If you’re in business online, that should be a startling statistic. It means that if you’re not on the 1st page of Google, then you’re only selling to 25% of the market.
What Is SEO?
SEO, which stands for “Search Engine Optimization”, is all about making a website more visible online. But what is SEO- really?
SEO is a function of marketing. It’s marketing’s job to make the business visible to a target audience. In the same way, SEO makes a business visible to a target audience, in order to drive revenue. This is important to keep in mind, that revenue is the ultimate goal, not just increased organic traffic!
0
%
of users never scroll past the first page of search results.- Search Engine Journal
How difficult is it to get onto the first page of Google search results?
SEO has changed over the years, and getting onto the 1st page of Google cannot be guaranteed. We understand that some companies do guarantee that. Yet, nobody has a corner on Google’s algorithm. It’s often referred to as a “black box”, because nobody can see inside of it. Sure, we know the building blocks of what increases a website’s domain rank, but if we’re honest- nobody can guarantee results!
Honest! It says so on the Google developers site, “No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google.” You can check it out for yourself.
Keyword Competition
One of the major components to where a webpage ranks in search results is keywords. Keywords are the words and phrases that a user types into a search engine to find information on what they are looking for.
How many people are searching for a particular 
keyword determines the keyword competition around that word or phrase. The more competition for that keyword, the more difficult it is to rank, or be found, for that keyword.
What this means for businesses, is that if your business has highly competitive keywords, then it will take longer to rank for those keywords. If there is less competition for those keywords related to your business, then it won’t take as much time.
How long does SEO take?
As mentioned, keyword competition, along with multiple other ranking factors will determine how long it will take for SEO to increase your search rankings. There are over 7 billions searches on Google every day. It will take some time and consistent effort to rise in the search engine rankings. For a less competitive space, allow 3-6 months before seeing a significant difference in your rankings. For a highly competitive space, it can take much longer. It also depends on if you’re targeting a local market, or a broad national or international market.
80% of typical posts don’t even break into the top 100 results after 1 year.
-Ahrefs
The sad reality is…that a lot of people are making a lot of great content…that never gets seen. A targeted SEO & marketing strategy can change that for your business.
Search Intent
One of the prime components of a quality SEO service, is that they find and focus on user intent. Recent Google algorithm changes have centered around this concept of user intent. They want users to have a great experience using their platform. So Google has worked hard to try and match a users search term, to what they are actually wanting.
For example, if a user searches with the term “band”, are they hoping to catch a glimpse of U2’s Bono on tour, or are they looking for a wedding band, …or an exercise ban? This is where related keywords and long tail keywords come into play. These other keywords give context to a users search intent. In this way, Google can better understand that the user was indeed looking to hear the iconic baseline of “With Or Without You”.
We get to know your business to understand what keywords are best to target for maximum ROI. Given the amount of time SEO takes, we are looking to become an on-going strategic partner rather than just getting a client. We want clients so satisfied, that they stay with us for decades. Your business growing and increasing in not only organic traffic, but revenue tells us that we’re successful.
What’s The Process?
Discovery
Discovery
We believe that the more we understand your business, the better SEO & digital marketing services we’ll be able to provide.
Each industry has its own challenges and opportunities. We work to really grasp these things to better target relevant keywords, that will generate the organic traffic that leads to higher revenues. While SEO concepts and SEO tactics are often the same from business to business, the application can vary.
The end goal is for your business to succeed, and that requires a customized discovery process for each client. There is no business exactly like yours!
Research
This is where we get to work with the information and end goals learned in Discovery. We dig into the various niches of your industry, and do competitor research. We use the very best SEO tools to even find the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, so you can target them as well and gain a share of your competitions traffic.
We also develop a list of your target keywords, and create a “keyword universe” document. This keyword document includes all target keywords, gap keywords, product specific keywords, keywords your competitors are ranking for, and other relevant keywords. The document becomes the basis for your SEO and content strategy.
Research
Execution
Execution
This phase is where the rubber really meets the road. Depending on the size of your site and amount of content to be optimized, the process of implementing best practice SEO tactics takes time. For simple sites, the SEO process can take just days. For very large sites, SEO optimization can even take months. (Do you have hundred or thousands of blog posts to optimize?) This will also depend on the depth of SEO you end up choosing.
It’s during this phase of the SEO strategy that we tackle technical aspects of the code, but also practical things like keywords and meta data. We can even add more advanced tactics like schema markup and server performance. Each tactic is tailored to your situation. Not all businesses require every SEO tactic. We won’t do something just to be able to charge you. We make every effort to put our client’s best interest before our own.
The whole point of increasing domain authority and keyword rank is to drive organic traffic and get conversions! Keeping the end in mind is important throughout the whole SEO strategic process. We keep things focused on the bottom line, to target the ROI you’re looking for.