This is the kind of frequently asked question that doesn’t really have a general answer or a one-size-fits-all solution. The amount of time it takes for newly implemented SEO tactics to show results depends on many ranking factors. We will go through the main things that influence the time frame of SEO results and make predictions based on them.
How Long Your Website Has Been on the Web
Your domain age is important in establishing a realistic timeframe for your SEO success.
A brand new website will need a lot of time until SEO efforts finally pay off since it starts from scratch. Google is also wary about new websites, as trustworthiness and authoritativeness build in time. This is why you don’t want to start off by using aggressive tactics for fast-growing traffic. Instead, it’s wise to lay the foundation for all your future SEO campaigns.
As a new website owner, you want to:
- Know who your target customer is!
- Identify your SEO competition, which will not necessarily be the same as your business competition;
- Organise your website so that visitors can navigate it quickly and with ease;
- Learn how to optimise your content in-depth;
- Start gathering your needed SEO tools and configure them according to your website’s needs.
If you have been around for at least a couple of years and you recently decided to boost your SEO strategy, you already have an established customer base that keeps returning to your website.
Even if you didn’t invest much in SEO, chances are you are already providing the right content and know your target audience. That will be enough to look at 6 months to 1 year of waiting until your website ranks in Google, sometimes even faster.
How Tough Your Competition Is
Your competitors should always be on your mind when working on your SEO performance. Because you are targeting the same people, you will compete for the same keywords, backlink sources, and so on.
Check how they are doing it, even if older websites might seem intimidating at first. You do want to choose your battles, as competing for very popular keywords will be difficult in the beginning.
To have a better idea of how fast SEO results will come, perform an analysis of how well you are doing compared to your competitors. Check keywords, backlinks, content, site structure, and Google SERPs.
Instead of trying to guess, or testing your way to the right keywords or backlink sources, it’s better to see what works for others and try to replicate that.
Keeping an eye on your competition will also give you opportunities to fill in the gaps that they leave untouched, like less used keywords or content that you can write better.
How Well-Maintained Your Website Is
We are talking about technical maintenance, as this can really impact your SEO performance. If your website has technical issues that you don’t know about, it won’t rank in Google or other search engines, no matter how good your content is or how well you researched your keywords.
If your website has major technical issues, it can be several months before everything is fixed and you can start noticing that your SEO works.
Some of the most common technical SEO issues are:
- Duplicate content
- Slow loading speed
- Poor mobile experience
- Faulty indexing
- Broken links, bad redirects
The list can go on and on, and problems can appear at any given moment if you are not regularly checking the health of your website. Depending on how serious the technical issues are, your SEO can be affected for months, or it can be fixed overnight.
It’s safe to say that a website with no major issues will not have delays, and it can focus on what plus value SEO can bring.
Your Budget
You have probably seen ads promising very cheap SEO services, or tutorials on how to do SEO with no budget. While a lot of SEO is actually based on knowledge and expertise, you do have to allocate a budget for it, especially at the beginning.
The amount you can spend on your SEO campaigns directly influences the speed with which you see results. Google Ads, content writers, tech support, SEO tools, website domains, and other expenses do add up. When you have a limited budget, it’s best to invest in a solid SEO plan instead of using shady black hat tactics that can cost your ranking in Google.
Which Sites Are Linking Back to Your Website
Your backlink profile says a lot about how much you have to struggle for your SEO to start working. If you already have significant traffic from a number of linking websites, it means that you already have organic traffic and you must be doing something right.
For SEO experts, websites that have high-quality inbound links are easy to work with and sometimes just need a little boost in their search engine optimisation. For these fortune cases, results from SEO can appear as fast as 2-3 months later.
If you are new online and you haven’t started link building yet, do your best to have a good first go at it. Avoid link schemes at all cost and learn more about cold emailing, pitching for backlinks without being spammy, and so on. This will not only get you a few good backlinks to start with, but it also gets your name known in your peer community and helps you network.
By performing a backlink audit, an online marketing expert can determine if you are going to see better results soon, or if it takes a bit more time to get to the top of the game.
When it comes to links, it also helps to build your own internal network of links. Make sure to include internal links and the proper anchor text to help your SEO in every article you publish.
How Much Content You Already Have on Your Website
Since content marketing is the king of inbound marketing, what you published so far will definitely influence the speed of your search engine optimisation strategy. If you are an established website that already published plenty of good content, you might only need some keyword optimisation, site structure update, or good promotion to get your content in the SERPs, where it can shine and give you the results you always wanted.
While social media is not necessarily the best source of website traffic, it can give you good ideas on what content to publish and how your readers perceive you.
How Good Your Local SEO Strategy Is
Another important factor in your SEO success is how well you have optimised for local SEO. This is especially important for businesses that operate from a brick and mortar store. If people can’t find you online, you lose significant foot traffic as well.
Check how easy you are to find on search engines, and if the information provided online is accurate. You should also perform mn-page local SEO to boost the ranking of pages containing location-related search terms. Don’t forget to use structured data for your NAP and other elements on the website.
Does Your Website Need an SEO Audit or a Whole New Strategy?
Whether you are new in the game or an old brand looking for ways to refresh its website, our SEO experts can give you punctual solutions. Based on what they find, you will get a realistic and accurate estimate of how long it takes for SEO to work, how much you should invest in it and what are your best options to make it fast and long-lasting.
Contact a Search Engine Optimisation Expert at Australian Internet Advertising for a free proposal now!
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