As a business you need to fully understand the power and the process of SEO before you decide to get started with applying it for yourself or your business. You need to possess certain kinds of characteristics and traits because SEO is a long term marriage and you need to be in it for the long haul.
Here are some traits required for search engine optimization and the overall internet marketing campaign to work well:
Patience: Depending on your industry it could take a great deal of time to really see the effects of SEO. Unless you analyze your Google analytics information almost every day you might not see the power that is building in the background. Studying your analytics information you will be able to see where your traffic is coming from and what links have been generated from your search engine marketing efforts. It is not uncommon to have to wait 6-12 months for things to really work well.

Branding: You have to be able to understand the importance of branding your business online. Search engine optimization is more than just increasing your rankings. It is all about branding your business online the right way and building your business with solid footing in place.
Diversity: It is also important to understand that diversity is the name of the game with marketing your business online. Taking a diverse approach and being open minded will allow a person or a business to bring in website traffic from multiple avenues and locations. Beating a few chosen efforts into the ground is not a long term approach. You have to be willing to utilize all the resources that surround your business.
Trust: This is very important because often times a business lacks the trust of their SEO firm or person to get the job done right. If you have spent some time really isolating the right type of marketing firm to partner with you will have to put your trust into their skills and services. Don’t fight the steps they propose, embrace them.
Do you possess these traits and characteristics? These are important for growing a long term healthy website in the online space. Branding a website and being an open minded business owner will allow your search engine optimization efforts to go much further. Don’t fight your SEO company (or your own internal self if you are building your SEO program yourself), but rather put your trust into them.