It’s a long road – Building big web traffic
Posted July 3rd, 2010.
Speaking with a potential client shocked individual a few days ago, lets call her Sarah, about a potential new website, and it was interesting to hear her expectations on the return on investment.
Apparently it’s “outrageous” that she shouldn’t expect additional business to come pouring in through the website immediately, and with no additional marketing or promotion.
The website would likely have been only four or five pages, the only form of promotion intended for the site was it’s inclusion on invoicing and existing stationery etc. No social networking, or additional marketing, essentially the goal was to receive traffic from search engines alone.
When asked how long before decent traffic could be expected, I briefly explained a few things including the Google sandbox theory ( explained later ) and that, erring on the safe side, perhaps 6 months should be expected before significant traffic would be seen.
At this point the conversation quickly broke down and ultimately ended with Sarah forming the opinion that the entire venture was a waste of time and money before abruptly ending the call.
With the appropriate amount of time and a little effort, a website has the potential to be an incredible tool. It just doesn’t happen overnight.
Exactly how it works is open to debate, as Google isn’t very forthcoming with the details, but in a nutshell Google Sandbox is a penalty imposed on new websites to prevent them ranking highly in search engine results (SERPs). Your baby website is effectively placed in the Sandbox to play with the other kids for a few months until its all grown up and ready for the real word.
The primary reason for this is to prevent spam websites from being able to manipulate SERPs results to rank highly from the day of their launch, preventing them from successfully peddling there wares before being taken down/banned etc.
It also serves to separate new incomplete or abandoned sites from those that are going to last, many years ago it was fairly common for sites to rank well only to be “under construction” when visited and to not have any useful content.
While the sandbox is a pain for any legitimate web contributor who’s site is destined to last, ultimately it improves using the search engine as a whole. If your serious about your website, there’s no time like the present to get started.
Don’t be discouraged
It just takes time…
Sometimes it is tough to look at absolutely horrible quality sites beating you on rankings just because they are a few years old. But you can’t fight the system and time is the only real solution. I have even considered just getting projects indexed even though I don’t plan on starting them for a few months. Just to get the site out of the sand box.
Mike,
I’m 1 position off the front page of Google at the moment for the term “logo design melbourne”. Most of the sites in front of me are fine however there’s one that is terrible, but has been registered for 11 years.
Oh well. I’m sure I’ll overtake them in time.
14/07 update: never mind, I’ve just moved forward 3 spots and I’m there now, that didn’t take long, ha.
3 points:
1. Sandboxing is a bad excuse. And to mention that to a client – that is so wrong. There is an acronym for that: FUD. Sure, sandboxing exist but will usually penalise websites that attempt something pretty dodgy or confusing to Google. It is your job to prevent that from happening, instead of pre-emptively excusing yourself from potential failure.
2. Apart from providing you with materials – the client should not put any more effort on her part. Why should she? It is your job to promote, to optimise, to do all the work to make her profitable.
3. Six months is a very long time for return in investment. The client should expect at least by the time her website is up 1 month so she gets back what she paid you. In 2, maximum 3 months – she should witness profits steadily rising. By the 6th month to maximum 1 year : she should expect no more than at least double net profit; provided the market is there, and there is true demand.
Sorry to be so harsh, but by posting this – you possibly expect some kind of understanding from other SEO’ers. You should guarantee profit within a time-frame or their money back, simple as. That is what I do, I write it on paper, hand it to the client and sign.
Henry,
You’ve focused too heavily on very selective parts of my post rather than taking away the message as a whole.
1. We both agree it takes time, the expectation on her part was an immediate boom in business. I didn’t “blame the sandbox”, I explained, “erring on the safe side”, it will take time to see significant results.
2. I didn’t say she was required to do anything additional. There are obviously many avenues available outside of on page SEO to improve your traffic. She elected not to pursue any.
3. Some results could be expected within 3 months, though I doubt you guarantee your customers half the previous years income in the first 6 months.
To quote you, “maximum 1 year : she should expect no more than at least double net profit”. I assume that’s meant to be no less than. Let’s say a client paid you $1000 for a website design. By your logic the website would yield $2000 profit over the course of an entire year. That’s hardly a booming business.
You go on to say “provided the market is there, and there is true demand”. I never said anything about her product, service, market or demand. What facts are you basing your opinion on that what I told her was inaccurate?
I don’t think you’ve been harsh, I actually think you’ve made a fool of yourself somewhat. I’m not sure what you mean by “expect some kind of understanding from other SEO’ers”, but I think your entire comment is you just trying to toot your own horn and it’s you who hasn’t understood.
I don’t think it’s unreasonable to offer a client realistic expectations rather than optimistic ones, FUD has nothing to do with it, I made no excuses, I clearly said a webpage can be a powerful tool, it just takes some time.
I think spending more time ensuring you understand something and less attempting to portray yourself as superior at someone else’s expense would serve you well in the future. I doubt many potential clients would be impressed by the demeanour you’ve shown here.
Andrew, I’m with you. I am by no means an SEO expert but as you are aware you have helped me promote my site in the past and I found all your information and support to be true when it came to what actually happens in the real world.
