Feel like you’re burning money on SEO?
Does your SEO company seem to do very little work or even nothing at all?
We COMPLETELY get it, which is why the ONLY logical decision for you to make is to PAY us instead!
Just kidding. But what you should do is re-evaluate your entire SEO company’s strategy and its implementation if your situation matches some of the following criteria.
If not, then you’re likely just overreacting. You might be the problem instead, and in today’s quick post, I’ll help you understand if that’s the case.
~6 Minute Read
Quick Answer
SEO is mostly the game of volume. The more content, backlinks (mentions of your brand on the web), and recognition you get on the web, the higher you'll rank. How long it takes to win in this game of volume depends on the volume the top ranking competitors of yours have already put in (and in what timeframe have they done so). If you're feeling like your volume is insufficient compared to the timeframe, it's time to consider updating your SEO plan.
What Exactly Do I Mean?
I was not the best math student, but here’s what I meant in the quick answer section.
Good volume in a good enough timeframe will lead to higher rankings on Google.
You may be in these scenarios right now:
- Your volume is insufficient.
- You’re not publishing enough content.
- You’re not getting enough backlinks, which are, again, mentions of your business OR something your business has done on another website, with a link pointing to your website from that article.
- You’re not getting enough recognition, which can include reviews on your Google Business Profile and other directories, people Google-ing your brand name to check out what you’re doing and your reviews, and even social media engagement.
- You’ve not given it enough time. You may have an excellent SEO strategy; it’s just that not enough time has passed for Google to pick it all up OR the volume is on pace; it’s just that the SEO company you’re working with needs more time to build everything out.
- The volume is insufficient but a lot of time has passed. In this case, as you can probably assume, your SEO company is likely not doing anything.
Makes sense? Hopefully it does.
But lastly, and most importantly, the golden rule.
Are You Getting Any Leads?
If you’ve gotten any leads from your SEO efforts specifically (and you should know this as a business owner), then you’re on the right track.
It takes many people visiting your website to get a lead:
- First, only about 20% of all searchers will visit your website or Google profile if it’s #1 (numbers are way lower for lower positions).
- Then, only about 5-10% of them will actually become a lead.
In lower-volume industries, this may mean that even with great SEO, you’re looking at only 1-2 good leads a month.
However, this would typically mean they’re high-ticket.
Think industries like water and fire damage restoration or any type of commercial contracting. But, of course, this highly depends on the service area.
So, if you’re getting leads, stick to your SEO, even if it’s just 1-2 calls a month.
However, if the last time you’ve got a lead from SEO was this:
It’s time to reconsider.
Back to the previous section about sufficient or insufficient volume and timeframe. Let me show you how you can determine this.
How to Know If Your SEO Plan Needs an Update
Your Volume is Insufficient
How do you know if your SEO “volume” is good enough or not?
Looking at mainly two things, but then there’s also a third one that is not as reliable because it depends on a lot of things.
Content
“Content” means pages and posts on your website. How many of them have been published since you’ve started your SEO campaign?
In many local SEO industries, pages will play a bigger role, as posts may not be as valuable because of the nature of the industry.
For instance, in water damage restoration, nobody will read a “water damage blog.” Instead, if they have a leak that’s an emergency, they call the first company they can reach.
However, in the HVAC industry, there are issues with an AC that may not be as urgent. Hence, the consumer will spend some time reading your post and THEN call you on the phone.
So, again, it depends on the industry.
But, again, pages will be more important:
- Service pages
- Sub-service pages (in water damage, that’d perhaps be sewage cleanup)
- Location pages
- Location + service pages (think of: site.com/toronto-roofing/roof-replacement)
- Industry pages (sticking to our roofing example: site.com/roofing-for/hotels or site.com/roofing-for/schools)
Don’t take these examples as concrete; I made them up for demonstration purposes. But many contractors serve both residential and commercial customers, and commercial keywords are very easy to rank for in a lot of cases.
Now, tell me how many new pieces of content you’ve got.
You should be getting anywhere between 5 to 20 or more pieces of content published monthly, depending on the deal with your SEO company.
