SEO is like gardening. You plant the seeds and hope that you achieve a good harvest within a few months. If the conditions are just right, planting the seeds will bring you results without much trouble, just a little watering. If conditions are not right, you need to take extra steps such as adding extra fertilizer. If all your ducks, or seeds, are in a row you will get a great harvest.
Sometimes you expect a feast, but end up with just a few snacks. If you plant your seeds, then ignore the garden, the chances of getting a good harvest are reduced drastically, but it can still grow if you are lucky. If your soil is right and the weather cooperates, growing a great garden can sometimes be relatively easy.
Gardening and SEO are incredibly similar when you think about it. Rankings need links, just as a garden needs water. Sometimes people link to you on their own, sometimes they don’t, and you have to go out and get them – just as sometimes it will rain, other times you have to get the hose, but more times than not, you really need the hose. Niche gardening, lets say cacti, as with niche SEO, say ‘purple kangaroo shoes’, sometimes wont require much water, or links, to grow nicely, but other factors such as soil conditions need to be there, and there is always the factor of time.
Gardening takes time, just as SEO does. Once the seeds are planted you need to wait for nature to do its thing, just as you need to wait for Google. Even the best gardeners can sometimes have failed crops if there is some kind of unknown hidden poison in the soil or if the weather doesn’t cooperate – this translates to well hidden spam or search engine road blocks, or perhaps a major algorithm update. Given time however to unearth and correct any hidden problems, the garden will grow – it just may take some extra water, fertilizer, and attention.
Gardening and SEO are both things that can bring you success, but if you don’t follow the instructions and common sense, and tend to your crop, the chances of that success will diminish.