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Why Does SEO Take So Long? - Ask EZ

Why Does SEO Take So Long? – Ask EZ

A question I get asked all the time is, “Why does SEO take so long?” Now imagine you’ve just hired a new SEO company. You’re excited. They’ve walked you through their strategy for how they’re going to get you found on Google and drive all this traffic to your website.

But you’re about two months in and nothing seems to be happening so what’s wrong? Well probably nothing, the truth is SEO takes time. Google actually says it takes 4 to 12 months to really start seeing results.

But why does it take so long? And what does that mean for you? If you want to learn more keep watching.

Hi, I’m Tom Malesic, Founder and President of EZMarketing, and you’re watching Ask EZ. This is where small business owners go to get real answers to their marketing questions.

SEO Has Changed

One of the reasons we hear this question is people have an outdated perception of how SEO really works.

In the early days, it used to be a pretty simple formula right? You pick some high volume or really popular keywords, you put them on your website just a ton of times over and over again, and then you get lots of links back to your website, and bingo: now you have results.

If it were a math equation it would look like:

A+B+C=Success!

But now the equation looks a little more like this:

Today SEO is MORE complicated with MORE variables which means it just takes a lot more work to get through.

How Long DOes SEO Take?

It Depends on Your Content

Great content takes time. Effective SEO relies on high-quality content that’s relevant for your customers. This is things like copy on your website, maybe blog posts, guides, infographics, or even videos like this one.

Look SEO takes time because great content doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time. It takes time to write it, to design it, to optimize it, to promote it. And certainly to get backlinks to it. The point is if you want results from your SEO you have to invest the time to create the best possible content.

It Depends on the Competition

Asking how long SEO will take really depends on a lot of things. One of the biggest factors is your competition.

So asking how long it will take to rank on Google is kind of like asking how fast do I need to run to win the race? Well it depends on how fast your competition’s running, right? If you’re running against a bunch of slowpokes you probably don’t have to work real hard to win. But if you’re running against very trained marathon runners you might be in trouble. So chances are, your competitors are doing SEO and winning is a moving target.

Also, some keywords in industries are naturally more competitive than others. So if you wanted to rank for “industrial powder coating service” that’s going to be relatively easy to rank for compared to if you wanted to rank for “auto insurance” which is insanely competitive.

It Depends on Your Budget

If you’re outsourcing your SEO service, how long it takes also depends on your budget. Look there’s a lot that goes into SEO: we have things like site audits, writing content, optimizing your website, building backlinks.

Look it all takes time and if you’re only spending a couple hundred dollars a month, you’re not giving your SEO company very long to work, and it’s going to take them longer to get results.

Now that doesn’t mean that you should have to wait 4 to 12 months to understand what your SEO Company is doing for you. They should be able to explain what they’re doing and why and be able to show some level of progress.

Get Long-Lasting SEO Results

SEO does take longer than other types of marketing, but the good news is it also lasts longer. Unlike Google Ads that disappear the second that you stop paying for them, SEO builds over time. You still need constant maintenance, but once you rank, you’re going to keep getting results and traffic will last longer.

If you want to get better results from Google I invite you to fill out the form below so that we can give you a FREE SEO Audit.

We’re going to give you a report and lots of suggestions on what improvements you need to make to your website to get better visibility on Google. And of course, if you like this video don’t forget to like and subscribe.

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How Do I Interpret My Social Media Marketing Reports? - Ask EZ

How Do I Interpret My Social Media Marketing Reports? – Ask EZ

Video Transcription:

How do I interpret my social media marketing reports? When it comes to digital marketing, data is everywhere—which can be a good thing. It does provide a ton of insights, but it can also be really overwhelming because there’s so much of it.

When it comes to social media, the big question I usually get is: “Is it really working?” Every social media platform has its own reporting system full of tons of data.

But how do you analyze that data to determine whether or not your social media campaigns are really working? To find out, keep watching!

Hi, I’m Karri, a data-driven marketing consultant at EZMarketing, and you’re watching Ask EZ, where small businesses go to get real answers to their marketing questions.

