Each SEO project will follow different ways to appear in the first search results, depending on the current status of the website, the objectives, the context of the market and where it is located.

However, something that all websites share is that applying the correct SEO practices will bring them many advantages:

Advantages of SEO

The main benefit of SEO is the visibility you will achieve on Google.

Not only will you have more exposure, but you will be in front of people interested in what you do just when they are searching for you.

Other benefits include:

Generate more visits on your website

On average, 40,000 Google searches are performed every second around the world. That is, 3.5 billion daily queries.

Therefore, ranking on the first page for a specific search can generate millions of visits.

Increase the visibility of your brand

With SEO practices you will build a community that tomorrow will get you ‘free publicity’ by sharing everything you do with your followers.

Close more sales

If you are a leading reference in your niche, it is much more likely that you make a sale, because you have the confidence and support of an entire industry.

Makes you a market leader

Ranking higher on the search results of Google will let you dominate the entire industry as one of the leaders. Ranking on the first page is really a big deal, and it’s as important to maintain your ranks.

Create valuable content

One of the advantages of SEO is that you can know exactly what people are looking for.

Then offer a tailor-made piece – an article that answers all the concerns of users about a topic in your industry. You will be able to create the best possible text that provides the potential consumer with a solution to their problems.

Attract potential clients

With SEO, you attract potential buyers because your content is important to them.

You will help them solve a problem or answer a question.

The SEO game is about serving the needs of your audience better than your competition.

Avoid disturbing others

Thanks to SEO, you can give people what they want the moment they are requesting it.

Unlike advertising, where you interrupt users with your ads and messages, SEO is about gaining the user’s attention rather than buying it.

The only way to earn people’s respect and admiration is by offering valuable content without expecting to close a sale overnight.

Generates a high return on investment

On the Internet, it is much more profitable to bet on SEO and rank with valuable articles than to pay for Google ads.

It lasts in time

The more profit you reap from your content marketing efforts, the less time and money you have to invest.

The content you write today will help you sell tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, and the day after the day after tomorrow.

Disadvantages of SEO

As we already mentioned, equipping your website with the best SEO practices will be very beneficial for your brand. However, there are certain downsides to SEO that you should consider before starting.

An SEO campaign goes far beyond just using a few keywords to position yourself within a particular market.

More efforts and especially time are required to have very visible and positive results.

SEO takes a long time

That SEO takes a long time is one of the main ‘but’ that executives have before investing in web positioning

How long does it take to appear on the first page of Google? The definitive answer is: it depends.

And what does it depend on? Many factors. Some of the most important to consider may be:

• How big is your website?
• How new is your website?
• How recent and fresh is your content?
• What keywords are you using to rank?

In our experience we have found that, with good SEO knowledge, you can start to see positive results in just one week.

One of the most expert companies in this area, Ahrefs, says that reaching the first page of Google can take between 2 and 6 months.

The truth is, that’s just an average – some websites may take longer than six months, while others may appear on the first page in the first few weeks.

Recommendation: Be patient and get advice from experts to help you find the most feasible ways for your business in the world of SEO.

One of the first, and most important, steps is to do a deep keyword analysis, that is, find out the terms that your potential customers are using when they want to search for everything related to:

a) Your industry. b) The products or services that you and your competitors sell. c) Frequently asked questions that the average consumer has.

You deal with competition when doing SEO

The competition in the online world is bigger than you imagine.

On the Internet, thousands of other websites create content about your same product or service and you must understand how you differ from them.

Let’s see it with an example:

Suppose your business is a supermarket. On the same street as you there is another supermarket that is your most direct competition. The way to do a better job than him is to research what’s in his business, what he sells, how his prices are, and even if his site is nice. With that information you can offer better things than your competition.

In the online world the situation is similar. The difference is that you not only compete with the same one that is on your street. If he doesn’t have a website, you probably won’t even compete with him.

It seems obvious, but you will not know who your competition is until you investigate all the results that Google returns when you search for terms with which you also want to rank.

Assessing the competition correctly will give you an idea of how many (and which) websites you need to beat to claim the top spots on Google.

Recommendation: Avoid positioning yourself for very general keywords. For example: “supermarket”.

