The one question that is common to every person who goes into SEO is how long they have to wait till it starts working for them. How long till their website shows up as Google’s first page?
The short answer is there is no definite way of knowing this.
But from our experience, we can see ranking results on the first page for low to medium competition keywords from a brand new website in 2-6 months.
Technology is continuously evolving enabling search engines to do more and more making it impossible to predict how fast ranking can make your page visible.
Let’s break this down.
The Inner Workings of a Search Engine
There is a series of algorithms that go into Google ranking systems. These systems put into consideration hundreds of factors like the words used in your query, their relevance, their popularity, the credibility of the sources, how often the pages are used, your location and so on.
This is so as to give each user the best information on their query.
Along with this, Google uses a program called “Page Rank”. This ‘ranks’ the importance of a page over others based on the standard of information it provides.
So, there are no two websites that can be ranked the same, even when they're in the same industry.
With all this at work, it is hard to predict which factors will push a website to rank high. Just like it is impossible to be certain stock prices in a period of time, it is impossible to accurately determine whether your website will start ranking high soon, or even when it will.
Some experts, however, say that just like a business, it could take 4 to 6 months before you see good results from SEO. The subject of your website might also determine how fast you start seeing results. According to these experts, websites with topics that have little competition may begin seeing results in a matter of weeks. On the flip side, websites with more competitive subjects may take a longer time before you start experiencing the results.
SEO Is A Slow Burning But Sure Oven
It takes a nice old fashioned oven time to heat up, yet it stays hot for a long time after. SEO is just the same. It does not happen suddenly, but it takes time and sometimes, it takes a lot of time.
Even when you have the perfect SEO plan, planted the right keywords with the right density, it can still take some time before Google ranks you. For instance, we worked on a client’s SEO campaign for over 50 hours. We executed everything perfectly. Google set them aside and wouldn’t let them ranked on Google’s first page based on the fact that they had not ranked for that term before.
Just when we were all almost giving up, 90 days later, they made it to the first page. They stayed there for 6 months straight. SEO is a sure investment. It just takes time before it starts bringing results. But once it does, and you keep at it, it just keeps the results coming.
This patience is what most businesses lack. Many give up within the first month thinking they are spending so much money on a dead investment that is not bringing anything back. If anything, in the first month, SEO does not show any chance of bringing back any returns. If these thoughts are running through your mind, then you might need to take a beat before trying out SEO just yet. Your expectations are not real, as we have so far shown. It could also mean that the budget you think it will take for a real SEO campaign is also too small. It takes money and time.
Think slow-burning oven.
We have worked on numerous marketing campaigns to know that SEO is only good for those who are patient and consistent. We have produced a 28k return from a simple Pay-per-click campaign in advertising.
How The SEO Process Works
Let’s break this down into a typical 4-month campaign:
1st Month
We kick the campaign off.
This involves getting oriented with the project, evaluating the competition, looking for relevant keywords, and audit the site, do the analyses and do onboarding.
From here comes the technical part of SEO. This includes optimizing the site’s speed, indexing, compressing images, making any necessary changes on the server, adding the Sitemap and so on.
On the same beat, we also work on the backend on and off-page SEO strategies like tags and categories, NAP listings, Meta descriptions and the like.
These details may not be seen on the surface, but they are the driving forces of making your SEO campaign successful.
2nd Month
This is when we now bring in the content. We work on the content on the On-page, blogs, press releases, guest posts, optimization and mapping out the buyer’s journey, or clearing it up if it is already created.
3rd Month
Here we continue adding and improving the content and delivering it focusing on optimization for smaller localities. We add downloadable links, FAQs, and location pages and so on. It is also at this point that SEO for Off-page will go up high, including Link building and GMB optimization as well as Outreach campaigns. By now, there should be some indication of improved traffic and leads and even higher page rankings.
This will, however, depend on where you started off the ranking. If for instance, you started off in the first few pages of Google, then by now you should see an upward climb on page ranking. If you have never featured on the first few pages, then this is an indication that Google never took your page as a relevant source of those keywords. You would then not see any difference by now.
4th Month
Here, we work on syndication which is targeted at building your online brand presence. The pages that are getting the highest hits will now start bringing benefits due to focused On-page Conversion Optimization. At this point, you can now focus on building new leads or sales from the targeted traffic, drawn from the pages that have the highest traffic. The working formula here is:
Target Traffic + High Converting Page = New Leads From here on, keeping the formula working, you should start getting more leads and more traffic. The level and kind of activities that start from here will be determined by the kind of company you are. Just keep at the process, keep doing what you need to be doing and trust the company that you are working with. If what is happening becomes unclear, then ask for projections.
We are aware of how fluid this industry is. This is why we keep our ear on the ground on how best to run campaigns, how best to improve our strategies as well as how to get creative with SEO to deliver the best results. We keep at the slow-burning stove process and help you keep at it to get the best results. Your feedback is what keeps us, helping us improve on strategies as well as customizing your sites to enable you to get returns from your investments.
Looking to start an SEO campaign? Or simply looking to improve your existing one? Contact us today. We shall take you through a free SEO report & consultation session to establish if you need us, and what we can do for you.
