The Olympics have inspired me!

The most common question I get asked is:

How quickly can I rank for [insert your favourite keyword here]?

A sense of instantness surrounds SEO and with the arrival of social networking the rumor is that you can be and become what everyone is talking about overnight, the top of everyone’s list even Google’s. If you could just think of that hook/idea/tactic that can propel you, your company, your website into the spotlight.

Of course it’s possible but not very sustainable; one month later it’s likely your site will be on page 100 of Google, and more people have been to the moon than there.

Sustainable SEO involves mostly repetitive tasks done regularly, over time, and to a consistent standard. This will usually involve the introduction of processes that change the way you maintain your site, may involve a new hire like a web content writer, a redevelopment, or just a methodical optimisation of your page titles and descriptions (if you have 3000 pages that’s going to take a bit of time).  All this takes time and, you know, Google likes continuous improvement, big bang changes make it nervous and when that happens Google becomes punitive.

So sustainable SEO involves a sound, long-term strategy consisting of great content combined with long-term SEO – the winning combination.

How to prepare for your marathon:

1. Identify some measureable SEO goals, 3 is plenty
2. Write down the steps you are going to take to move towards these goals
3. Identify what meeting these goals looks like and how you are going to measure progress

Measure progress at least monthly and don’t give up, it can take 3-6 months before you see the start of progress. Remember sustainable SEO is a marathon and not a sprint.