In SEO, It's Really Not the Thought That Counts

Yesterday I was reading a list of frustrations among SEOs, and encountered one of my faves: clients who don't take action on recommendations, but still expect results.

This is one of those things that causes people to tell (anonymous) stories about you over beers.

But there are indeed clients who really seem to feel that my having provided the list of changes that need to be made onsite, or the list of linkbuilding steps that needs to be implemented, is tantamount to having optimized the site and done some marketing.

A colleague once expressed this really well in a committee meeting. "She," said my friend, "is the kind of person who decides she needs to get organized, so she buys shelves."

Expecting improvement to follow from being given advice is like thinking you'll become organized just because you bought the shelves.

Not following the advice is your prerogative. But you can't then say it didn't work.

You also can't count from when you got the advice. I had that conversation with a client recently. I had advised him to take an action, and he did take that action, but it was two months after our initial discussion. He's concerned about the results he's getting. He felt that he should have seen more progress by now. But he was counting from when we met, not when he actually took action.

I think part of this problem is that it's easy to feel, once you make up your mind to do something, as though it has essentially already been done. It's the thought that counts, right? Not in SEO, though. Maybe this would be a good day to look back at your SEO plan and see what you haven't yet implemented. You might be surprised.