Most people make a mistake regarding what SEO is and what it can do. Dispelling the myths is most important, and using the tried and true methods, essential.
First of all, SEO is not a magic wand. It doesn’t push your website or blog to the top of the search engine results overnight. Both short and long term thinking is best prescribed here as SEO is both a preventative and remedial strategy calling upon skills and techniques that are sound and rewarding.
Thinking the hiring just any old SEO professional is going to work wonders is delusional. It takes a real pro to do the job right and not just a one shot operation. It takes examination of your sites, blogs, and then doing diagnostics to see how to best optimize your site for the best results. Often a site may be missing just a few of the fundamental things like misspellings or wrong tags or keywords. These things can be fixed on the spot. It doesn’t mean you’ll shoot to the top of the search engines right away but it means you’ve fixed the most basic problems and can continue further.
You just don’t fix a site and let it ride. It has to be monitored daily as well as keeping it maintained properly. If you have a change of address or email, you need to update your site properly. If links going out and in are bad, you need to fix those asap. Don’t let things fall into disrepair. It could cost you dearly. Your SEO pro will advise you to this and not make egregious claims like they’ll be able to get you in the top ten at Google for a hefty fee. That should raise a red flag right there. No SEO professional worth their salt is going to make such claims, but will instead guide you through the process and advise you as to what to watch out for and what to do.
This is a team effort, make no mistake about it. You’ll have to keep your site updated with quality content as Google is looking for such. No more cookie cutter sites logged up with cheesy keywords and keyphrases. Your site needs authority, meaning it has to be the kind of site that people go to for the right information not just some slapped up banner farm or half wit listings. Quality and quality content is king and will probably remain so from nowo n. If you had your site managed by a bunch of outsourced clowns that did it cheaply then that’s the kind of results you’ll get, cheap. If your SEO pro asks you to get better pictures and videos and copywriting, then do it. The return on investment aka ROI will be far more solid.
Statistics are also important here. Things like Google Analytics and about a dozen other analytics software will do you well. Don’t underestimate statistics, there a guide line of specific facts, from number of visitors to where the visitors are coming from. This data is vital. It can be the lifeblood of your site and allow you to set your site up for the best returns.
Timing is another thing. With Google changing its algorithms without notice anymore, speculators in SEO keep an eagle eye on their stats to see what drops and what rises. That’s the only evidence of a change in Google algorithms so since no one knows what Google is doing anymore, it’s best to plan and develop your site so that nothing can take you by surprise.