The SEO Investment: Long Term, High Reward

When business owners are looking at a search engine optimization (SEO) investment it is very important that they understand the nature of the investment; a long term solution with an extremely high return.

A good way to look at SEO is as an investment into establishing highly valuable real estate for your business online.  The first page organically of search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.) is the most coveted real estate around for a business website right now because over 92% of searchers looking for a local business choose a result on the first page of the search results.  As with most things in life that are highly valuable prime real estate online for your business is not easily and quickly acquired.

The reality of a search engine optimization investment is that it generally does not provide an immediate return on investment.  While other options like search engine marketing (or Pay Per Click) can often provide a decent return on investment in the first month or two, SEO often takes several months.  SEO is about making a website more relevant and popular in the eyes of search engines and creating relevancy and popularity for a website takes serious work and time. Time to improve the website, build the content, and have the search engines recognize the improved website and increased relevant content about the business online.

A proper SEO program should consist of website improvement, blogging, social media, inbound linking, business listings, ratings & reviews, among other factors.  There are many components that go into creating a high amount of visibility for a business online.

While other programs such as search engine marketing may provide a quicker return on investment, SEO provides the largest return on investment by far in the long run.  After 3 months of search engine marketing you may have a moderate ROI and no ROI from SEO but if you look at the ROI after 6 months or a year, SEO will be exponentially larger in most cases.

In closing, the SEO investment is one of patience and long term growth.  It does take a significant investment up front to achieve high returns several months later.  The key is choosing an SEO firm that has the experience and expertise to deliver the desired future results.  An SEO firm should be looked at as a long term business partner and trusted advisor that helps a business grow.