SEO Article Series

SEO Home | SEO Articles & Resources

What is Ethical Search Engine Optimization?

Firstly, ethical Search Engine Optimization is a marketing activity, so it is important to remember that it is a process, not a task. It takes time to perform it well and it can't be properly accomplished by making a few changes to your site and forgetting about it.

Optimal results require monitoring the performance of your site and then fine-tuning your efforts until you get the desired results. To create and implement a successful SEO strategy and achieve the desired rankings you should expect it to take approximately 6 months, although you will see substantial concrete results in just 2-3 months.

Here's why:

Many of the larger search engines won't even visit your site and index your optimized pages for 6-8 weeks or longer - referred to as an indexing-cycle. Once your site starts appearing in the search engines, you're half way there, but now you'll need to evaluate whether your site's been ranked as highly as you'd like and for the keywords you wanted.

In most cases it takes two or three of these 'indexing-cycles' before you find the right balance of optimization efforts and ranking results in the search engines for the right keywords. Planning and budgeting for a 6-month campaign to develop, implement and fine-tune your SEO strategy is the most cost-effective and focused way to successfully achieve your desired rankings.

Even after you've achieved the rankings you want, you'll still need to watch your rankings on a regular basis. Your long-term marketing strategy should include a bi-annual review of your site's performance and the ability to evolve to changes in your particular internet marketplace.

Here's why:

Search engine rankings have a longer life and are not as perishable as other promotional investments such as Yellow Page listings (which becomes worthless once the next edition is published unless you've paid again to be re-included). But your rankings are still vulnerable to change and slippage for a variety of reasons.

Sometimes your competitors will have been trying their own SEO campaigns and will be hot on your heels in the rankings or even bumping you in some keywords. Other times the search engines themselves will have changed the criteria they use for determining ranking and this might cause a change in your rank. Or it could simply be an increase in the number of other websites using the same keywords, thereby creating a larger competitive environment.

Regardless of the reason, you need to remember to regularly check your site's rankings and plan your SEO strategy to evolve as needed to meet new challenges or changes in your particular competitive environment.

© 2004 Ahead of the Web Marketing Services - www.aheadoftheweb.com
SEM & Optimization Specialists | SEO Articles & Resources