What is SEO and the Problems we Face From Our Customers

This is the first in a series of guides that will be provided to help others understand and carry out SEO.

The biggest problem with SEO is the amount of free online information. As a newcomer to the SEO world you may think that this free information is brilliant, it can be a good start -: But have these theories and the information you are learning from been tested, are they proven? This is the problem. The net is full of half truths and poorly considered theories. Swbdesigns is going to be different and provide you with the information that has been tested and does work! First though lets start with the basics- Understanding SEO . The Customer, Theory and Understanding

What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Definition: Seo is a creative technical process of methods used to create more business exposure through Search Engines like Google, Bing, and Ask. Greater exposure comes from increased ranks- Increased ranks can lead to increased revenue.

SEO is cursed with many problems.

As a company many of our clients have had bad experiences with their SEO provider. Is this the customer or the client that is to blame?

BOTH!

Customers have a desire to increase sales from their SEO which is a normal assumptions and is what you would expect, but in reality SEO cannot deliver to this desire on it’s own?

WHY?

If you have ranks which leads to greater exposure then sure you will of course increase your revenue but are you getting the maximum out of it? Was the journey there the right one, could it of been thought and planned out a little better, if you understood the theory behind the process. I think so and I will go into some of these thoughts and theories below.

1. The number one reason that SEO services don’t go as planned between customer and client is due to poor communication, too many assumptions(remember that assumptions are the mother of all F*** up’s) and over promising/under delivering!

The following assumptions can effect your efforts.

Targeted Key phrases. A lot of the time the customer will go to a SEO service provider and insist that they must rank number one for certain phrases this is a bad idea as generally they have misguided information about their chosen phrase. When the results are not satisfactory despite your efforts as a SEO to advise the customer it will always be your fault! So that gives us two points.

1.Over estimating the result from misguided information about the key phrase, leads to customer dissatisfaction in your service and ability.

2. Targeting the wrong keyphrase, again leads to customer dissatisfaction in your service and ability, both detrimental to your efforts.

2. This also ties in with the above point and is pretty obvious but I think it is relevant to mention. Targeting a phrase such as your business name. Something you will naturally rank for without SEO and will provide direct traffic, from a result of offline marketing will be a waste of time to put effort into.

3. Going for broad terms. (I will go through broad and long tail phrases in a future post.) Broad terms provide traffic but the likely hood of those visitors converting to sales are low. So again wasted efforts with broad key phrases. There are times to use broad which again will be discussed later.

4. Heavy Competitor Saturation. This is a common problem customers wanting to focus in an area where the market is already saturated. Something occurring more as the online industry continues to grow. There is no point competing in a market that is heavily saturated with competitors that have 10′s of years online history and brand power behind them. It is unlikely your SEO efforts will gain traction unless your product is really going to blow the water out of the pond! You need to find a niche! I’m not saying you cannot compete, but be prepared to wait a long time and spend lots of money.

5. It is not all dependable on SEO efforts. If your website is old, does not look professional and does not provide your users with a good experience. In the terms of feedback and ease of use then this can be a number one problem. Just because something once worked does not mean it will always work as it once did. Having a online business is a great thing but this industry moves so fast that you need to be constantly thinking about future developments. If you don’t keep up with the ever changing humber of your competition then don’t expect to get the most out of your site. If you have the ranks but the sales are not increasing and your site has any of the problems above. Taking a look at the functionality of the site along with its ascetical feel may be a wise starting point to try and improve things.

Point: I am not saying older sites don’t work, you may just not be getting the best potential from your exposure.

6. Customer service. If you provide poor or non existent, slow customer service. You will soon get a bad name the speed and scope on how fast and easy it is to spread the word to share your thoughts through the likes of social media can have detrimental effect.

So we have mainly looked at the customer and touched on a little SEO theory. It is so important to remember customers quickly become disillusioned in your deliverables . It is very important as an SEO to provide realistic expectations, educate the customer on what is best practice and use millstone markers to track results. Create trust with your customer and constantly re-evaluate deliverables to meet strategy success.

I will finish this article with a few points to remember.

1. You cant help everyone it is just not possible. If they wont listen don’t do it. The likely hood is you will not be able to retain the client long term anyhow.
2. Higher risk means greater reward.
3. A lot of the time customers will want to alleviate all the risk from themselves.
4. Be wary of untested unproven free information.
5. Take a tour of your site as a customer, was it easy to use?
6. Those that fail to plan, plan to fail.

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