8 Things to Know Before Starting Your SEO Campaign

Table of contents:

• Important Factors to Consider Before Creating an SEO Strategy
  • SEO is a Process
  • SEO Requires Comprehensive Actions
  • There is No Guarantee You’ll Reach a Given Position
  • Fluctuations are Normal in SEO
  • Big Traffic Doesn’t Always Equal Conversions
  • Doing SEO on Your Own Isn’t Always the Best Idea
• Things to Know Before Starting SEO Campaign for Your Website – The Takeaway

Important Factors to Consider Before Creating an SEO Strategy

SEO is a Process

SEO is a process. You can’t expect that your website will reach top positions for specific keywords after performing a few activities. Yes – optimizing meta tags may bring changes within a few days, but it’s only one of many elements that affect the website position. SEO is an ongoing process – adjusting a website to Google’s requirements takes time. The longer you perform the activities, the better the results of the campaign. However, you shouldn’t expect enormous changes right away.

The agency you cooperate with should explain to you when to expect the results – the time frame may vary from project to project (depending on the industry, market, competitiveness of the phrases, or current page condition). In the beginning, you’ll be able to observe increased website visibility and a growing number of phrases in TOP10 and TOP50. Then, your activities will translate into more organic traffic and increased conversion.

SEO Requires Comprehensive Actions

The SEO process consists of on-site and off-site activities. If you skip one of these elements, you’ll limit your possibilities – by conducting comprehensive activities you’re able to achieve more.

You can have a well-optimized website with high-quality content, but if you don’t have any backlinks to the site, Google won’t consider your website as trustworthy and won’t increase its visibility. On the other hand, investing only in link building is a bad choice. To achieve the best possible results, linking should support on-site activities – and vice versa.

Moreover, your and the agency’s initiatives also need to be consistent. You should know which steps to avoid and when to consult experts.

It’s possible to split the work. For example, you can take care of content creation, and the agency can focus on other activities. SEO tasks require knowledge and experience, otherwise, you can easily hinder the entire process and decrease your page visibility. Hundreds of backlinks offered on classified sites at extremely attractive prices may be tempting, especially if they come with the promise of quick results. However, they probably won’t bring you any benefits and they can even decrease your positions.

There is No Guarantee You’ll Reach a Given Position

You may have come across advertisements that state that a particular agency guarantees the TOP1 position for the most important keywords for your business. Such a message should be a red flag for you. In the SEO world, similar slogans are only empty promises.

It’s impossible to predict how Google’s algorithms will change, and there are also other factors such as the seasonality of your business or the actions of your competitors, who may also be trying to reach top positions for given queries.

Let’s get back to the updates – there have been modifications that caused havoc in the search results. Therefore, we can’t predict what the search results will look like in the future, and what they’ll depend on. That’s why it’s impossible to guarantee reaching the TOP1 position after a given period.

Fluctuations are Normal in SEO

It’s impossible to guarantee that your website positions will continue to grow. Remember: minor or major fluctuations in search engine positions are perfectly natural, so there is no need to panic. Of course, it’s always worth checking the reason for this state of affairs, however, you should be aware that usually, you have little influence on the changes. Your page positions may decrease due to the intense activity of your market rivals, malware, Google’s algorithm updates, modifications of the site structure, and unavailability of your page.

Big Traffic Doesn’t Always Equal Conversions

Getting a lot of organic traffic from Google doesn’t mean that you’ll be getting lots of customer inquiries. First of all, it’s important to choose the right keywords – if the traffic is generated mainly by generic phrases, and not long tail keywords, your conversion rate may decrease, however, that’s not everything.

Your website condition is another important factor. The page may generate lots of traffic but if it’s not optimized for users, you won’t see any improvements in the conversions. That’s why it’s crucial to design a website that can truly convert. Factors you should keep in mind include:

• Short website loading time – each subsequent second decreases your conversion rate. According to the research conducted by Portent, websites that load up to 2 seconds have the highest conversion rates.

Source: https://www.portent.com/blog/analytics/research-site-speed-hurting-everyones-revenue.htm

• Website menu – an internet user should be able to find interesting subpages without too much effort. Intuitive navigation is the key to success.
• Product page/service page – the recipient should know what they’re buying and should be provided with all the information about the product/service (preferably in an attractive form). To learn more, check How to write attractive product specifications.
• CTA – eye-catching, highly visible, and clear call to action is an essential element of the website.
• Site search – must be functional, it should give hints while filling in the search field and always display some results, even if the site doesn’t offer exactly what the user is looking for. Want to learn more? Check out our blog post: How to improve your e-commerce site search?

These are, of course, only some elements you should pay attention to. Take your time to refine the website and you’ll quickly notice tangible benefits.

Doing SEO on Your Own Isn’t Always the Best Idea

Learning about SEO is definitely the right direction – it’s worth having knowledge in this area, even just to understand activities performed by the agency.

But is doing SEO on your own a good idea? There is a big risk of making mistakes, such as investing in low-quality backlinks, which may result in a Google penalty. If you decide to cooperate with an agency after such ineffective activities on your own, take into account that it’ll take time to improve your link profile.

If you feel that content creation and optimization are your b points, take care of these aspects and leave other elements for specialists. At the same time, your initiatives should be coherent, and you need to take into account the keywords you’ll be optimizing your website for.

Things to Know Before Starting SEO Campaign for Your Website – The Takeaway

Starting an SEO campaign requires preparation. Implemented actions should be well planned, comprehensive and they should cover all aspects that affect page visibility. That’s why in this article we mentioned the most important factors to consider before creating an SEO strategy. Stick to them, and you’ll be able to create a good SEO campaign.

It’s crucial to wait for the results as improvements won’t appear overnight. The time factor is very important in SEO and there is nothing you can do about it. To achieve the intended results, you need regular, quality activities.

If you aren’t an expert and SEO is all Greek to you, commission the task to specialists. However, remember that if you have time, you can always explore the secrets of SEO.