This article will explain how long it takes to see SEO results and what are factors affecting search engine optimization.
When will I see results from SEO? There isn’t a simple, straightforward answer to this question. Some SEO specialists claim that they can show results within a couple of weeks though many SEO experts say that it isn’t easy to see quick results. They bet that the minimum it takes for SEO to show results is six to 12 months. It is during this period that the most notable and significant development in your SEO is likely to take place. The largest gains, the greatest traction will happen within this period. However ongoing, and sustained efforts will have prolonged benefits.
But that’s just over-simplifying things for the sake of giving you an answer. It’s important to dive into the details. What happens in search engine optimization? How do you see results? When can you expect results? What are the contributing factors here? These are the things we shall discuss in this write-up.
When to Really Expect Results from SEO?
As we mentioned earlier, consistent SEO will take six to 12 months to show results. Some websites do report results sooner, but this isn’t common.
Those who see quick results have invariably prioritized speed over sustainability. The disadvantages of this approach are many. Quick fixes tend to wither away especially if you do not follow through. A sudden increase in ranking will make Google (and other search engines) suspicious that you have used Black Hat SEO tactics to win favors.
On the other hand, approaching SEO ethically and organically means you prioritize sustainability over speed. You must be consistent with SEO and aim for long-term results. Factors such as the age of your website, the authority of your site, penalties affecting ranking, etc. play a huge role here.
The best way to approach SEO is to look for long-term benefits instead of short-term returns. This will ensure that you persistently rank better and higher over time.
7 Factors That Determine How Long Your SEO Strategy Takes to Show Success
If you are looking for quick results with digital marketing, SEO is not for you. Starting SEO with unrealistic expectations will lead you to disappointment. Search engine optimization is time taking and will frequently test your patience. If you are up for a game of patience and plan to play for the long run, you will see success.
It’s important to understand that SEO isn’t a one-off thing. It demands your continued attention, and you will have to work hard and long to see sustainable results. Since there are no fixed rules on how to win big with SEO, the playing field can get murky. But do not worry. We have you covered. There may not be many rules but there are no secret ingredients either. Strategizing from day one, researching, implementing, testing, readjusting strategies are all part of the SEO game.
Since there is no straightforward answer to “how long does SEO take to show results”, the next best thing to do is to explain the factors that play determining role. Let’s dive straight into them.
1 – Age of the Website and Its Authority
There has been a considerable debate on whether the age of the website is a factor in SEO. Earlier it was said that irrespective of the age of your domain name (it could be 2 months old or 4 years old) – you will see some search engine ranking after a point in time.
However, this argument is no longer valid. The age of a website domain name plays a significant role in determining its success. Several studies have now shown that older domains have SEO benefits.
One of the greatest advantages of older websites is backlinks. Backlinks make a site trustworthy, especially for search engines. If you are a new website, you will need to earn backlinks quickly but honestly. Blackhat SEO tactics to earn backlinks can blacklist your website.
When you are publishing informative and relevant content regularly and promoting them well, you will earn links naturally. However, this will take time. This means that the older your website gets, it earns more backlinks (because of quality content published) and your site becomes more authoritative.
An older website doesn’t just earn backlinks – it also shows up a library of content that easily gets more clicks simply on its name value. While ranking, Google factors all these things.
This doesn’t mean that new domain names cannot enter the SEO game. If you start with a competitive edge and continue to use SEO best practices, you will soon start earning backlinks and get recognition which will be noticed by Google.
2 – Link Building
Link building is an essential part of search engine optimization though it can be time-consuming. The right way to approach link building is by developing qualitative and engaging content and staying away from black hat tactics. They can censure you from all Google rankings in the future.
For link-building purposes, use social media marketing. It will help cross-promote your content and will encourage user engagement. Look for ways to repurpose the content – turn them into snippets or shorter posts to increase visibility. It will not only improve engagement but will give you time to focus on other SEO strategies.
This is where older websites often have the advantage. If they have regularly published content, they will have an extensive backlink profile which will be advantageous to them. It becomes difficult for a fresh domain name to compete against the older ones. If your website is new to the game, you must look for quick solutions without getting into deceptive forms of SEO (such as buying links).
While focusing on the number of links that you build, also emphasize the quality of these links. If there are too many links from low-quality and disreputable sites, it will hinder your optimization efforts.
If you do happen to gain a lot of new links within a short time, understand that Google is likely to be suspicious. It will assume that black hat SEO tactics were in use. The right way to build links is by moving slowly but steadily.
