How Long Does It Take To See The Results Of Best SEO Practices?
In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Double Up Digital is featured as one of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in the United States. Check out their profile!
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the hottest topics in digital marketing and content marketing. And this is especially true for small businesses, for a variety of reasons. Put in the simplest terms, customers can’t pay you if they can’t find you or don’t know about you.
If you think back to the days before the internet (or at least before the internet was quite as big and necessary as it is now), there were still a lot of options for small business owners and local businesses to tell people about their products and services.
Storefront windows, signage, billboards, and phone book listings were the “digital marketing” of their day in a sense, because they were the most effective ways to let people know about you.
As customer needs and practices have shifted, searchers who are trying to find what you offer have moved first to the internet, and now to mobile devices. And the speed at which digital marketing practices and optimization requirements change has made SEO strategy more important than ever.
Even though it may seem that digital and content marketing can change things overnight, the truth is that your SEO efforts will still require some time to deliver results. From ranking factors to keyword research and more, let’s take a deeper look at the kinds of things that impact your SEO results, and how long it may take for your search engine optimization and marketing strategy to make a difference for your business.
Search Engine Optimization and Search Rankings
If you ask ten different SEO experts to give you their definition of search engine optimization, you might get ten completely different answers. But all of them will boil down to the basics.
Search engine optimization is a critical part of digital marketing efforts that seeks to improve your site’s rankings in organic search results by understanding and incorporating some best practices. These SEO best practices are based on the algorithms search engines use to review, rank, and place sites in the order they show users based on their search query.
Unlike the old phone book days where “AAA Plumbing” was a great business name (because the listings were alphabetical), search engines like Google and Bing want to show people the best, most relevant content based on what people are looking for right on the first page.
Given that up to 75% of people may not go beyond the first page of search engine results pages or SERPs, and that second-page results have a CTR of less than 1%, ranking near the top is critical to getting in front of prospective customers.
Even social media sites utilize algorithms to help show people the most relevant content. For example, if you search a social media site for your favorite shoe company, you don’t want to have to scroll through seven pages of profiles for car companies or electricians.
So whether you’re focused on organic search, technical SEO, social media, or content marketing, all of these areas (and more) need to consider the best practices for driving organic traffic and improving SEO.
Key Search Engine Optimization Factors to Consider
Beyond keywords, factors such as backlinks and quality content have become more and more important as search engines and other sites tweak their algorithms. “Links are the currency of the web” according to Ahrefs, and link building is one of the most impactful ways to improve your ranking and generate increased organic traffic.
As mentioned above, Google’s algorithm is continually looking to deliver better, more relevant/helpful content to people. So the old approach of spamming comments and posting links on every forum you can find is out the window as the search engines get better and smarter.
Your site’s backlink profile, or evaluation of the quality and quantity of inbound links pointing to your site, is also a big factor in modern SEO rankings. Establishing your business and your content as expert, authoritative, and trustworthy means a tremendous amount to search engines, and quality links will impact the metrics they use to evaluate and rank your site.
So high-quality links to your content from other places, and links to relevant content outside of your site, are both valuable ranking factors, as are internal links within your site. More than that, though, they are also aimed at providing people with a better user experience. At the end of the day, people are looking for answers, products, or services, and making them easier to find will only help establish your business as credible and reliable.
Another factor that can often get overlooked is page speed. Whether you’re talking about your standard web pages or specialized landing pages, page speed is becoming an especially important piece of the SEO puzzle.
This is because, in addition to delivering relevant content to people based on their search intent, Google and others also know that people want to get to those results quickly. And slow site speeds can lead to people closing your site and returning to the search results to find another, faster result.
Whether you’re in the process of developing a new website, or developing new content as a part of your SEO campaign, make sure that you add page speed to the list of key considerations.
Domain authority (DA) is another key factor to consider. Although it does not directly impact your pages’ rankings or Google Analytics results, domain authority can help you better understand how well your site and content are functioning in terms of helping improve your search engine rankings.
In essence, DA evaluates the credibility of your site and content, including on-page SEO factors such as headlines, tags, and so on. It also takes into account your domain age, in some cases rewarding sites that have been established for some time and which are regularly updated.
As search algorithms get smarter and more refined, keywords are becoming a more highly scrutinized part of the SEO picture. While you used to be able to impact your site’s rankings simply by packing a page with competition keywords, modern SEO practices require you to be more strategic.
Search engines can tell if your page is just a spammy list of search terms and long-tail keywords. What they are looking for now is content that is helpful, and they will rank pages accordingly. So while your target keywords and low-competition terms are still important pieces of the SEO puzzle, you really have to consider them within the larger context of these other factors.
These are just a few examples of critical SEO factors to consider, but they give you some idea of just how many ways there are to optimize your site. And as a result, why it may take some time for your efforts to show up in metrics, rankings, and organic traffic.
How Long Does SEO Take to Impact Your Site?
Finally we arrive at the question that every SEO agency receives (right after the question about pricing) — “How long is it going to take to see significant results from all of these SEO efforts?”
And the answer that you’ll get from every credible SEO expert is, “SEO success takes time.”
Given the example factors listed above, and the many other factors that impact search volume and ranking, the truth is that SEO takes however long SEO takes and it is an ongoing process. This answer is not meant to be a copout or a dodge, though. And there are areas where you can get a better estimate of what to expect from your SEO work.
First and foremost, don’t expect to see any results in the first month. And in fact, many SEO experts will offer you a range that spans anywhere from three to twelve months.
One of the biggest factors that will impact this timing is also one of the biggest reasons why businesses turn their attention to SEO in the first place. And that is competition.
If you are in a relatively niche industry, or are offering a very unique product or service, you may see results in your SEO efforts much sooner simply because you are competing against fewer businesses. If, on the other hand, you sell running shoes or breakfast cereal, you are going to have a much longer road ahead because of how many competitors there are in the space.
