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“So, how long does it take to see SEO (Search Engine Optimization) results?”

We get that question a lot from our clients.

And we completely understand where this question comes from.

SEO is something that’s mostly intangible, something that most people have a slight difficulty really comprehending and getting a grasp of.

So, I’m writing this post in hopes to give you the skinny.

I want you to have a good understanding as to what you can expect when you begin to do search engine optimization for your website, and how long it takes to begin to see the fruitage of your labor.

But first….

What Are We Referring to When We Say “SEO Results”?

When we say “SEO results”, we are referring to improvements in your rankings, and your visibility, in the search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing.

So, let’s say, for example, that your website is currently showing up on page 5 of Google for your main keyword. An improvement would be to get your website to show up on page 1 of Google.

That would result in more clicks, more traffic, and more visitors to your website since most people only visit the sites that they find on page 1.

Now, what do you think it would take to see that kind of progress?

As you might’ve guessed it…

It requires a lot of work, optimization, and…of course…patience.

What Kind of Work Is Involved?

While I won’t go into full detail as to all of the work that is involved, I will mention that some of the techniques include:

• Blogging
• Article Marketing
• Video Marketing
• Bookmarking
• Social Media Marketing
• Backlinking
• Forum posting
• Blog Commenting
• Link Exchanges
• Directory Submissions
• and more

Now, some of these strategies are much more time consuming and require more effort than others.

In some cases, as in article marketing and blogging, a lot of time needs to be given to research and writing quality content.

In the case of backlinking, or obtaining links to your site from other sites, it can take a while to gather and even more time for those links to get some weight and gain traction online.

As, you can imagine, the process of getting the work done can take some time.

So, How Long Before I See Results?

If you’re not too familiar with how SEO works and what it really takes to get traffic to your website, it might seem like I’m still dodging the question.

The fact is, though, that the most accurate answer is, “It Depends.”

It depends on what?

It depends on several factors.

It depends on the competitiveness of your keywords - It might take months or years to rank well for a very competitive keyword like “auto insurance“. But, it could take a day or so to rank well for a keyword phrase like “auto insurance for 18 year old in mcallen, texas“.

It depends on the amount of work that needs to be done - If your project requires a lot of article writing and video creation, it could take weeks or months just to create all of your content.

It depends on the algorithms of the search engines – We are all at the mercy of the almighty search engines. They are constantly changing the requirements to rank well in their directories. So, a strategy that worked last year might not work this year.

I’ve experienced occasions where I get a client on first page of Google within hours of updating their website. But, to be honest, the keyword they wanted to rank for wasn’t a very competitive one.

So after determining their needs, it was quite simple to get them ranked very quickly.

In most cases, however, we explain to our clients the amount work that will be involved and that ultimately they will need to be patient. We ask them to allow for at least three months to see results.

What Do You Think?

Did you find this explanation helpful?

If you did, please leave a comment below and share this post with your friends.

In the past few years, we have seen an enormous shift in how big companies have been approaching marketing.

And as small business owners, we shouldn’t ignore that but in some way glean from it.

In the age of blogging and social media, it is no longer effective to simply broadcast your marketing or advertising outwardly to, or even at, an audience.

According to Mashable, businesses saw a great need to focus a good portion of their marketing efforts to content marketing in 2011. To quote, “In the past year, marketers distributed more business-to-business content on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter than ever, according to [the Content Marketing Institute].”

And that will only continue in 2012.

The manner in which Content Marketing differs from traditional marketing is that Content Marketing calls for interactivity.

It’s purpose is to provide information that customers are searching for and then allows them to share it with others.

The Holy Grail of Content Marketing is that the piece of content becomes viral and is shared with millions in a short amount of time.

Can you accomplish this as a small business?

Fortunately you can. With a bit of ingenuity (or maybe a lot), some creativity, and some “cojones”…some great content can be created for your business that will be invaluable to you in 2012.

Companies like Coca-Cola, Mint.com, and AMEX are expending great energy on content marketing. The infographic below will give you an idea why…

Although you might not have the budgets of some of these larger companies, you’ll still benefit by getting a good idea or two.

In today’s post I wanted to show you how to utilize some very important screen real estate on your Facebook Fan Page, the 5 image photo strip area above your news feed.

Of the millions of Facebook Fan Pages that exist, very few of them are taking advantage of this area to promote their services and products.

And those that are using it are getting more exposure, more interaction, and ultimately more business.

But first…

What Is the Photo Strip?

The photo strip on Facebook is a way for you to share images that are related to your industry, your products, services…basically anything about your business.

It is very similar to the photo strip that existed on the old-style Facebook personal profile.

Anytime that you upload  a new photo, or image, to your fan page, it will show up on your feed as well as on this photo strip.

However, today I’m going to show you how to optimize this space to promote your products and even use this space to have your own customized ads.

Create Your Images

First, you have to create the images that you would like to use on your photo strip.

The size of the images as they are shown on the photo strip are 97 x 68 pixels.

However, you’ll want to make your image much larger than that but scaled to those dimensions.

For example, you could make your image 10x larger by making it 970 x 680 pixels.

The reason for that is that although the images on the photo strip appear much smaller, your visitor can then click on it to see a full version like in the image to the left.

You can provide a call-to-action on the description of each of your images.

This is a great way to personalize and customize your offers.

I personally used an image size that was a little different from the dimensions I mention above. If you would like to see the Photoshop file that I made for my images…click here.

Another key point to keep in mind when creating your images is that each image has to be able to carry its own weight by itself.

What I mean is, that with the photo strip on a personal Facebook profile, it was possible to create a panoramic image consisting of the five images.  You could make a banner made up of the five images.

That’s not the case with the photo strip on your fan page.

The five images rotate each time your page is reloaded. There is no way to control what order the images show up in.

So make sure that your images are not dependent on one another.

Upload Your Images Already

I uploaded my five images in an album of their own for organization-sake.

You don’t have to do this, but I would recommend it.

Make sure to add a description with a call to action and include your website if that is a part of your call to action. Again, take a look at our images to get an idea of what you can add.

Note: As you share more content on your Facebook wall and upload images, the newly uploaded images will try to replace the ones you have in your photo strip.

It’s really simple to avoid that. Once you upload your image,  you’ll notice it in your photo strip.

Hover over the image and click on the “x” that appears to hide it. And that’s all.

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I hope you found this post helpful to customize your fan page and optimize it for your business.

Make sure you leave a comment below and include your Fan Page to share it with all of our readers.