How Long Does It Take For SEO To ‘Kick In’? | An SEO Expert Weighs In!
Let me know, you’re sick and tired of hearing the answer ‘it depends?’
Let’s learn from the expert about how we can rank higher on Google Searches!
How long does SEO take to work? | The Visionary Method
Hey visionaries,
Have you ever wanted to understand how you can rank higher on Google Searches? Of course you have!
As you are probably already aware, many of your Visionary Dream Clients (VDC’s) are “Googling” to find solutions to their current challenges or pain points, which means that it is VITAL for you to be ranking on the first few pages of the Google Search Results.
Before we begin, it’s important that you set up your Google Search Console. This is something that I do with all of my Private Business & Marketing Coaching Clients right away.
Optimizing your SEO and searchability on Google doesn’t have to be SO complicated! There is a lot you can do to improve visibility, right away.
Before we dive into the article, I want to share a personal anecdote.
I began writing Business and Marketing Blogs many years ago as a way to provide value and to establish my ‘thought leadership’ in the industry.
I had no intention of becoming one of the 1st search results for “Marketing Coaches in Canada” or “Small Business Marketing Coach” but with every blog that I published, every podcast transcript I uploaded and with every minor tweak I made to my website - SEO started to work in my favor.
All of the sudden, I was getting more and more Discovery Calls booked from my website than any other Marketing Effort that I was implementing.
Prior to SEO working in my favor, I was booking my discovery calls from Instagram (30%), Referral (25%), The Canadian School of Natural Nutrition / my students (30%) and SEO was 15%.
Today, the pendulum has swung and I the breakdown is…
SEO / Google Search Results (50%)
Referral & Word Of Mouth (30%)
Email Marketing + Social Media (20%)
I can tell you with certainty, SEO matters! When you pay attention to your SEO, you will book more discovery calls, generate more brand awareness, and sign more paying clients.
Now, let' me introduce you to today’s guest blogger Eddie Nehani from https://localseorankings.com/ who will be sharing his awesome and informative SEO-Boosting Tips with us today!
Why is SEO important & how does it help my business?
It is one of the questions that is not only hard to give a straight-forward answer but also the answer can vary widely and depends on quite a few factors such as:
The age of the website - New website vs. a website that has been around for a while.
Domain authority
Business niche and topical content
How many links point to the domain
The quality of the content
User experience (UX)
Mobile-friendliness
Technical aspects
How much competition is out there for the same niche?
How aggressive is the competition on their SEO?
How fast the business implements the recommended SEO changes
Has the website ever been penalized by Google?
In this article, I will try to explain why SEO campaigns take some time to produce results and what you should expect in terms of timelines. I will break it down into two different scenarios, new websites, and websites with some history. When I say produce results, I am referring to organic search results such as traffic, impressions, click-throughs, engagement, and conversion and not results from paid search ads (PPC).
First, let me emphasize in one sentence what SEO is all about.
Search Engine Optimization in plain language is knowing how to answer a specific query in your niche, better than your competition, so you can outrank them.
Now let’s talk about what you should expect from SEO campaigns.
The first step of the process for an SEO consultant or SEO agency is to perform an SEO audit on the website you want to optimize, and I like to break that down in two types of audit: On-Site Audit and Technical Audit.
It is also important to work with a SEO consulting agency who understands what changes need to happen first and knows how to prioritize those changes. It can make a difference on how fast you start seeing results.
SEO results for new websites
Let’s say you are launching a new website for your business and have very little or no presence online.
Assuming you’ve already done the work to determine which performance indicators will define your success, start aligning those indicators with your business goals. Doing that first will help create a SEO plan, a content strategy, and start link building outreach to drive more traffic to your website.
As the new business starts to publish quality content with a regular frequency, acquire more links, and properly implement all technical SEO recommendations, they will start noticing the needle moving towards the positive side. With time Google will pick up more ranking signals therefore clients should expect the rankings to become steadier.
Depending on what your niche is, how much competition there is, and how competitive are the keywords you are targeting, you could start seeing traffic increase anywhere from 9-12 months and beyond.
However, the answer can be different for different industries – we have seen a fresh domain in the semi-competitive design build niche rank on the first page within 4 weeks for non-branded keywords, however each customer is different.
My advice as local SEO consultant is not to worry or get obsessed with checking the traffic or impression results before 6 months, but rather focus on
Publishing quality content,
Build a strong backlink profile and
Establish yourself as an expert and authority in your industry, which will guarantee you future gains.
How about SEO results in established websites?
When it comes to websites that have been around for a while, we’ve seen different scenarios:
1. Websites that have a fair amount of quality content, have not done any SEO optimization at all but rather use other forms of traditional marketing. Those are often the best cases because the content is already in place, however it needs to be reorganized with keywords and user intent in mind. In many cases of this nature, I would recommend having a short and long-term strategy.
Typically, you would want to focus on the low hanging fruit first,
What pages/content is already ranking and how can we improve it and make it better?
Is there duplicate content that we should remove
What are some aspects we can improve right away? FAQ section, turning some of the content we already have into blog posts
Making some simple changes and fixing some basic technical issues often result in significant ranking improvements within the first 30-45 days. Then work on the longer-term plan focusing on the conversions and ROI. Usually, you will start seeing gradual traffic increase and impressions increase within 3-6 months.
2. Secondly, there are cases of a YMYL (Your Money Your Life) websites which include government, financial, and investment industries. These sites may have been around for a few years and are content heavy. In some of these cases when a SEO agency starts auditing if we discover issues related to content, the time span to fix the issue could be 6-12 months. Let’s remember that based on Quality Raters Guidelines bar is set higher for YMYL websites.
Here is an example of a local photography business who already had a presence online for one year and had very little or no SEO work done.
The screenshot from Google search console shows the data from prior to July 2019, when the site was getting very few impressions and clicks until October 2019. We started working with them in the beginning of July and implemented on-page SEO changes, site structure changes and the business owner started publishing content through the blog. In a few days we started seeing an uptick in traffic and in less than 3 months there was a significant increase in traffic and impressions.
Another factor to consider is if a website has a bruised online reputation due to receiving a penalty from Google, which could be for using inappropriate SEO tactics. After the penalty issue has been taken care of, usually the site will start seeing a positive reaction in about 2-3 months.
Here are the Key Takeaways re: SEO and Improving your Google Search Results
The answer to the first question - How long does SEO take to work, can be divided in three scenarios:
For search queries with low competition, it is possible to see results within 7-10 days or about a week
For search queries with medium competition SEO campaigns can produce results within 4-5 weeks
And, for search queries with high competition, you are looking at 4-6 months
Being a small brand in a competitive marketplace should not make you feel inferior. Every brand starts small. Experience has taught us that businesses with a well aligned SEO strategy who execute fast and consistently will be successful and rip the fruits of their work.
Set measurable goals, align them with business objectives, prioritize well and invest in SEO, to see significant long-lasting organic growth.
Thanks again to Eddie Nehani from https://localseorankings.com/ for sharing this awesome and informative blog post with us today!
Thanks for taking a minute out your day to hang out in the Visionary Universe!
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