SEO is Like Compound Interest
blue graph depicting a watch and arrows indicating compounding of interest over time
Let's say you've got a stock portfolio and can secure a 7% return every year. If you start out with $10,000, at the end of 10 years you'll have nearly $20,000 dollars in your portfolio. This illustrates the power of compound interest hard at work for you.
So it sort of begs the question, if compound interest is so powerful and so simple, why isn't everyone wealthy?
For those who can save, the biggest reason they don't benefit from compound interest is a lack of consistency in their investment. Investors routinely jump from investment to investment without regard for long-term
trends. A study at Fidelity demonstrated that the best investors were the ones that forgot they had an account at Fidelity! Twenty year annualized returns for the S&P 500 were about 9% but average investors only made about 3%. This is not good.
Consistency Wins
Seo is pretty much the same.
The ?investment? is hard work, and like compound interest, the long term results can be tremendous. When you are dominating your niche in the search engines, it's like a license to print money.
But just like with compound interest, increasing your search engine ranking takes consistency. People get discouraged after starting a blog because they aren't producing organic sales leads as quickly as they'd like. And sure enough, they jump all over the place with their seo activities without regard for what the search engines ultimately want to see (informative, relevant content).
But a lack of SEO focus is ultimately self-defeating.
Seo campaigns are like the proverbial snowball rolling down the hill, gaining momentum, size, and impact as they go. When you launch that first your blog, you'll be lucky to draw in more than a few hundred visitors per month, and many of those will be from sources other than organic traffic (ie social media). But over time, as your content volume expands and Google recognizes you for more and more keywords, your traffic will increase.
With persistence you will slowly gain more traction and draw in more views. Repeated effort, and a growing content base will move you up search engine rankings, even if the movement is slow. ?And as you move up rankings, you'll draw in more reads, and the cycle will repeat.
So just like with the Tortoise and the Hare, think slow and steady. Keep building strong content. Take the time to connect with new people and existing relationships. Share your knowledge and expertise and over time the search engines will begin to recognize you as an authority in your field.
