When will you see results?

When SEOs hear this question, we begin to behave like people who are legally required to give warnings. "It's impossible to guarantee particular results," we caution people. "Your results may vary. This is marketing, not magic, that we're doing here, and we all know that no marketing should be undertaken without a firm commitment to five months' worth of effort. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Side effects may include euphoria, excessive googling, and dependence on your refresh button."

We're right to be cautious. Scammers abound in SEO, and people sometimes start out with unrealistic expectations. There are also factors that aren't under our control. We can't honestly guarantee specific search results, and even awesome search results don't guarantee awesome sales.

Truthfully, the answer to "When will I see results?" is, "Who knows?"

I still like to think about the time I brought a brand-new website to #1 at Google (I think it started on page 6 or so) in a day and a half. It was moving so fast that the ranking tools literally couldn't keep up with it, and were reporting it on the second page when I could see it at #3 on my computer. The website was a little late getting finished, and it had to be demonstrated at a seminar in two days --and of course it had to come up first on Google. I put in five hours of linkbuilding, and the next day there it was, at #1. It's still there. That calls for a contented sigh, doesn't it?

I'm also glad to say that a new blog I'm working on has shown up at number one for its company initials and town in one week.

I think I've already whined about my own website taking three weeks to reach #1, though, haven't I? There was a company that took me a month, and it never really did as well for some of the keywords as I wanted it to. And there was actually one company that I couldn't get to #1 for its name -- I have good excuses for that #2 ranking, don't worry, but I'm not going to list them. Because it doesn't even matter. It's marketing, not magic, and there are no guarantees.

When asked, I usually assure clients that they should see results in a couple of weeks. That's my experience.

But results may vary. No marketing effort should be undertaken without a firm commitment to five months' worth of effort. And you have a right to remain silent.
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