SEO is an Endurance Sport

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Gwyn Drake

By: Gwyn Drake – Bayshore Solutions Digital Marketer

Nearly every new engagement with a client begins with their question “how long will it take for SEO to work?” With a large variety of marketing media that directly correlate to improvements in business such as Pay Per Click Advertising (PPC), launching a website for the first time, and email marketing, we set ourselves up to expect SEO to have an immediate return on investment.

But, SEO is an endurance sport; there are short term wins which help achieve your long term goals.

Almost a year ago I began training for an endurance event. At the time the decision was daunting. I knew that I wanted to have successful and fun training during the year (short term wins) and ultimately I wanted to complete the event (long term goal). Now a short nine weeks away, there have been many learning lessons along the way that I can both celebrate as well as learn from and make changes to my training plan.  Making the smart decision to put in place a SEO strategy is no different.

Short Term Wins:

• The Small Goals Make a Difference:
  • For me this is my training every day. Sometimes the short term win is the day or week’s training, sometime it is even a set of interval sprints within a workout.
  • As you check off the tactical elements, they may seem minute at the time but they are the foundation of your overall SEO strategy.
  • Perhaps you are building out a new portion of your website; the short term wins may be optimizing a category of webpages, or even smaller, defining what those pages will be. No accomplishment is too small!
  • Acknowledge Every Achievement:
    • When I wrap up a training session I often find myself on cruise control as I transition into the work day.  But that training will make an impact on my ultimate goal and the training should be acknowledged and celebrated.
    • As you go down your check list of SEO efforts, step back and remember that these tasks are also a great achievement.
    • Did you just hear back from a University Professor agreeing to add a link to you site? That likely took effort to research, reach out, follow up and sit and wait upon.  It may seem like “just a link” but it is likely a highly sought after and valuable link. Don’t forget to congratulate yourself!

Long Term Goals:

• Keep the Goal in Sight:
  • Even when I remember that the small goals make a difference and I acknowledge every achievement, the long term goal can be daunting.
  • Is your long term goal a new and better optimized site?  It does take time to not only build a new site, but also for optimization to take effect. You may even see a dip in organic traffic when you first launch your site.
  • Remember, the “training” or SEO elements along the way are all supporting your goals, and when you get there it will be worth it. After all, that’s why you set the goal in the first place. Keeping that goal in sight also benefits the sometimes mundane training days.

Your SEO strategy will include numerous aspects each of which has their own individual strategy and process. These elements when implemented properly will positively impact your online presence and support your ongoing SEO.  Enjoy the journey and celebrate each win!

Contact Bayshore Solutions today to get started toward your short and long term wins in online search visibility and optimization.

Gwyn Drake is a Digital Marketer at Bayshore Solutions—a Web Design, Web Development, and Digital Marketing Company.