Henry why do you feel that mentioning the sandbox stuff is ‘so wrong’? Personally, as a user of other people’s expertise in the field, I would be somewhat irritated to say the least if someone I am paying for services had not explained the possibility of such a scenario to me.
I’ve worked in customer service in one role or another for a very long time now and I think that to not advise people of potential issues such as this is ‘so wrong’.
I know where the problem lies now. You are a very talented graphic designer.
Problem with that – is that they usually make into pretty crappy SEO strategists. Can’t help it – different sides of the brain competing for neural formations. Creative vs Analytic.
Now, I am a very crappy graphic designer. No matter how much I study and try .. I am now looking at your logos and I cringing in self-defeat.
I did read your post many times before answering. Believe me. But I should have read your entire site. Had known you are primarily a graphic designer I wouldn’t have bothered.
I do have a stab at the SEO industry at random, SEO consultants specially because of their lame excuses, vague promises. Their charlatanism. And then their countless hours spent on self-promotion, blogging away mindlessly – instead of investing all that energy, creativity and enthusiasm on clients.
I don’t do that for my own self-promotion. I don’t compete with anyone. Clients come to me via referral. I choose and pick.
But I do that to raise the bar. Because if you know your stuff: YES, it is possible to more than double the net profit for a client via SEO. And by that I mean before she was earning $20k? After your done she expect at least $50k easily!
Andrew, I am not a diplomatic person, when I am myself. And I usually stay clear of posting on designer’s blog.
And now, I am not trying to make up to you (although may look that way, ah well ..)
But as far as graphic design, logo concepts & creation goes. Well done. I am very impressed with your work. I would feel very proud even if I had a fraction of your talent.
This sort of compliment – I only said this to one other person in the web. Out of many I met.
PS: Now Let’s go back to your post, what you wrote, will try now a friendlier way:
So no, next time you don’t mention sandbox. It is still very wrong! You either can do it or you can’t. Simple.
It’s like me trying to design a logo for a client, But then covering up for potential failure. Something like:
“Look Client, there is a ‘slight’ risk the target market or the media, won’t be approving of the concept straight away .. OK? But hey – not to worry as I am sure they will being to warm up to it, err sometime later.”
Hi again Henry,
I don’t think comparing a logo design and human audience to an algorithm designed to factor in, among other things, time (in the short term at least) to be correct, but I understand what you’re saying.
Funny you should mention that though, I don’t know if you’re at all interested in branding/logos etc. but I always jokingly imagined the people at Wolff Olins (responsible for the 2012 Olympics and Wacom logos) saying “Look, everyone’s going to hate this thing for 2 years but won’t stopping talking about it, by then it will have grown on everyone”.
Sorry for going off topic if you’re not interested, ha. Back to business…
Thank you for your clarification, your kind words regarding my portfolio and your “not making it up to me”. I think perhaps the cause of our disagreement is a different understanding of the scale of Sarah’s expectations, perhaps I should have been clearer on that in the beginning, but let’s not make a big thing out of this. Failing that I think we’ll just have to put this subject down to agree to disagree.
Andrew, I am with you too. It is your job to not mislead a client/potential client and in our case we have found clients are happy when you are upfront about what they can expect.
Tiffany,
That’s my philosophy. What ever the project I’d rather discuss any potential concerns/issues/delays, however small they may at the beginning. Better things are understood and addressed before the project begins than a month after it’s finished.
Henry is of course entitled to his process, and if it’s working for him, great.
Hi Andrew
I am extremely interested in branding, logo, etc. Fascinates me a lot – but I am just not very good at it.
Here’s my last attempt at logo. Took me a long time, too much effort, I almost gave up – so this version will have to do now.
Your logos are just right: finely tuned, balanced. I need to spend more time studying them.
Most other logos I come across elsewhere are still somewhat wrong – they are not appalling as such, but miss their mark. You can sense clumsy effort, bad radio interference like a drunken dream.
Henry,
If your looking to improve you skills I can recommend a few things to read. Some are galleries, some are design theory, you’ve probably heard of them but here they are…
Books:
Graphis logo design.
Logo, by Michael Evamy.
Marks of Excellence.
Letter head and logo design, by Rockport Publishers (anything by Rockport is usually pretty good.)
Web:
Brand New.
Logolounge (books available also…).
Any number of graphic designers blogs, I’m sure you can find them.
Hope that’s of some help.
Hi Andrew
LogoLounge is what I want to get (ie the book services) . but no cash at the moment.
But I bookmarked those sites. And every single book on your list – I will buy. Cos I prefer reading from print then website.
My aim is not to become a graphic designer or even logo creator BUT .. I need to improve those skills considerably.
80% of my time is wasted / burnt / spent on the 2 elements I struggle most: (1) copywriting and (2) artistic design concept.
I write the content for the client always. And then have to do the artwork.
Now Only 20% of my energy and time is spent on SEO. If only I could become better and faster at non-SEO stuff; things will become less painful. So thanks very much for the advice, much appreciated and I will follow them through.
That website will be ready by 6th August, fingers crossed it ends up looking OK! A lot of work to do still.