SEO

Sounds counter-intuitive I know but I find that so many folks don’t get this that I need to explain why what you think is a “long time” is not what Google thinks is a “long time.” Ultimately, a day or week to Google is just a blink of an eye.

Building a website, launching it, and then promoting it online is not analogous to putting up a billboard or putting an ad in the yellow pages. A much more accurate analogy would be the following three examples:

Building, launching and promoting a website.
Starting a new yellow page directory, printing it, and then getting people to switch to it from their current YP provider.
Buying a plot of land, erecting a tower for your billboard, then plastering your message onto it.

You see the difference? What most people forget is that the DISTRIBUTION is not already setup when you advertise online. Sure the vehicle is there, but there’s no set distribution channel. If you call the billboard company, then just slap your ad onto their existing structure. If you call the YP company, they will just print your ad on one of the pages and send it out along with the rest of the books that they were already going to send out.

When you sign up with an SEO, that person/company has to start from scratch. S/He has to build (or rebuild) the site, then push it out to as many places online as he/she can to get eyeballs in front of it.

I find that many business owners think that since they can put an ad in the newspaper and have it into circulation within the next week that the online space works the same way. Even though electrons move much faster than paper, the online space can require a much longer time horizon to measure success. Unlike a newspaper or similar medium, what matters most online is the trending. Are you moving in the right direction or not? If not, make a change, wait, and then ask the question again. If you are, great, but then don’t give up before you allow enough time to let the trend take you where you want to go.

When you have to measure movement in the rankings the most common time frame I use is a month. That means a minimum of three months to IDENTIFY a trend. Then you need another 2-3 months to make the changes and begin tracking the new trend if needed. That puts you at 6 months and you may or may not have solved the original issue.

There’s a very common misconception that I want to take just a moment to completely squash. Many of the small business owners I talk to believe that the rankings in one part of Google affect the others. For example they believe that ranking well in the sponsored results will affect their ranking in the organics or in the maps. This is completely and totally NOT true.

Yellow = Sponsored (Paid) Results
Red = Maps Results
Green = Organic (Natural) Results

Imagine what would happen if Google allowed the top ranking listings in the sponsored results to also rank well in the organics by default. Just imagine the outcry that would result and rightfully so. If they did this, they would essentially be allowing a pay-for-play in the organics. This would not only anger a lot of folks but it would drive searchers elsewhere because they would eventually discover that the results are not as relevant as they could be.

Here’s the really important thing to remember. To rank well in Google’s separate sections (maps, organic, paid) you have to rank well in each one separately. One does not affect the other. Within Google, each of these sections is controlled by a separate department. Just like the sales department in your company cannot pay bills because that’s the job of the accounts payable department, the same delineations exist in Google, Inc. The sponsored listing department doesn’t deal with organics, and the organics department doesn’t deal with the maps results. This is why you have to work your way to the top of each section individually. Here’s a graphic to help you understand:

Notice that the anti-spam department (headed by Matt Cutts) is over all three other departments? This is VERY important to remember. While you have to get to the top of each section individually, you can be penalized on all three at the same time! Matt’s department can rain down punishment from above, causing your rankings in all three sections to plummet. You can even be expelled from all three!

What I want you to remember, above all else, is that bad behavior in one area can get you whacked from all areas. If you spam the map listings, you can find yourself dealing with a -40 penalty in the organics, or paying higher amounts for your clicks in the sponsored results. If you’re shopping for an online marketing company to help you, make sure they are a white hat only shop. Any company that deals in the darker side of SEO can cause you serious damage. It’s not necessary to be a shadow-lurking black hatter to get to the top of Google. You can do it through 100% Google-approved methods.

I highly recommend playing within the guidelines Google defines.

Why things move SLOWER online than in the real world

The 4 Branches of Google