Backlinks
Same as with content—how many new backlinks have you gotten since your SEO campaign’s beginning?
You should be getting 1 to 3 or 4 (or, again, more) backlinks to your website every month (except perhaps in the beginning stages, when you’re building a new website).
The backlinks should also be of “good quality,” which you can learn how to learn in our link building guide.
You may also receive some brand mentions without a backlink. This counts as well because it helps SEO.
Brand Recognition
Increased brand recognition could be a lot of things:
- More people searching your brand name on Google
- More reviews you’ve been getting all over the web, not just Google Business Profile
- More engagement with your social media profiles and website
But with brand recognition, an SEO can’t be solely responsible. This also depends on:
- Are you running paid ads?
- What are you doing offline, in the “real world?”
- Are you active on social media?
- Do you ask each customer for a review of your services/products?
- Are you running good offers/promotions?
And more.
So, again, these metrics help your SEO a lot, but it’s not the SEO company that can deliver them (at least not completely). Brand recognition also depends on YOU as a business owner.
Not Enough Time Has Passed
In our post on how long does SEO take, I’ve said that some SEO results are instant, while the “true” SEO results will likely take many months or even years.
But why is this? Why will it take me years to rank for:
- Dallas plumber,
- Addiction rehab Miami,
- Or Los Angeles roofing?
Take your top competitor from the Google search results.
Let’s do it in our example.
We’re competing for a lot of SEO keywords with these companies:
By the way, you can find this out yourself by going to Ahrefs, entering your website in “Site Explorer,” and then simply scrolling down to “Top organic competitors.”
Or simply Google some keywords you want to rank for and pick the company that’s showing up often.
And now, let’s look at our competitors’ volume combined with the time they’re on the web.
You can do this in Ahrefs (paid option) or use a simple free method of competitors’ sitemaps.
Go to your top competitor’s sitemap by typing site.com/sitemap.xml.
Now, I can see the typical required volume in my niche—around 200 or so pages and close to 100 posts—along with the time it takes. At least 4 years.
The only con of this method is that it shows when the pages were last modified, not published.
So, even if I have around 200 or more pages of content on my website (at the time of writing this, I have close to 100), I still haven’t been on the web long enough to achieve the same rankings as the competitor in question, Portland SEO Growth.
There’s also a factor of backlinks. I fall behind most competitors in my industry by the number of backlinks, and it will likely take me many years to get the same number of backlinks they have.
My final point is that even though my volume seems insufficient compared to my competition, they’ve been on the web for YEARS, whereas my website has only been up for close to 6 months. Meaning, my volume is actually most likely on the right track, but I simply need more time to rank.
This will most likely be the case with you too.
No Work is Being Done for You at All
This is likely the easiest option to evaluate – is your SEO company not publishing enough content and getting enough backlinks?
I’ve given some rough estimates. Take a look at them and evaluate.
So, Finally - After How Long Should You Reevaluate Your SEO Plan?
I may have made some of my points confusing, but it’s because this is a very broad topic.
Many variables need to be answered:
- How much content has been published?
- How many backlinks have been acquired?
- How much time has passed?
But, in general, the Google Search Console graph should be showing very optimistic results after 6 months for many of your target keywords.
So, take a look at my points 6 months in and ask yourself: Is the volume required being met by your SEO company?
- If not, it might be the time to start looking elsewhere.
- If yes, how much more time will they need to succeed?
That’s it.
Get Your New SEO Plan Today
Not satisfied with your reexamination?
That’s unfortunate, but know that we can help.
Claim your 100% free SEO audit and receive the right estimates for achieving SEO success in your target market.
Other than that, feel free to learn more:
- What Do You Need to Balance When Doing SEO?
- How SEO and Google Ads Work Together?
- What Industries Need SEO The Most?
Good luck!
Bogdan is a local SEO expert with over 3 years of experience helping businesses grow using Google. When he is not helping businesses grow, he works on his own SEO projects, works out, takes long walks, and watches Suits, which is completely ironic given how rarely he dresses up in a suit himself.