If you had a choice between receiving $1,000 today or $1,000 in five years, what would you pick? My guess is you probably went with receiving the money today because as humans we all love instant gratification (especially marketers 😉 ). When you spend time working on something, you want to see results immediately. The only problem is that things don’t always work that way, SEO being one of them. If you are a marketer, you probably have a love-hate relationship with SEO. Love because when you put in the time, SEO can lead to great results. Hate because it takes a lot of time. Devin Pickell, Growth Marketer at Nextiva, has spent a lot of time working on SEO and helped set realistic SEO expectations on the podcast Real Marketers.
Good Things Take Time
The number one thing to keep in mind when it comes to SEO is that it is going to take time. It is likely that you won’t start seeing results until at least a couple of months in, maybe even longer. But, that doesn’t mean you should give up because every company, regardless of the size, can benefit from developing an SEO strategy. When you start investing in SEO, you are investing in quality leads that are intentionally searching for keywords related to your business. So if you take the time to do SEO the right way, you will start to bring in more quality leads at a lower cost than if you just start throwing money into Google ads.
SEO is More than Just Writing Content
A common misconception about SEO is that it is all just about writing content, and not necessarily good content. However, if this is how you are approaching SEO, you will likely never see the results you are looking for. Devin points out that SEO is a combination of content, valuable assets, and link building. You need all three to have a successful SEO strategy.
Creating valuable assets and link building go hand-in-hand. When you create assets, like a case study or an infographic, it increases the likelihood that other businesses will link to your content on their website. This is what link building refers to. Google sees backlinks as very valuable in terms of SEO, especially if it is an established domain. The best way to go about building up these links is by having high-quality, engaging, visual content that will provide value and using your network to start sharing your links.
You Don’t Need to Max Out Your Budget
Finally, SEO shouldn’t be expensive. I am not going to sit here and tell you it’s free because even though you don’t have to directly pay for leads to come in, there are still some costs. You need to have a team structure that supports SEO. This might include an SEO specialist or multiple marketers who are all willing to take on some element of your SEO strategy like writing content or creating graphics. You also might need to invest in some SEO tools to help with keyword research. But, you shouldn’t have to shell out a ton of money to SEO like you maybe would with paid media. If you aren’t seeing immediate results, it’s likely just because Google is still learning, not because you need to put more money into it.
SEO might not be the most glamorous part of marketing, but it is still just as important. If you want more tips on what to expect when it comes to SEO, listen to Devin’s full Real Marketers episode.
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