After you or a web designer has finished your website, you will start showing it off to your friends and family. Someone will then ask you what page on Google does it rank? You proudly tell them if you type in your company name, you are on the first page! That one friend everyone has said, “why if they don’t know your company name”?
He grabs his phone and searches “Landscaping in Harker Heights.” After 12 pages, he says, “there you are, 11 pages behind your major competition.” Not going to get much business off the internet with your website, buddy! Better call an SEO expert.
Wait. What?
I’m devastated, so after everyone leaves, I jump on my favorite search engine and look for “How do I get my website to page 1?”
- Submit your website to the search engines.
- Set up a page analyzer for your website. An analyzer will help you track a lot of your SEO issues. (Ranking up, Ranking down, more traffic or less traffic and more.
- Keyword Analysis to find the best search words for your business.
- Optimize your page(s) content working in keywords, and don’t forget to optimize your images.
- Get reputable backlinks to your website.
I’m not even halfway down the SEO to do list!
How long is this going take? What are search keywords, backlinks, optimize my images?
Google says it will take an average of 5-9 months to get most websites on the 1st page depending on the industry. Factors could rely on the amount of competition in your area, keyword power, and more.
Let me think about this.
Let’s see; if I pay $200/month, SEO will cost me approximately $1000-$1800. That is to rank hopefully on the 1st page. Then I’m sure I’ll need to keep things up after I hit that first page to stay there. Well, I do pay that much four times a year (avg. coupon mailer is $2200.00 per quarter) to have coupons sent to homes in my area. Getting one or two jobs from those will pay for the mailer. However, if I’m getting customers searching for my services 24/7, I may get more calls for quotes or jobs. After all, that coupon has been thrown away in the trash or not even received within the first three days after they receive it.
At 9 am, I will be calling some SEO companies that can help my business grow on the internet. Wish me luck.
NOTE: Sometimes, the person/company you used to build your website may also offer SEO services, and if not, they can recommend some SEO companies to help you.
