Working Wednesday: Patience is a Virtue

Here at iMod Digital we use a phrase fairly often, "SEO is a marathon, not a sprint", and we've been doing so for several years. Why do we use this phrase? Because it's exactly how people should look at search engine optimisation (SEO). SEO isn't something that you can simply turn on, at least not in 95% of the cases, but rather a strategic approach needs to be created and executed by a team of professionals. If you take this approach you will succeed. So today we want to tell you a story about a client of ours who operates in the jewellery industry. Several years ago we met with a gentleman who operated a small jewellery business right here in Cape Town. He was concerned about how competitive the industry is and wanted to discuss how SEO could assist him. We spent time learning about what he did, we studied the competitors and we explained to him that we could do something great but that he'd have to be patient.  He trusted us and agreed to be patient, so we got started and the journey has been hugely beneficial to both him and ourselves. Have a look at his inbound traffic since commencement: Over the years we've managed to increase the traffic to the website as follows:

• 2012: 14,301 visitors.
• 2013: 22,076 visitors.
• 2014: 8,058 visitors at 31 March. Projected: 32,000 - 35,000.

Traffic aside, in terms of actual leads generated through forms on the website, the year on year growth has been as follows:

• 2012 - 2013: 169% increase.
• 2013 - 2014: 135% increase.

What we haven't included are the leads generated through the local SEO we have done - last time we spoke about this, our client said that he is receiving a handful of walk-in customers every day because of the local listing. Having a client that trusted our approach and allowed us to move forwards has shown a wonderful return for him over the years. He is incredibly happy with the movement and in fact, the movement has allowed him to hire more staff and move into a fantastic office space. A hugely pleasurable journey that we've gone on! For the sake of privacy we were asked to not include his name or the company name.