Organic search traffic is the lifeblood of inbound marketing and a #1 keyword ranking is the holy grail. Think about it: a buyer enters a keyword phrase into Google to research a business problem and potential solutions. If she finds you and your content is helpful, it could be the start of a beautiful relationship. A healthy flow of organic traffic to your website is the payoff for all of the hard work you've done with your inbound marketing. It's a fertile ground to cultivate leads and customers and you own it. You can't buy it, you have to earn it.
That's why so many SEO firms and marketing agencies promise "We will get you on the first page of Google!" Here's a screenshot for the Google search for the keyword phrase "we will get you on the first page of Google." I've just shown the first few results in the interest of space. My favorite is the video "How To Rank On The First Page of Google in 24 hrs." As a caution to those reading this, I will repeat something my father told me many times: if it's too good to be true, it probably isn't."
The SEO firm Ahrefs recently published a fascinating study entitled, "How long does it take to rank in Google?" This definitive study answers the question based on real data and thorough research. I will give you a quick hint about the answer to the question they posed - it ain't 24 hours. I urge all of you to click through the link and read the study in detail, but here are some of the highlights of their findings:
The study is well-researched and very technical - again, I urge you all to click through and read the blog post. But the reality is that organic keyword search doesn't happen overnight. Even paid advertising for targeted keywords doesn't guarantee that you will end up on the first page of Google; it depends on the competition for the keyword and your Quality Score.
So should you conclude that it's time to start banging out phone calls and sending spammy emails? Absolutely not! Buyers are looking for inbound marketing content as they research purchase options and potential vendors. The answer is that you need to do inbound content marketing, but you need to have a realistic expectation of the competitive environment and structure your strategy accordingly.
We recommend that you have a dual-pronged SEO strategy: create content that will drive organic traffic as soon as possible as well as traffic that will create a consistent organic flow over the long-term. To illustrate what a small professional services business can expect from a consistent inbound marketing effort, here is a graph showing Rapidan Inbound's organic traffic flow over the five years we've been in business.
In January 2017, we had 3,470 organic site visits. But as you can see, it took us a while to get there. But we did have some successes along the way. Here are some of the strategies that a small professional services can use to build organic traffic and promote your content through other methods.
Don't fall for the marketing come-ons that promise to get you on the first page of Google. Data and empirical evidence show them to be false and most likely deceptive. Understand the competitive marketplace for search engine traffic in your industry and develop strategies to get you some quick wins while you build up your organic audience. And don't forget to promote your content through non-organic channels. If you'd like to discuss specific strategies for your business, please schedule a free consultation with us.