You are a SEO professional. On your site you boast some successful SEO jobs. You have clients testimony proving your results. But are they truthful?
SEO is a cut throat business. I have received many SEO promises. Guarantee to 10 on Google. First page on Google or your money back. These and many more promises. But can I believe them?
So I browse to the sites of these SEO professionals and am amazed at what they can achieve. There are stats, testimonies and all sorts of other advertising, gimmick things on the site.
Example, one site quotes that they boosted their clients site from round about 4000 page views per month to over 150 000 page views per month. Now is this true? how can we check this out?
So I browsed my way to Alexa and compete.com. The Alexa ranking for this particular site sits well over 1 000 000 rank mark. Compete.com does show a spike in the web traffic, but in the last two months it has dropped down at a rate of about 90%.
While these stats are not a science in themselves. There are many problematic areas in them, they can give you an estimation as to the forecast and average of a sites traffic details. When there is such a vast difference, as in the case of Alexa, do we take it that the majority of the visitors to this particular site do not have the Alexa tool bar? That could well be. But checking out other stats for extra confirmation is always a good thing.
Clearly this type of SEO is not what people are looking for. What you want is sustainability. You want your site views and visitors to be at a constant rate. Your increase should be steady upward. This peak for one month and then return to normal the next few is not, in my opinion a proper result for SEO.
I compare it to an ultra marathon. In such a race, any one can sprint to the front. But how long can you keep up at that pace. Your stamina will soon be completed, you will run out of steam, and in no time the other runners will catch up, over take, and you will be left breathless, a few hundred meters from the start. Where as the actual race is well over 70km. The winner is not who is first at the start, but who is first at the Finish, who can last the distance. Who can outpace the competition, who can overcome the trials, tests, and endure to the end.
Is your SEO effort a one hit wonder or are they lasting impressions?