The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
October 2006, Volume 5, Issue 10

Show Me the Results: What to Expect From Your Search Engine Optimization Campaign

Mark Blanchard, Client Services Manager, iProspect

One of the biggest challenges in performing search engine optimization is setting the appropriate expectations for a campaign’s result. This is made especially difficult because campaign results do not happen overnight. It takes time for an SEO vendor and a client to collectively agree upon, and scope out, a project plan; to allocate client resources; work out technical issues; conduct usability tests; perform quality assurance; and ultimately launch a new or revised website. It then takes time for search engines to crawl new or updated Web pages and index the content. Most of you who are directly involved in the SEO process understand this, but a common question posed by those charged with paying the bills for SEO at client organizations is, “Why haven’t we seen any results yet?”

Why Bother Setting Expectations?

Surprises can be a good thing—except when it comes to your company’s website, which is often one of the most visible and important elements of your company’s branding and marketing efforts. Outstanding SEO results do happen, and when they do, they can last for a long time. But achieving those results, especially when aggressive goals are in place, requires heavy lifting (a.k.a. client technical resources), management support, and time. If management does not have a solid understanding of each of these three critical elements, expectations have not been appropriately set and your SEO campaign may be doomed before it gains any momentum.

What to Do

So what’s the solution? The first thing that a client must determine is the goal of the campaign. Being as specific as possible is critical so that there is no confusion, your SEO team can make appropriate recommendations and very importantly, so that upper management understands what you are trying to accomplish. For example, it is better to say that you want a top three ranking on keywords, X, Y, and Z, versus simply saying, “better rankings” or “more traffic.” Once your goals are determined, a strategy is developed with your search engine marketing vendor and communicated to anyone that will have anything to do with the campaign (including those paying the bills). The last and most critical component of managing expectations internally is communication.

Components of an effective communication strategy include:

Working with your SEO vendor to coordinate your website development schedule with your SEO project plan to ensure all the parts move together in the right order
Making sure you clearly communicate to your SEO vendor any important dates for changes/updates to your website (I have heard stories where the launch date of a site redesign was not discussed with the SEO team and as a result, all of the glitches were not sorted out beforehand and the results were not as optimal as they could have been)
Making sure you fully understand management’s expectations. This will prevent both the internal team and the SEO vendor from being blindsided by a frustrated email from a CXO because he Googled one of your top keyword phrases and couldn’t find your website (we all know they spot check for more than just their name)
Reporting any progress updates from the internal team and the SEO vendor during a weekly phone call. Have your technical team come join the call (if they don’t already) to ask questions and keep everyone posted on all things technical
Including management in meetings on a semi-regular basis (i.e. quarterly) or as needed, to keep them in the loop. Have your SEO vendor draft campaign highlights so that nothing (good or bad) comes as a complete shock to management

The SEO process is demanding and time-consuming. But no other Internet marketing method can drive more qualified traffic to your website for a lower cost. If vendor and client agree upon realistic goals and come together to create a project plan, while keeping management and each other educated and informed throughout, success will be inevitable.

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The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article: October 2006, Volume 5, Issue 10

Show Me the Results: What to Expect From Your Search Engine Optimization Campaign

The Search Marketing Advisor Newsletter Article:
October 2006, Volume 5, Issue 10