Regional SEO Techniques. How fast do you see the results of your SEO efforts?

[morestar]

Interesting. I knew the following example would be the result. A client asked us to get them found for "(car brand name) sales (city)".

I was asked by my team mates to bring the guy up. I did a little this and that and told them to check the results in two weeks although I knew the effect would be obvious within a few days.

Less than five days later, searching on google.ca for again the search terms "(car brand name) sales (city)" found our client's site in the number 1 position in the SERPS and #3 on google.com.

I'm sure everyone who dabbles in SEO know's getting good rankings in regional searches is quicker and easier than broader searches.

Does anyone have any stories like this where they over-achieved in their SEO campaigns? Where their theory was right and they new exactly what to do SEO wise?

[anandnadaar]

Well that's generally much easier than having a generic keyword rank well on Google without any regional criteria.
It is all a game of popularity. The more the keyword is popular the tougher it gets.
I got many sites ranking well for regional keywords but when it came to ranking a generic keyword.. I had to work harder.

[urb100]

Anand is right. In addition to what he said, it is also easy to rank for few days and then slowly go down in SERP in google - known as sandboxing. Watch out for that and don't count your eggs before they are all hatched.

[a53mp]

I always tell clients at least 1 month

[claybutler]

I always play my best hand, but the search engines have the final say. I always get my clients sites to perform better than before I met them. If I wasn't sure I could, I wouldn't take the job. The interesting part is how the same techniques play out from site to site. Sometimes a site will under perform to my expectations (but better than the original baseline) and sometimes it's just crazy good and my client dominates even for non regional generic phrases. The former keeps you keeps you humble and realistic, and the latter makes you feel like a god. I prefer feeling like a god of course.

And like a53mp said. Always say a month at least. You usually see result much sooner but you never know.

[james113]

I'm sure everyone who dabbles in SEO know's getting good rankings in regional searches is quicker and easier than broader searches.

Does anyone have any stories like this where they over-achieved in their SEO campaigns? Where their theory was right and they new exactly what to do SEO wise?

I do a little more than dabble in SEO and I have found that getting good rankings for regional search phrases is no different than any other search phrase. It all depends on how many sites are competing for the search phrase in question and the amount of SEO being implemented by the competition.

Since my goal is always the number one position in search results for any given search phrase, I am unable to over-achieve on any SEO campaign. Sounds to me like you implemented an SEO technique without studying the competitors websites to see what exactly needed to be done. SEO without stratagy can be very dangerous.

The time it takes to see the results of SEO efforts depends on when the search engine re-crawls the website in question. I have seen results in as little as an hour.

[NJ]

I once had a client whose brand new site was coming up well on Google for about 4 of her keywords within a week of the site launching. So, immediately she paniced that it wasn't the same for all her keywords. In that case, the immediate success made my explanation of the time it takes seem like a lie!

[morestar]

Anand is right. In addition to what he said, it is also easy to rank for few days and then slowly go down in SERP in google - known as sandboxing. Watch out for that and don't count your eggs before they are all hatched.

Absolutely and I've seen that happen a zillion time. I think the best thing to do after the little result would be to continue working on doing what you did to get them there in the first place. He should stay #1 for at least a few weeks depending on many factors.

It's sort of like a tool to show the client, hey I can do my thing and if you really want results step up!

[morestar]

I always play my best hand, but the search engines have the final say. I always get my clients sites to perform better than before I met them. If I wasn't sure I could, I wouldn't take the job. The interesting part is how the same techniques play out from site to site. Sometimes a site will under perform to my expectations (but better than the original baseline) and sometimes it's just crazy good and my client dominates even for non regional generic phrases. The former keeps you humble and realistic, and the latter makes you feel like a god. I prefer feeling like a god of course.

I'm the same way with respect to not taking the work if I know the competition is going to be too massive compared to what they're willing to pay. If it gets hectic I suggest well Google Adwords and so forth. I can work with that and organic SEO.

I must say I also usually bring a site to better performance except the one time when I started out, I redesigned davcogaskets.com and "promised" I'd rock it for them (a friend (not anymore really))...and it came to nothing. I couldn't even get them to rank for their domain name. I could suppose that was up to Google and their hours of operation, I did what I should but it came to nothing. But now'a days they always turn out better positioned....

To my team-mates I say it'll take 3 days, to my clients I say a few months or less....usually a month....

[morestar]

Sounds to me like you implemented an SEO technique without studying the competitors websites to see what exactly needed to be done....

Really? It seems like that?

Well it sure wasn't. come on now....