A trend among many businesses who initiate implementation of an SEO campaign is a period of fast results. This is often called the "SEO Honeymoon", and there are reasons for this. Usually businesses that haven’t SEO’d their site, have a lot of simple changes that are needed from day one that result in great gains in rankings and results. These changes are very straight-forward, but make a huge difference:

1. Keyword Research and Analysis

Choosing the keywords that are competitive for your business or product category. Implement these keywords throughout the site and its tags.

2. Title Tag Optimization

Keyword optimizing your title tags. This means renaming the tag with your primary keywords.

3. Internal Linking Structures and Anchor Text Optimization

You need a strong, internal linking structure to ensure quality flow and ease of use. Optimize your anchor text with keywords for the best results.

4. Semantically Structuring On-Page Text

This would tell the search engines what is important on your site. It’s much like prioritizing your content so the spiders read the most important information first.

These implementations are relatively simple, but it also depends on what CMS you are using and its versatility. Once you have made your site more accessible and search engine friendly, the landing page has a strong SEO strategy, your keyword research is paying off and you have witnessed that immediate spike in results, you are ready for some real work.

Congratulations, your SEO honeymoon is over. Now the hard part begins, maintaining and building on your initial success. If you don’t have the capital to invest in an SEO firm, then you will want to educate yourself on the next steps. If you do invest in the services of a firm, here is what should help you develop realistic aspirations.

A long-term strategy of SEO, social media, link building and online PR must be developed to work together for a 6, 12, or 24 month period. Manage realistically what your expectations are for profits, conversions, traffic and rankings. It is also very important to involve analytics software and determine exactly what you want to measure and report on every week and month, in order to make the most educated decisions.

It is also important for any client relationship to have transparency. The quick results may foster unrealistic expectations for the campaign. Be honest and present credible and justified results in the planning process. This will help hedge any egos that may want the whole cookie jar.

Web sites that require simple changes can often times experience quick results when they begin their SEO campaign, resulting in a proverbial honeymoon of results. This can foster unrealistic expectations from the client. In these situations it is crucial to be honest and realistic with the client, as well as take the necessary steps to continue their SEO success and momentum throughout the rest of their campaign.