Rather, you must be very specific in the use of keywords in order to start improving your position in Google for such detailed queries as “Wholesale supermarkets in Minneapolis, Minnesota.”

Another example is that if you have a directory of job opportunities, it will be much easier to rank with the keyword “portal to get a job in New York “than just “jobs in New York.”

The keywords to position with SEO are limited

Each page on your website must be optimized for a particular keyword.

In this way, the number of keywords you rank for is closely linked to the number of pages or articles on your site.

In the world of SEO, choosing a keyword is not like making a list of the countries we want to travel to.

On the other hand, at the beginning, you must filter your tastes or dreams until you decide (after a good investigation) what is the keyword to which you should aspire to rank.

Remember, you can’t go right off the bat to conquer large territories without first having mastered small portions of the terrain.

Recommendation: Start by adding the words or phrases with less competition so that you gain authority in your industry. Over time, you will reach new spaces (queries and keywords).

If you stick with your SEO practices, there will be a point where you will not only rank for one but many keywords.

SEO results are not guaranteed

It is impossible to predict the results of an SEO project.

The main reason is that Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, as are the trends and search volumes for all queries.

Plus, your performance will be affected by what your competition does or doesn’t do.

For this reason, when doing search engine positioning, it is irrelevant to aim for things like:

• “We will increase traffic by 70%.”
• “We will attract 7,000 visitors a month.”
• “We will sell 150 products every week.”

Recommendation: Pay attention to the main SEO metrics throughout the project. At the end of the day, they are the ones who will guide you to know what is working and what is not.

SEO requires constant maintenance

The SEO maintenance takes time and effort and failure to do so may lose the progress made so far.

This stage is where you analyze what was done during the SEO On Page and Content Marketing stages to ensure the best results.

Recommendation: periodically maintain your website’s SEO in which you refresh both titles and descriptions as well as the user experience.

Remember that the objective of this point is to maximize the results of SEO strategies and ensure that they do not lose validity or effectiveness.

SEO does not pay off at the start

At first you are going to invest a lot of money and you will not see the results at once. That is, you invest a lot of effort, but you receive little profit.

Also, you should know that visits are not sales. Not all the people who come to your website will end up buying from you.

If you cannot afford the advice of an expert for your SEO project, you can become an expert in the field and start optimizing your website yourself.

Recommendation: Trust SEO and be patient. You can also follow the steps in our SEO checklist to improve the organic performance of your website. You can also request a free SEO Guide Blueprint by emailing us or calling us directly.

There is less offer from SEO companies than from other digital marketing tools

One of the disadvantages of SEO is that it is a more technical area of marketing than social media or advertising.

SEO, beyond being about codes or web pages, is based on having a marketer mentality and knowing what favors Google.

Being a subject less handled by many agencies, SEO services tend to have high costs.

Recommendation: Carefully research the SEO agency market offer and try to choose one specialized in the area.

Remember that, although the costs are higher, the ROI is also flattering. The SEO consultants can help you correctly acquire what your website needs to improve its performance. They give you the possibility of having an essential ingredient for any business on the Internet: a high position on the Google results page.

Black hat practices will make Google penalize you

There are certain aggressive SEO practices that manipulate the search engine to benefit from great results in a short time.

These “tricks” or the better called Black Hat SEO is the one that Google sanctions with falling positions in the ranking or the elimination of the website from the search engine results.

Attempting wrong practices such as gaining inorganic traffic or using too many keywords will not generate any positive results.

Rather, you must understand the way Google bots work. This will allow you to please them and will position you on the first page.

Recommendation: Hire a specialist SEO team with guaranteed success stories that will tell you that they will do quality and honest work on your website.

Conclusions

SEO projects can be successful from several points of view, but the main benefit is to appear just when your potential clients are looking out for you.

However, the number of your visits, your customers and even your sales will not increase overnight. Parallel and constant efforts are required, as well as patience and time to see that SEO is taking effect.

Remember that SEO, as part of attraction marketing (inbound marketing), intends that your brand does not approach the potential consumer, but that it is the consumer who approaches you.

Being a magnet for potential consumers is the most profitable sales strategy in the long term and that is why our recommendation is to have the patience necessary to conquer the first page of Google. Do you want us to help you achieve it? Contact us.