Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the easiest way to earn viewership from the audience. A whopping 61 percent of digital marketing experts agree that improving SEO and growing organic presence is their top marketing strategy. With stats like these, no wonder why SEO is popular among entrepreneurs.

However, SEO campaigns and strategies vary. Simply put, SEO could be a more complicated process than you might assume. So, before investing in SEO, having some prior knowledge about this often-talked-about feature will do a world of good to you.

Here the top six things you must know before calling up to an SEO company:

SEO is probably more expensive than you think

Regardless of what people whisper in your ears, SEO is not that cheap. Though costs are based on the kind of SEO campaign you want to subscribe, yet, by and large, SEO will sweep a significant chunk of your budget.

The reason is that Google has an exceptionally complex algorithm in place. It takes a team of SEO professionals to comprehend that fully. Unless you are an expert, you can’t take a chance with it. Therefore, give a good look at your resources before hiring an SEO firm.   

SEO takes time to provide desired results

One can’t doubt the role of SEO services in uplifting many cornered businesses. That being said, the capacity of SEO is beyond question. But over the years, SEO has been painted in such a way that it works like a magic wand, and it guarantees you overnight benefits. If you have any such exaggerated perception about SEO, better let go of that. Because it can’t get any further from the truth.

As said above, SEO has proven its metal, but you have to take it as a long term assignment. It is because the Google algorithm does not absorb changes instantly. It takes time to implement changes. Generally, results start appearing in three months, and this is the minimum period.

SEO includes a lot of planning, audits, discovery, and much more in the beginning. So no matter what you do and how many turns and tricks you play, SEO will have its due course of time before translating into your anticipated results.   

The ranking is not a metric to measure ROI

So now that you have been brought to the first page, you should take it as a success of your SEO company, right? Wrong. While appearing on the first page is, by all means, necessary but this is a battle only half won. The mere upper ranking is the wrong metric to measure success. 

It is all about the traffic. The number of people that are opening up your website, for how long they are staying there and the ratio of conversion, that’s what matters the most. Indeed, you can quickly lose the number one spot if you are falling short of the audience. So unless you have succeeded in achieving significant traffic, SEO is of no use. 

SEO is an investment, not expense

We have talked about the costs of SEO in the above passage that it takes decent money. We can’t doubt the fact, the money you spend on SEO could be peanuts compared to its ROI.

About 60 percent of the traffic goes to click the top three websites that show up in the search engine. How about that for an increase in your brand awareness? Imagine how many visitors you can gain by somehow breaking into the top three. Therefore, don’t think of this amount as an expense or unnecessary burden. Avoid being too tight-pocketed in the SEO procedure. The invested money will flow back to you one way or the other.     

Indulging in black hat SEO is tempting but terrible

Being competitive is good, but don’t allow the competition to drag you towards the wrong path. Unfortunately, in the face of fearsome competition, many businesses don’t shy away from taking this route known as black hat SEO.

Black hat SEO techniques is an illegal way to improve ranking. These techniques include keywords stuffing, using invisible text, creating fake pages to get more backlinks, and so on. In the past, these practices were quite frequent, but over time, Google has improved its algorithm to stop them.

So don’t be lured into black hat SEO even if somebody boats its success to you. Otherwise, you can well be penalized and deindexed by Google. These threats should suffice to keep you away from this prohibited method.    

Fresh content is king       

There were days when you could get your site promoted in the search engine without bothering too much about the content. Today, again, due to the changes made by Google in the pattern of its algorithm, the content has become an indispensable component to measure websites reputation. Talking about numbers, 72 percent of marketers call marketing content as the most effective SEO tool.

Make sure that the content should be a quality one. Superior content will have greater chances to be backlinked by other websites which will add to the site’s popularity. Hence, a better ranking. The takeaway message is that don’t count content out of the SEO ammunition – a mistake most businesses tend to commit.      

Key takeaway

By now, you must have got the idea that SEO is not done one-dimensionally. It can take many twists and turns. So to cope with such complications, you should be well-stocked about its crucial information in advance. Being well-equipped with the above points, you shall face no problems in hiring and working with an SEO agency.

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