Small Business SEO 101: 6 Things SEO Is Not

We get it. Gurus are great and those case studies showing 1000% increase in traffic in one month are impressive. But sometimes, when the results seem too good to be true, they really are too good to be true. SEO is great for getting your website seen, bringing in more visitors, and boosting your sales. And while partnering with a great SEO agency is a smart business decision, there are just some things that we can’t do. Here are 6 things SEO is not:

SEO is not Magic.

Though we are really good at our jobs, SEO pros are not wizards. We don’t pull out our magical list of keywords, wave a wand, and immediately create more business for you. You must have solid bones in place – a fast, well-designed website, unique product offerings, engaging website content – in order for our work to produce real results. And you won’t see those results overnight; most SEO pros worth their salt advise clients to wait 3-6 months to really start measuring the effectiveness of our work.

SEO is not a Guarantee.

No one can promise they’ll get you to #1 on Google. Let me repeat that, because it’s important: No one can promise you they’ll get you to #1 on Google. If you have an SEO pro or agency making you that promise, tread lightly. Sure, they can get you to #1 for a low-volume, obscure keyword, but can they rank you where it really matters and where you’ll see an increase of visitors and conversions? No. No one can make you that promise.

SEO is not Shady or Dishonest.

Any agency or SEO pro telling you that Black Hat SEO tactics such as keyword stuffing or paying for dubious links are a matter of routine for them is going to get your business’s website penalized with their tactics. Google, and other search engines, do not look kindly on Black Hat tactics. These practices may work in the short term, bringing in large volumes of new visitors and possibly even converting some of them into paying customers, but the search engines will catch on. And your business, not your SEO agency, will pay for it.

SEO is not free.

You won’t get great SEO work on a shoestring budget. Sure, there’s a wide range of fees from agency to agency, but SEO is just like any other product or service. You have to pay for quality to receive quality. SEO is not a job to pass off to that high school kid you hired last week, or to your nephew who knows a little bit about computers. To get real, solid results, you need to shell out the money to pay for a pro.

SEO is not Set-it-and-forget-it.

Google is notorious for changing its algorithms and ranking factors on the fly, with little to no warning to the wider world. Not only that, but your competitors could all suddenly do a 180 and begin targeting completely different keywords than they were last week, leaving you out in the dust. What worked to bring in traffic today might not work tomorrow. Good SEO pros are agile and adapt often to the changing tides of search engines. Even the best, most comprehensive strategy must be reevaluated frequently to keep your business relevant with search engines.

SEO is not a Cure-all for all Business Growth Needs

Even a great SEO pro can’t combat the negative impact of a slow, poorly designed website. She can rewrite your content, do some research to make sure you’re targeting the right keywords, and pretty up your social media presence, but all that effort will be wasted if your website isn’t up-to-date and appealing to modern visitors. This is especially true if your website is not mobile-friendly; online traffic is increasingly coming from mobile sources, and websites that haven’t kept up with the times turn customers off. You have to have a well-designed, conversion-centered website and a killer SEO strategy in order to really win the long game.

The work that SEO pros do can seem like a lot of smoke and mirrors, something that happens on the unseen parts of the internet but that produces real results. In reality, though, nothing beats an SEO agency that knows what it’s doing, has experience implementing solid strategic plans, and knows how to thoroughly analyze metrics and data for proven results. No magic necessary.

Quality SEO Pros for Businesses of All Sizes

At 270net Technologies, our Digital Marketing team has years of experience delivering real, measurable results to businesses across all industries. We know what it takes to get your business seen, and we don’t stop until we can show you results. Contact us today to discover how our affordable SEO strategies can help you grow your business.