Introduction
“How long does it take for SEO to work?” Is a question we are often asked by potential clients, when they are exploring the idea of investing in SEO. Anyone with knowledge of SEO will tell the client “it depends”. However, this answer is vague and doesn’t answer the question clients really want to know – is SEO a good investment or not.
SEO is not like PPC where results can be seen almost instantly. It takes time to see successful organic SEO results. But how long does this take?
It is near enough impossible to give a figure that applies to all websites. The best an SEO specialist can do is give you a best guess based on analysing your websites current performance, competitors and proposed SEO strategy.
However, with the right strategy we usually see SEO results within a 6-12 month period. By results, we mean a measurable increase in traffic and associated leads or conversions. This does not mean that your SEO target will have been reached in this time frame, but most businesses investing in search engine optimisation should expect to be able to see progress within this time period.
In this blog post we are going to outline some of the main factors Google and other search engines use to determine a website’s rankings.
Google’s Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
E-A-T is a combination of factors, which include:
- Authority of the domain – If you own a site that’s been around for decades and has thousands or even millions of high quality links pointing to it, that gives you more credibility than someone who just started an SEO company last week.
- Authority of the content – The most important part here is having original content that people want to read and share with others. If your articles are boring, uninteresting and full of mistakes then Google will think they aren’t trustworthy enough to rank highly in SERPs.
The most important thing to remember here is not just how much work there is involved in creating great rankings; rather it’s about making sure what’s going into those ranks are useful for searchers (which we’ll discuss next).
Your Website’s Content Has To Be Compelling And Useful
You can’t just publish any old content and expect it to rank well in search engines. You need to create content that appeals to your target audience, is easy for your site visitors to find and read, has a good internal link structure, and is relevant to the topic or keyword you’re targeting.
Relevant, useful content will help attract more natural links from other websites (and not just from people who want to manipulate the system). It’ll also keep them coming back for more! New content should be added regularly so that search engines know that your website is active and relevant — they don’t want spammers outranking sites with valuable information on their search engine results pages.
Your Website Must Be User-Friendly
Your website must be user-friendly. If your website is not easy to use, then people will leave and not come back.
This means it should be easy to navigate, it should not have any issues with broken links or loading speed, or security issues (such as viruses) that affect their experience of the site.
Your Website Must Have A Good Overall Structure That Links Through To All Of Your Internal Pages
Search engines will only index pages that are accessible by their crawlers. If you have a lot of dead links or missing pages on your site, this can be an issue.
If you want to make sure that search engines find all the pages on your website, it’s important that you create and maintain a good site structure. This includes making sure that each page links to at least two other internal pages (and not just any old page) so that search engines can crawl through the website easily and index everything in order to rank well in their results.
You should also use appropriate anchor text when linking between different webpages within your own domain – this helps both human readers and robots understand what they are clicking through too!
In addition to ensuring there is an obvious visual hierarchy on each page, it’s also vital that your internal link structure is logically laid out across all sections of content so as not confuse users looking for specific information when reading/browsing around different areas at once.
You Need Inbound Links From Other Websites That Are Relevant And Trustworthy
As we mentioned earlier, Google has become smarter over the years. In order to keep ahead of their competitors, they have been using a lot of algorithms to rank websites and determine what is the most relevant content for any given search term. When it comes to SEO, you need inbound links from other websites that are relevant and trustworthy if you want your website to rank higher on Google’s Search Engine Result Pages.
SEO Is Ongoing And Takes Time Before Results Are Seen
SEO is not a quick fix, nor a one-off deal. It’s an ongoing strategy you maintain to improve your website’s performance in search engines, and it takes time to see results.
SEO is an investment that requires consistent effort over time, but the long-term benefits are well worth it if you want to grow your business by bringing more customers through the door.
Conclusion
SEO is an ongoing process that requires patience and commitment. It can take several months before you start to see any improvements in your rankings, so don’t expect overnight results. The best way to measure your progress is by tracking your monthly search engine traffic as well as Google Analytics data over time. Also keep an eye out for changes in SERP position for keywords that are important to your business goals.
If you are interested in SEO for your website then why not get in touch with one of our experts today. Email us at hello@ctrlaltcreate.co to book a call to discuss your requirements.