I received an email earlier this week in which someone asked for how many keywords and key-phrases would AlterSage be able to guarantee number one rankings for a particular website?' My response? We (or any other agency!) cannot guarantee that your website will rank number one for particular keywords and key-phrases on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Not only does it take a while to see results from an SEO campaign, but the competitiveness of individual key-phrases and each search engine's unique algorithms influence how a website is ranked. There are a number of other factors that influence the success of an SEO campaign, including the website's usability and how well it was optimised initially.
Through our SEO campaigns, we have found that clients' implementation of our recommendations has a significant effect on the overall success of the campaign. Clients that tweak , for example, their websites' usability factors and copy according to our recommendations see results much faster than those who don't.
To answer the initial question, what type of results can you expect from an SEO campaign?
If you implement your agency's recommendations, you can expect, among others:
- An increased number of visitors to your website
- A larger percentage of your visits coming from search engine referrals
- More leads and sales from your website
- A more accessible website for both human visitors and search engines
The number of visitors to a website should not be the only indicator of the website's success. If you have an ecommerce or service-directed website, what is the point of receiving thousands of visitors to the website but having none of them convert to a lead or client? We believe that increasing a website's conversion rate and increased leads and sales are far more indicative of an SEO campaign's success than increased visitor numbers or #1 rankings for a specific word. It's important to look at the bigger picture establish your goals at the outset of the campaign and measure accordingly.
What are your thoughts? Do you have any questions for us?