What Are Your Social Media Goals?

Before you can measure your social media marketing effectively, you need to know the goal of your campaign. That will tell you which metrics you need to pay attention to.

For example, if your goal is brand awareness—simply getting in front of as many people as possible—you’re going to want to pay attention to those reach metrics like impressions.

But if your goal is building authority or building an audience, you’re going to want to watch your engagement metrics like likes, comments, and shares.

And finally, if your goal is conversions then you’re going to want to watch your conversion metrics:

  • How many website purchases were made?
  • How many forms were filled out?
  • How many leads did I generate?
  • Or maybe even event registrations

There are tons of different social media marketing reports, and each one will look a little different, but most of them have similar pieces that can help make them easier to understand.

Understanding Your Social Media Reports

Date Range

The first thing you want to pay attention to on your social media marketing reports
is the date range, so you know what time period you’re looking at.

Is that data from last week? Is it from last month? And is it comparing year over year, or month over month?

Summary

The next thing that any good social media marketing report will have is a summary. This is a quick snapshot of the most important information for your campaign. These are your key performance indicators—the things that we talked about earlier
that help you answer that big picture question: “Is this working?”

For example, this client is running a brand awareness campaign on Facebook, so their summary is a snapshot of numbers that tell them how many people they’ve gotten in front of.

Example-Summary page
So the two key performance indicators that this client is paying attention to for their brand awareness campaign are their organic post impressions—which is how many times someone saw their posts without paying—and their paid post 
impressions—which is how many times someone saw  their posts because they paid.

Data breakdown

After that first initial snapshot, you’ll want to begin to break down the data, so you can understand it in more detail. This will begin to give you the kind of data you need to make data-driven decisions in your marketing.

For example, this client.  They’re using their social media campaigns to build their authority and build their audience.

Example-Engagement

The key performance indicators that they are paying attention to are those engagement metrics: likes, shares, comments. So that’s what we report on with their top-performing posts section.

This kind of data will allow you to determine which posts work the best, so that you can craft more effective posts in the future.

Conversion Metrics

And finally, if you’re running a conversion campaign, a good social media marketing report for you should include a section that reports on conversion metrics.

For example, this client is using a Facebook ads campaign to drive website purchases.

Example Conversions

The conversion data on this client’s report includes the number
of purchases that came from the Facebook ads  as well as how much revenue those purchases were worth, and the return on investment on the ad spend.

Is Your Social Media Working?

Regardless of what they look like, the data in your social media marketing reports should be helping you answer the question: “Is this marketing channel working?”

I believe that data-driven decisions are the best decisions that help you get the most out of your investment.

If you’re not sure if your social media marketing is working, schedule a consultation today and I’ll gladly sit down with you and help you understand what your social media marketing report data is telling you.

SCHEDULE A CONSULTATION

And don’t forget to like and subscribe!

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What Are the Top Google Ranking Factors? - Ask EZ

What Are the Top Google Ranking Factors? – Ask EZ

What are the top Google ranking factors that affect the search results? Getting your website to rank on Google can be a real challenge. Google has over 200 ranking factors, so which ones should you really worry about?

To find out which Google ranking factors make the biggest impact on your website keep watching.

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What are Some Common Web Design Mistakes? - Ask EZ

What are Some Common Web Design Mistakes? – Ask EZ

Video Transcription:

What are some common web design mistakes, and how do I avoid them?

Some of the most common web design mistakes we see are the ones you don’t even realize that you’re making. They seem like normal things that you see on other small business websites, but what you don’t realize is they can really hurt the user experience and effectiveness of your website design.

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Why Ugly Websites Are Embarrassing - Ask EZ

Why Ugly Websites Are Embarrassing – Ask EZ

Video Transcription:

My website’s a little old, but it’s still good enough, right?

If it’s been a few years since you’ve updated your website design. You know it’s not new, but you don’t really want to go through the hassle of a redesign. Look, I get it: your web design often isn’t the loudest squeaky wheel. But if your website design is old outdated or ugly, it’s hurting your business. To find out how, keep watching.

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