Well I guess the guy didn’t invite you and your fancy Search Engine Optimization Company into his enterprise for tea and biscuits. However, giving the client a direct, off the cuff answer to the question above, could be like putting a loaded gun to your head. Metaphorically speaking of course, but you get my drift. You don’t want to end up sounding like a politician, However at the same time, setting unrealistic and over optimistic expectations on Search Engine Placement ranking, is just plain dumb. Your client may want the crown jewels tomorrow, but let’s have a look at a couple of things before you fasten your colours to the mast.
Like the majority of problems to be solved, it depends!!
It is usually down to a few major causes followed by an ever increasing list of smaller problems that need to be sorted. For example –

• It may be that the market sector is very competitive, and there are so many players in the mix, it is hard to stand out in the crowd. Is his brand good or average?
• It may depend on the age of the website. Older websites usually have been crawled over by the Search Engine companies and there will be lingering ranking there. New websites are starting from scratch.
• It may be the quality of the Web Pages, the Keywords, the meta tags, the links and just how straightforward it is to navigate round the website.
• It may be the lack of Online Marketing, especially if the web site is new to the market place. Even mature sites may have zero or little promotion via online publishers or blogs.

Ultimately, a thorough examination of the business, the market, the current website, will be mandatory before you begin to estimate a potential “Page One” Search Engine Placement.
In a competitive market you will have to work harder. That’s the same whether your business is internet based or a shop on the High Street. If you want to be noticed, your business, through your website needs to grow to be a benchmark for quality, information and ease of use. The focus must be on, how good is this experience for a customer. Word does get round, and as more people like the experience, the hits on your site will swell and along with your Search Engine Placement. Brand name does help and a well known and unique brand name will usually rank high, comparatively quickly. However most businesses either don’t have a brand name (or the funds to seriously to promote it), or they supply a whole raft of separate brands for a specific market sector. So maybe they must, for example, promote the “Scuba Diving” sector in their text and Keywords and include the real quality brands. Links to these quality OEM’s even if they are not reciprocal will gain ranking too.
The quality of the Web Pages is also crucial, as no one will return to a site which is slow, has dead ends, or is awful to look at. Even spelling errors point to a lack of attention to detail and a laissez faire attitude, which may cross over into the products or service they offer. Some simple things to consider on web page creation are
The page is relevant to the terms being searched for
• The page is deemed an authority about its topic
• The page has good, useful content
• The page is part of a site with lots of information
• The page loads swiftly
• The page doesn’t have a bunch of broken links
• The page isn’t filled with a second rate list of keywords
Bear in mind, when you invite a Search Engine Optimization Company to work in partnership with you, they are not an auditor for your Web Designers. All the items above must be on a checklist and the business owner and the Web Designer must have repaired any possible errors that may have had a negative effect on your current Search Engine Placement. One of the areas a Search Engine Optimization Company can really help you with, is the promotion of your site and your business sector. Online Marketing is a time consuming business which Web Developers can’t afford to allot a lot of time to. Their expertise, quite rightly is the more technical aspects of Web Design and Web Site creation. Online Marketing is all about writing articles which are topical and informative about your business sector and include keywords or phrases pertinent to your website. Over time these articles will add acceptance to your own website and help you climb up the page rankings.
How long does all of the above take? It Depends!!!

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