If you’ve read one of our other articles, you should now know a bit about why great SEO takes time, so in this article let’s discuss how to set realistic expectations. While it’s understandable that you want to achieve quick results – especially when you’re paying a good chunk of your money for them – it is usually unrealistic. You’ll find out time and again that better results occur when you take a slow and steady approach. Highlighted below are some actionable ways to set realistic expectations with your SEO expert.

• Expect SEO to be a long game: when you consider SEO as a long-term play from the off, you’re giving yourself a head start and more likely to achieve success long term than give up a few weeks in because you aren’t seeing those drastic results. To further ground your expectations, remember that SEO works best when it is rooted in long-term goals. Link your SEO pursuits to other goals like driving more people to your website or making more sales by the third quarter of the year. Always remember that SEO works best when you tailor your expectations according to the particular site you’re trying to optimize.
• Be ready to invest: great SEO is an investment of both resources and time. At the end of it all, you get from your SEO what you’re prepared to put into it. When you invest more time, effort, resources and thought into your SEO, what you’ll get from it is a compounding return at the end of the day. With this in mind, be ready to hire a great SEO team and work side by side with them to create a stout and long-lasting SEO strategy. Investing in your SEO strategy from the start will help it be more dynamic and efficient in the future.
• Plan to re-evaluate your SEO frequently: Once again, SEO is ever-changing. This means that you can’t come up with a plan and keep it still for months or years to come. Alternatively, you have to re-evaluate your SEO on a yearly basis at least, although it will likely be more effective if you work on it quarterly or even monthly. For best results, set robust SEO goals at the start of your campaign and then hold meetings with your SEO team to re-evaluate these goals as you move through your strategy. In most cases, these re-evaluation meetings won’t lead you to completely overhaul your SEO strategy, but they may result in slight tweaks that can enhance the effectiveness of your SEO.
• Maintain a clear line of communication: if you have selected a good SEO company, they would’ve already told you that they can’t guarantee instant results – If they have told you the opposite; RUN FOR THE HILLS! Once this foundation of trust, understanding and realistic expectations is laid, it becomes of utmost importance to maintain an open line of communication concerning measuring those expectations, paths to achievement, and the results achieved. The more open this line of communication, the more effectively you can work together to achieve steady and effective SEO strategy.

Great SEO Takes an Effective Long-Term Approach

Although SEO is not an overnight game, it is something that you and your team should strive to invest in as it provides compounding results when properly conducted. When you set realistic expectations and understand how and why SEO works the way it does, you can get the largest possible return on your investment (ROI) into search engine optimisation.