One of the top questions we hear about search engine optimization is, “How long does it take SEO to work?”
The answer is that it depends. While SEO can be highly effective, it’s not the fastest marketing strategy. SEO isn’t advertising. And you can’t pay your way into Google’s organic search results. SEO takes time, and you’ll need to make tweaks along the way.
Keep reading to learn more about how long SEO takes to work. Or talk to one of our SEO experts about how we can help you rank higher in search engine results!
How long does SEO take to work?
When executed correctly, SEO is powerful. But even Google admits that SEO takes 4-12 months to produce significant results – and ongoing improvements are still needed after this period.
SEO is based on many complex factors, so there’s no way to standardize results. Instead, apply proven SEO techniques and produce quality content over time to maximize the benefits of this marketing strategy.
Consistently writing content relevant to your products and services is key (even if your posts don’t rank as high as you want them to.) Eventually, Google will recognize your efforts, see your site as authoritative, and reward you with higher rankings.
What factors influence the success of your SEO campaign?
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. With that in mind, let’s look at the factors that influence the success of your SEO campaign:
Content
When producing content, it’s essential to satisfy four conditions: it must be high-quality, address users’ questions, be long-form, and easy to find.
While quality is subjective, most readers agree that this means the content is relevant and provides information and insights they can’t find anywhere else.
Long-form content has become increasingly important – to both readers and Google. Longer pieces have a greater chance of generating traffic and higher rankings. Google appreciates in-depth blog posts with 2,000 words or more. If people want to solve a problem or learn a new skill, they need thorough and proven information – and a 300-word post won’t suffice.
Blog posts are often the most valuable type of content you can produce. They’re simple to create, quick to share, and easy to update. Publishing several blogs per week shows Google that your site is a reliable source of relevant information.
Google needs time to crawl your website and start indexing your pages. If you’ve never published content, it may take two months for Googlebot to index any blog posts. That’s why the sooner you start, the better.
Read More: Everything You Need to Know About Blog Content & SEO
Backlinks
Another vital factor of SEO campaigns is backlinks – a link from one website to another.
Ideally, a backlink comes from a high-authority website to one with less authority. Google considers your website more trustworthy when you obtain backlinks to your site, which boosts your search engine results page (SERP) rankings.
The more links you gain from reputable, high-traffic websites, the better. However, buying links or getting thousands from low-quality sites isn’t a good idea – and Google’s algorithm can tell.
So, what’s the best way to obtain quality backlinks? Create email templates for a backlink outreach campaign. Find relevant websites with blogs that have natural backlinking opportunities for your business. Then, ask if they’d be willing to offer you a backlink – and you provide one in return.
Building authoritative backlinks is the hardest part of SEO because it takes time. However, Google rewards authoritative and trustworthy sites with solid backlink profiles.
Read More: How to Build Quality Backlinks
Technical SEO
Another essential element of successful SEO is technical SEO – the side that Google evaluates, but users may not see, like page speed, sitemap, and site navigation.
Google wants to promote user-friendly websites. So, if it takes several seconds for your site to load or it leads to broken pages, your ranking will suffer.
Check your website’s technical aspects – optimize your title tags, add internal links, see which pages are indexed, test your site navigation, look for duplicate content, and review your calls to action (CTAs). Fix any areas that need help as soon as possible.
Read More: 4 Proven Ways to Improve Website Performance
What factors influence how long it takes to see SEO results?
SEO takes time, but it is trackable. The following factors influence how long SEO takes:
Your Competition
What’s the main factor influencing how quickly your SEO efforts will pay off? Your competition.
If you post three blogs every week, but your competition only posts one, you’ll probably surpass them quickly. However, if your top competitor posts an eBook and five blogs per week, but you’re barely posting one blog a week, then you need to improve your content strategy to catch up.
Quantity isn’t all that matters, though. You also need to ensure that you’re posting high-quality content.
Read More: What is Blog Writing and Why is it Important?
Your Domain
It takes time for Google to trust newer domains. The amount of optimized content on your domain is also an important factor.
You’ll see faster results from your new SEO efforts if you have a domain that’s a few years old and has several pages of content already indexed in Google. The algorithm favors websites it has already indexed, so the more pages you add to an existing site, the faster it will pay off.
Read More: What Internet Services are Needed to Build a Successful Small Business Website?
Your Time and Resources
The speed of your SEO’s effectiveness is also determined by your time and resources. If you can post one blog per day, you’ll see steady growth after a few months.
You’ll notice exponential growth sooner if you can assign one blog daily to three or four writers. Of course, these blog posts must be search engine optimized. Your team should also update and optimize old posts.
Before your SEO campaign begins, identify the main goal you want to achieve. For example, if you want to gain 500 more visitors per month within three months, reverse engineer that goal to determine how much content is needed to reach it.
So, how long does SEO take to work?
For businesses that have never done SEO before, it typically takes six to 12 months.
That gives you enough time to create optimized content. It also gives Google enough time to notice, index, and rank your website. Be patient and use the right strategies – you’ll be on page one within a few months!
Ready to jumpstart your SEO campaign?
Running an SEO campaign is easier with an experienced partner. Impact Group Marketing can simplify the process and provide data-backed results for your company. With over 25 years of experience in website development and search engine optimization, we can help you avoid the guesswork and optimize your website for maximum search engine placement.
Contact us today for a free quote and see what we can do for your company!