3 – Fixing Hosting Issues, Errors & Penalties
When SEO is taking longer than you expect, maybe it’s time to look back and fix damages that are already inflicting on your website. Many issues may need to be fixed – previous SEO errors, Google penalties, unreliable website hosting, etc. It can take time to recover from these issues, but you have to take a step forward.
It can take you about two weeks to resolve issues with 404 errors, 301 redirects, broken links, and inconsistent optimization. However, since Google doesn’t index these changes all at once, you will notice an improvement in SEO but not all at once.
When you make changes or rectify previous errors, you will have to trust Google to find them and recrawl your pages. This will not happen overnight. Sometimes it can take more time than you expected.
Look into other SEO issues that are damaging your current optimization strategies such as improper sitemaps, crawling and robot.txt issues, web.config files, .htaccess, etc.
If you have updated a few links on the sitemap, the results may show within a week. But, if there are numerous link updates, it can take more than a week to show results. Once again, older sites have an advantage here as they have more inbound links which help Google to crawl faster.
4 – Website Design, Structure & Architecture
For your SEO efforts to be successful, you must pay close attention to the red flags in your website design, URL structure, and CMS system.
A poorly designed website will rank poorly. Without the right foundation in the form of solid site architecture and adequate support of a well-designed URL structure, it will be difficult for your SEO to work favorably.
Since most internet searches today originate from mobile devices, it is critical that you pay special attention to mobile optimization and consequently responsive design. You must also keep in mind that over 90% of your Internet users are likely to use multiple devices to access your website. With responsive designing, you can ensure that your website works seamlessly on all devices.
Google has also stressed the importance of mobile-ready websites with its recent initiative of crawling mobile pages first to determine ranking. If your website is not mobile-ready you will not rank favorably in the SERPs.
Run your website through Google’s mobile-friendly test to understand how it is performing. If the numbers are not good, seek out a developer to make the necessary changes.
You must also use the right CMS to make your site search engine friendly. Take special note of how large CSS and JavaScript files are affecting your SEO capabilities.
When your site is structurally sound, and all technical issues are resolved, you will notice that the site is ranking better – slowly but steadily.
5 – Competitor Analysis and Keyword Targeting
If your competitor is dominating the search results it makes sense to analyze them. Though their marketing secrets may not be revealed to you directly, you can get valuable insights on keywords used, patterns of content publication, etc. By analyzing them you will be able to target your keywords better and work harder to make them competitive. It may be a time-taking exercise but in the long run, it will prove to be beneficial.
To analyze competition and understand keyboard targeting, there are plenty of tools you can use. SEMRush and SpyFu are two effective and very popular tools. With SEMRush you can select domain overview type in your competitor’s URL to see their top paid and organic keywords traffic numbers and get a backlinks overview. You can also get further details on each if you wish.
You are likely to face massive competition in the search engine ranking pages if you are in a highly competitive niche. A dentist clinic’s website will see fierce competition on the search engine rankings page because it is a highly competitive industry. They are possibly hundreds of dentists in a major city but only ten ranks on the first page of Google. To be able to rank among the top 10 your SEO must be top-notch. Even then it is likely to take you months before you enjoy success in any competitive niche.
However, if you are in a business that has less competition, it will take you less time with SEO. Even then it is advisable to study keyword
6 – Content Strategy
Having a content strategy in place will favorably affect your website traffic and consequently SEO. Informative and qualitative content helps to improve search engine rankings. Unless you regularly publish relevant and authoritative content, your search engine rankings will not improve. If you do not have a library of content on your website yet, focus on creating and publishing them immediately.
While creating content you will have to keep in mind Google ranking factors. Understand the Quality Rater Guidelines, acquire knowledge of algorithms and stay updated about the latest developments so that you can always have a successful strategy.
Working on a content strategy will mean putting in months of hard work, waiting patiently to see results and if you’re consistent with your content strategy, it will have a long-term impact on your overall SEO.
7 – On-Page and Off-Page Optimization
You must stress on your on-page optimization if you are looking for long-term results for your website. Simple adjustments can go a long way for your on-page optimization – meta tags, header, title, anchor text, alt tags, and descriptions if done properly will improve ranking in a few days. In fact, these are the first things that are targeted to improve SEO.
When you get started with optimization, target on-page optimization first to get faster results.
While on-page optimization can yield quicker results, off-page optimization takes longer to show results. To get better results, you will need to link your site to authoritative websites regularly. To improve off-page optimization, comment on other blogs regularly, provide high-end citations and directories, blog as a guest, and be seen on social media. However, do not spam, this will not help your case.
