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Managing
Expectations:
Search Engine Optimization and Client Involvement
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After
much research, you've decided to put your trust in a search
engine optimization and submission company. You were impressed
with their client rankings (as well as their own), checked out
their client testimonials (and maybe even contacted a few of
those clients), and have probably had some correspondence with
an account manager to briefly discuss the potential success
for getting your site ranked. Up until now, you've had control
of things: your site design, your content, your marketing, and
everything in between. So, at what point do you need to surrender
some control and let the search engine optimization professionals
take over -- and to what extent? 2. Don't make changes without their knowledge. If at any time you are going to make substantial changes to your site, you should let your account manager know. Once your pages are optimized, any major changes (like site redesigns, full content revisions, etc.) may hinder your rankings. 3. High rankings won't happen overnight. After search engine optimization and submission of your Web site, you will see your listing on most search engines in just three days. But, bear in mind it may take anywhere from 30-60 days to achieve high ranking due to the time it takes for search engine spiders to properly index your site. Ranking takes time and is unfortunately a measure beyond any search engine optimization and submission company's control. 4. We can only optimize your site for what it can handle. The Internet was created to serve as the largest source of free information. That being said, if your site has little to no information, it will be difficult to get high rankings because you will be competing against companies with strong brand identity. For example, if you have an online hotel reservation site that consists of five pages of Flash images and lots of pictures with a little text, you cannot expect to get ranked high under the keyword "hotel" as you'd be competing against some of the biggies, like Expedia, Orbitz, and Hotels.com. 5. Don't tamper with your meta tags. Your account manager has gone to great lengths to determine the most appropriate keywords for your site. Once again, they are the experts. What you may think are appropriate keywords may actually be damaging to the ranking of your site. When these meta tags are provided to you, use them how they were intended to be used. 6. Continually monitor your site. A major misconception is that once you achieve high ranking, you will remain in that upper echelon. On the contrary, maintaining your positioning on the search engines can be just as critical. Aside from regular maintenance tasks such as refreshing your content, take a closer look at usability. Where are your users coming from? Which pages do they tend to stay on for long periods of time? You should be scrutinizing your visitor data to find ways to constantly improve your site and make it more interesting for your customers. Once you have made specific determinations regarding your site usage, you can work with your account manager to find ways to further optimize and enhance your search engine marketing campaign. The bottom line is this: Some clients have a tendency to get so involved in the search engine optimization and submission process that they essentially prohibit their account manager from doing his or her job. As a result, their rankings drop or, quite possibly, the client never even gets ranked to begin with. In return, the client blames the account manager when, in reality, the account manager never even got to do his job because the client never wanted to relinquish control to begin with. As you can imagine, it becomes a vicious cycle and no one wins. But, by following the golden "rules" above, you can have a very rewarding and profitable relationship with your account manager.
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