How Clients Slow the SEO Process Down

The first thing that SEO clients need to understand about the process is that SEO is a long term strategy. You aren’t going to see results right out of the gate. It takes time to execute a search engine approved strategy. Slow and steady wins the race every time. However, just because the nature of SEO is slow moving doesn’t mean that gives you reason to slack off. It’s still necessary to stay the course and execute SEO activities in a timely manner. It already takes time to see SEO success and by putting off SEO responsibilities all you are essentially doing is prolonging the time it takes to see results even further. The relationship between an SEO firm and SEO client needs to be viewed as a partnership. The SEO client can’t disappear, they play a vital role in the process. If an SEO program isn’t generating results in a realistic timeframe, a common reason can be the client themselves.

Here are common ways that SEO clients slow down the process:

% Taking time to approve recommendations:

Every step of the SEO process requires approval from the SEO client, after all the client is the expert in the industry. An SEO firm can use its expertise to make recommendations from an SEO standpoint, but sometimes those recommendations might not be the most accurate fit depending on the target audience, which the client has a much better understanding of. That’s why keyword research is approved before making on site SEO recommendations and why on site SEO recommendations are approved before actual changes to the site are made and why any additional written content like blog posts or social media updates all need to be approved. When a client sits on these recommendations for long periods of time it’s essentially holding up the whole process. Clients should remove as much red tape as possible to keep things moving along.

% Not implementing recommendations:

Every SEO client is handled differently depending on their needs. Some clients have their own web developers or in house marketing people that are responsible for content and/or social media. This means that once approved, people outside of the SEO firm are responsible for implementation. Since these people may wear many hats and have their plates full sometimes the implementation doesn’t get done in a timely manner. SEO needs to be a top priority of anyone involved. Each piece of the SEO puzzle contributes towards long term success.

% Limiting content marketing efforts:

Ongoing content creation is an essential part of an SEO program. Every page of content that is produced can appear in organic search results and get shared and linked to. Content is perhaps the most important element of SEO, yet it’s something that many clients don’t take seriously enough. They claim that they don’t have time to write the content or that they don’t have any topic ideas to hand over to whoever is responsible for writing the content. If content isn’t being published, it severely limits SEO success.