The Dangers of Poor Expectation Management During Backlink Campaigns

With such a buzz surrounding the search engine optimisation industry, many businesses taking their first steps into the world of search marketing expect overnight results. After all, the internet is a world of instant gratification and meteoric ascendancies. Some unscrupulous SEO companies offer backlink services they claim will deliver results in a matter of weeks, but these claims should be taken with a whole handful of salt – if they are true, they almost certainly rely on questionable techniques that could land your business in legal hot water or serious trouble with search engine operators.

At the same time, you shouldn’t have to wait too long to see the results of an effective link building strategy. Depending on your budget, most of the best link building companies should be able to deliver significant search engine ranking gains within a matter of months. There may be the odd exception, for example where incredibly competitive key terms are being targeted on a small budget (this is a very bad strategic decision anyway, but if it’s your strategic decision, your SEO company will probably oblige) – nevertheless, if you don’t see ranking gains within three months, you should conduct some performance analysis while being careful not to apply too much pressure to the SEO company concerned.

As a general rule, you should let your chosen SEO agency deliver results on their own terms. If you constantly breathe down their necks, cracking the whip and demanding ranking gains as quickly as possible, you may risk driving them down the wrong path. Most SEO companies are aware of the ‘dark arts’ of black hat SEO, and if you refuse to heed their warnings about realistic expectations, you may find your business at the heart of a dangerous and volatile link building campaign. The best agencies would never consider taking this route to ranking gains, but inexperienced agencies may respond unpredictably to excessive pressure.