SEO Expectation vs Reality

Clients often begin their SEO journey with a series of expectations in mind. These can be tricky to deal with, so here is your go-to guide for acknowledging, and managing, these expectations.

2. Expectation: results will be instant.
   Reality: results take some time.
   Clients may grow impatient in the early stages, expecting their engagement to shoot up instantly. This would be nice, wouldn’t it?
   In reality, SEO often takes several months to take effect – make sure your client is aware of this from the beginning.
   Make sure to set clear goals over specified time frames. This way, you and your client can keep tabs on realistic progress and ensure everything is working as it should be.
3. Expectation: SEO is always effective.
   Reality: SEO often takes trial and error.
   Of course, time-served SEO’s are able to acknowledge how to make a campaign successful, but the reality is that you can’t be 100% sure on the effectiveness until you try.
   This may be a delicate subject to approach with clients. Make sure they know that there is some chance of failure but stress the rarity of this. Furthermore, show them alternative plans and arrangements you have in place.
4. Expectation: Clients want constant updates and reassurance.
   Reality: the SEO knows best.
   Sometimes it can be easy for clients to feel a need to micromanage or check up on every step of the process. Whilst this is understandable, it can actually be off-putting and suggests they lack faith.
   You should take the time in the beginning to reassure your client and create a plan of how often they need to check-in. This can vary from client to client, but a weekly zoom call at a scheduled time is a good benchmark.
   
5. Expectation: Higher rankings will automatically lead to higher sales.
   Reality: Not necessarily, this takes time.
   SEO does not stand alone, and higher rankings. Increased traffic may not instantly lead to improved revenue particularly if the website needs UX improvements. This may be frustrating for clients.
   In this case, approach the client and suggest that other parts of their operation may need improvements or User testing may need to be implemented. Obviously, improvements like this are best done as part of the initial SEO work but they often may not become apparent until the increased traffic from the SEO physically hits the clients site.
6. Expectation: SEO is a one-time fix and can be left alone.
   Reality: Successful campaigns will need constant tweaks and updates.
   In the digital age, everything is constantly changing. Your SEO should be the same. Clients may expect to set up their SEO strategy once and forget about it, assuming the results to be continuous.
   Once again, make sure there is an open dialogue about how your strategy needs to evolve and keep tabs with the client around this.

In conclusion, your clients may have their own ideas of how effective SEO works.
A skilled marketer is able to take on board these expectations whilst also managing them.

The main takeaway from this should be that communication is key: honest and open dialogue between all parties is the foundation of an effective relationship between client and marketer!