least a year. If they have done their keyword research, they are building links, they are building content you are on the right path. Give them 365 days.

After all that, he does say, the ROI of a good position on Google is better than any other advertising medium.

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