How Quickly Will SEO Show Results?
Some of the common questions asked about SEO are – when can I see SEO results? How long will it take to rank favorably on Google? Can SEO show quick results?
It is very important to understand that there is no definitive answer to these questions. It can take weeks or months to show results. Search engine mechanisms, algorithms, and basic requirements are constantly changing which means that the efforts you make today may not work tomorrow. You must be constantly on your toes to make SEO work for you
Also, every site is different. For some websites, SEO can show results in a few days while for other websites, it can take at least 6 to 12 months to show any improvement on rankings. How much time is spent on SEO also determines the results you see. If you are looking for a quick fix, you will not find any with SEO. After all, it is a long-term commitment.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
1 – How Long Does It Take for SEO to Show Results?
There is no assertive or definitive answer to this question. Even if you are consistent with your efforts, it can still take you six to 12 months to rank on the first page of Google.
Surprisingly some website owners claim that they saw results within a couple of weeks. Probably, they prioritized speed over sustainability – compromising the authority of the website in the process. While they enjoyed quick results, they also got easily flagged by Google. And once you are sanctioned, it can be difficult to regain your position.
2 – Why Does It Take So Long for SEO to Show Results?
The simple reason why SEO takes so long to show results is because search engine algorithms have become sophisticated. If you are simply keyword stuffing content, it will not help you get the first-page ranking on SERP. What is required today is a solid strategy that considers the various aspects of a successful SEO strategy.
It is important to strategize keeping in mind trends and searches, target audiences profiling, keywords, and understanding the type of content that will work for your audience.
Once a full-proof plan is in place, it is time to understand other aspects of SEO such as domain age, page authority, and inbound links. It takes time to factor these things into an SEO strategy. Faking or manipulating doesn’t work here.
Website authority cannot be built in a day. It takes time for a page to attract user attention and to see regular user activity. Unless the page’s authority is established, the search engine algorithm won’t recognize the page. And, unless your page’s authority is established, Google will not crawl it nor index it. This will take time – you must be patient.
3 – What Is the Cost of SEO?
While the extent and scale of SEO will determine its cost, generally speaking, SEO will vary around $500 to $3500 per month. This all depends on factors such as your website’s current ranking, the competition in your target keywords, SEO goals, target locations, target keyword topics, amount of keywords & overall scope of work.
SEO services are usually charged on a per hour basis and the standard charge figures around $50 and $200 per hour. However, if it is a one-time project, it can cost you anything between $5000 to $30,000.
4 – Is SEO a Valuable Investment?
It is indeed an investment you should be making. It doesn’t matter whether you are a startup, a single-person business, or running a large corporate agency – if you want to be noticed, you must get started with SEO immediately.
It is important to weigh in your needs and accordingly invest in SEO. If your needs are small, you can hire a boutique agency equipped to handle your short-term, nuanced needs.
5 – What Makes SEO So Important and Yet Difficult to Learn?
The most important reason why you need SEO is to catch the attention of your audience. They will bring in traffic and consequently improve conversions. Research evidence shows that after local SEO, companies can see 78% offline conversions after navigational searches. Even by simply refreshing old content, you can bump up traffic by 111.3%.
Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t difficult to learn SEO. The rules are simple though algorithmic equations keep changing from time to time. Moreover, it takes time to see results which mean that you must be patient with the process.
6 – SEO Seems to be an Overwhelming Task. Can Digital Marketing Agencies Help Me?
Yes, SEO can become an overwhelming task having to take care of so many things constantly and yet wait for results to show up after months. Luckily, digital marketing firms are experts in handling the pressures. They know of all the trends and keyword optimization tricks that help businesses stay on top of the rankings chart. Find a digital marketing agency that helps you improve optimization.
Final Words
For SEO to be successful, it is important to have the right digital marketing agency do the job for you. It is a tedious, time-consuming task that can test the patience of the best. If until now, your SEO has been negligible or in dire straits, you must find the right agency to push you forward.
Cyrusson Inc. is just the firm you should be looking for. We are a committed digital marketing agency that believes in showing results. We do not make tall promises, but we work hard to make a website reach its true optimization potential. If you think your website needs the best hands, we are just the ones for you.
For SEO, we take a research-oriented approach wherein we first understand client requirements, study the current state of their website, run a background check on their audiences, prepare a checklist of things that must be accomplished, revamp strategies as we go along, and rest not until the goal is achieved. If interested in getting started, book a call with us today!