In a SaaS discussion group, I saw this:
“SEO agencies are telling me ‘You have to be patient, pay us for at least 6 month and you will see the results.’ Is that right?”
And, of course, a bunch of SEOs jumped on the thread to defend this… and, of course, to pitch their services.
Here’s my take…
It’s nonsense.
Sure, it can take 6 months to see great results – especially in competitive markets. But to “see results” – of any kind? You’re asking the client to show a LOT of faith.
So, being a curious fellow, I asked these SEOs why it would take so long…
“Because it does.”
Well, sorry, Mr SEO, but I’ve worked with one SEO who got fast results in a very crowded SaaS marketplace (accounting software).
The same SEO has gotten quick results for other clients of mine (a mix of SaaS and non-SaaS companies.)
So, if it takes you 6 months, it takes YOU 6 months.
One of the SEOs said, “You can get traffic in far less than 6 months… but it might take 6 months to see sales.”
Wait..what?
“We’d be writing blog posts to rank for long-tail and it would take time for those blog visitors to become users…”
Hold on…
Your idea of “SEO” is to rank blog posts for long-tail information searches? Searches that have low traffic and low buying intent?
Is this really what the SEO industry has become?
You see, back in olden times (2010) people paid SEOs to rank them for their best keywords.
If you offered accounting software, you wanted to be on page 1 for “accounting software.” That’s where your buyers were.
And that’s what you’d hire an SEO to do for you.
But nowadays, SEOs have decided such goals are unreasonable. Instead their sales pitch is:
“We’re going to find some keywords your competitors haven’t bothered SEOing for… and, within a few months, we’ll have you ranking for those.”
Well, you don’t need an SEO for that.
Until the SEO industry can do better than that, I’d suggest you forget about SEO.
Or, if you really want SEO – and to rank for your market’s most valuable keywords – hit me up and I’ll introduce you to my friend who knows how to do that.
All the best,
Steve Gibson
