If you are going to take up an SEO service, it is important for you to understand that SEO is not something that can be done based on some set principles and then left at that. There is lot more to SEO than just building links or writing title tags. There is a whole lot of planning and execution that goes into building a successful SEO campaign, and this takes time. There is time required to work out a linking strategy, there is time required to approach websites and build quality links, there is time required to ensure that the site ranks consistently and is not penalized by search engines cause of excessive or bad link building.

Below I present 8 SEO limitations that you as a client should know before taking up an SEO service.

1.) SEO Cannot Guarantee Results

The first thing that you have to understand is the fact that SEO is not magic. It’s not about building a few links and getting the site to rank top for keyword queries. It’s a lot more than that. If you look at a wider picture, you will realize that there are thousands of websites out there who want to rank within the top 10 for the very same keywords that you want to rank for. All these websites are using SEO services, and some are even paying a whole lot more than you can even afford.

Let us take an example. Say a website wants to rank for the keyword “acne remedies.” The competition for this keyword is around “338,000.” (You can find the competition of a keyword by going to Google and searching for the keyword using quotes. Just put a quote before and after the keyword and search. The competition will appear in the top right hand corner of the search results.)

Now, out of these 338,000 odd competitors, let us assume that we have around 1,000 good websites. All of these good websites are using SEO services to rank top for the same keyword (acne remedies). The number of spots available are only 10. So, considering this, how do you expect an SEO to guarantee results?

A good SEO will never guarantee results. The only thing he guarantees is the quality of service he will offer. 

2.) Keywords Don't Remain Within the Top 10 Forever

I have seen many clients who simply stop the SEO service once their keywords start ranking on top. This is a mistake. You are ranking top today, and this could be your moment of fame. Search engines like Google keep updating their database on a daily basis and the SERPs change accordingly. If an SEO is making your keyword rank on top, appreciate him and stay with him.

SEO is not a one time process. It can never be, because there is competition out there waiting to topple your ranking at a moment’s notice. You have got to keep at it on a consistent basis so you can maintain your rankings. Please understand that SEO is an ongoing process.

3.) Rankings Can Fluctuate at Times

As mentioned above, Google keeps experimenting with its search algorithm. This means one fine day your top ranking keywords can drop down the order. But this does not mean that you should start panicking or blaming your SEO service provider.

Please understand that this is just a phase; your keywords can start ranking top once again in a matter a few days. Sometimes it might even take a few months; but if your website is of good quality and you have not done anything wrong, you should get back up there eventually.

It could also be that the keywords are ranking low only in a few old datacenters. You can always cross check your results in different Google datacenters using online tools. Here is one, for instance:

http://www.mcdar.net/dance/index.php

4.) PR Has Got Nothing to do with Rankings

There are many clients who think that SEO is about increasing the PR, so therefore the rankings would automatically improve. I am tired of explaining that PR has got nothing to do with a site's rankings, and that a low PR does not reflect badly on a website’s quality. There was a time when PR was taken into consideration in deciding the value of a website, but those days are gone. You can safely stop worrying about PR. What matters is the number of quality backlinks that you have. Check your backlinks using the following command in Yahoo!

Linkdomain:yoursitename.com –site:yoursitename.com

 
5.) SEO is Not About Mass Link Development

It’s not about the quantity of links that you get, but rather the quality. Sometimes a single quality link is worth more than 100 non-quality ones. Beware of SEO companies that develop hundreds of links every month from resource pages that have hundreds of unrelated links.

I had a client who was not happy with my link building. He showed me a list of links that his previous SEO company had developed. I had one look at that list and was shocked. All links were from crappy resource pages and each resource page had more than 500 to 600 links on them. Wow, if only link building was so easy.

I had to get all those links removed to keep the client site from getting penalized. Always remember, it’s not about quantity, it is all about quality when it comes to link building.

6.) SEO is Not About Directory Submissions or Article Submissions

Anyone can do directory or article submissions. But what do you think is the value of these easily generated links? The value of these links is close to nil, and these links can never be counted as quality links. I am not saying that all directory links are valueless. There are a handful of directories that can offer you good link value, but these directories are very rare. The other host of directories that accept any site that is submitted to them pretty much pass no link value.

When it comes to article submission, it’s not the link that you get from an article directory that matters. What matters is the links that you get from websites that decide to reprint/reuse your articles. You have to give a lot of thought towards writing good quality articles and not crappy ones.

SEO is ongoing and cannot be over in a set period of time. This is because, as I mentioned earlier, there are many websites out there competing to outrank your site. The only way you can maintain your position is by constantly working towards building good quality links spaced over a period of time.

8.) Slow and Steady Wins the Race

The question that really frustrates me is when a client asks, ‘How soon can you bring my keywords to rank on top?’ As already mentioned above, there cannot be a set time period for SEO. SEO is a slow and steady process. It is not like AdWords or any other PPC campaign that can bring results in a matter of minutes.

In SEO, just like anywhere else, the slow and steady win the race. Not the fast and the furious. The fast and the furious can generate a lot of links in a very small span of time, only to get your website penalized by Google. What is the point of spending so much on links when all you get is a penalized website?

Search engines are strictly against links generated artificially. They rank only those websites whom they think got their links naturally. It takes time to naturally acquire links. These links are generated over a period of time and not overnight. SEO is about generating links artificially, giving the search engines the impression that the links were actually generated naturally.