Another factor that can impact the time frame for your SEO results is whether you are a local business or not. If you are focused on local services in your area, local SEO can help move things along and impact your organic traffic sooner.
If you run an HVAC company in a small town, for example, you are not likely to see enormous search volume. However, people are much more likely to search for services that are in their town, and this is where you may see the results of your search engine optimization in a shorter amount of time.
As you develop your SEO strategy, make sure that you establish both realistic goals and KPIs. Because while they are often conflated, they are separate items to consider.
Realistic goals, such as “increase organic traffic by 15% in the next 12 months,” helps not only to manage expectations but also define and refine your plan. And KPIs are the measurements that help you understand whether you are making progress toward those goals, or if you need to make adjustments to your approach and strategy.
As far as giving you a general expectation as you get started, Ahrefs says that it will take three to six months for SEO efforts to show up in your results. Similarly, Clearscope says that it can take three to twelve months to see results on Google, depending on the competition, content, and other factors mentioned earlier.
Take Aim At Improved SEO Results
There is a great deal more that we could share about the ins and outs of search engine optimization. For as many different businesses, customers, and products as there are in the world, there are just as many different ways to approach your SEO efforts. But the information we have offered here should give you a jump start on planning your SEO campaign or the development of your new site.
About the author
Joel Mehler
A graduate of the University of Alabama, Joel was first introduced to digital marketing and SEO while participating in an international internship program in Barcelona, Spain. Joel maintains consistent oversight on strategy performance, client relations, and day-to-day operations. Joel is an avid traveler and spends much of his free time in search of Atlanta’s next fun trend.
In addition to guest posting on the UpCity blog, Double Up Digital is featured as one of the Top Digital Marketing Agencies in the United States. Check out their profile!
Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is one of the hottest topics in digital marketing and content marketing. And this is especially true for small businesses, for a variety of reasons. Put in the simplest terms, customers can’t pay you if they can’t find you or don’t know about you.
If you think back to the days before the internet (or at least before the internet was quite as big and necessary as it is now), there were still a lot of options for small business owners and local businesses to tell people about their products and services.
Storefront windows, signage, billboards, and phone book listings were the “digital marketing” of their day in a sense, because they were the most effective ways to let people know about you.
As customer needs and practices have shifted, searchers who are trying to find what you offer have moved first to the internet, and now to mobile devices. And the speed at which digital marketing practices and optimization requirements change has made SEO strategy more important than ever.
Even though it may seem that digital and content marketing can change things overnight, the truth is that your SEO efforts will still require some time to deliver results. From ranking factors to keyword research and more, let’s take a deeper look at the kinds of things that impact your SEO results, and how long it may take for your search engine optimization and marketing strategy to make a difference for your business.
Search Engine Optimization and Search Rankings
If you ask ten different SEO experts to give you their definition of search engine optimization, you might get ten completely different answers. But all of them will boil down to the basics.
Search engine optimization is a critical part of digital marketing efforts that seeks to improve your site’s rankings in organic search results by understanding and incorporating some best practices. These SEO best practices are based on the algorithms search engines use to review, rank, and place sites in the order they show users based on their search query.
Unlike the old phone book days where “AAA Plumbing” was a great business name (because the listings were alphabetical), search engines like Google and Bing want to show people the best, most relevant content based on what people are looking for right on the first page.
Given that up to 75% of people may not go beyond the first page of search engine results pages or SERPs, and that second-page results have a CTR of less than 1%, ranking near the top is critical to getting in front of prospective customers.
Even social media sites utilize algorithms to help show people the most relevant content. For example, if you search a social media site for your favorite shoe company, you don’t want to have to scroll through seven pages of profiles for car companies or electricians.
So whether you’re focused on organic search, technical SEO, social media, or content marketing, all of these areas (and more) need to consider the best practices for driving organic traffic and improving SEO.
Key Search Engine Optimization Factors to Consider
Beyond keywords, factors such as backlinks and quality content have become more and more important as search engines and other sites tweak their algorithms. “Links are the currency of the web” according to Ahrefs, and link building is one of the most impactful ways to improve your ranking and generate increased organic traffic.
As mentioned above, Google’s algorithm is continually looking to deliver better, more relevant/helpful content to people. So the old approach of spamming comments and posting links on every forum you can find is out the window as the search engines get better and smarter.
Your site’s backlink profile, or evaluation of the quality and quantity of inbound links pointing to your site, is also a big factor in modern SEO rankings. Establishing your business and your content as expert, authoritative, and trustworthy means a tremendous amount to search engines, and quality links will impact the metrics they use to evaluate and rank your site.
So high-quality links to your content from other places, and links to relevant content outside of your site, are both valuable ranking factors, as are internal links within your site. More than that, though, they are also aimed at providing people with a better user experience. At the end of the day, people are looking for answers, products, or services, and making them easier to find will only help establish your business as credible and reliable.
Another factor that can often get overlooked is page speed. Whether you’re talking about your standard web pages or specialized landing pages, page speed is becoming an especially important piece of the SEO puzzle.
This is because, in addition to delivering relevant content to people based on their search intent, Google and others also know that people want to get to those results quickly. And slow site speeds can lead to people closing your site and returning to the search results to find another, faster result.
Whether you’re in the process of developing a new website, or developing new content as a part of your SEO campaign, make sure that you add page speed to the list of key considerations.
Domain authority (DA) is another key factor to consider. Although it does not directly impact your pages’ rankings or Google Analytics results, domain authority can help you better understand how well your site and content are functioning in terms of helping improve your search engine rankings.
In essence, DA evaluates the credibility of your site and content, including on-page SEO factors such as headlines, tags, and so on. It also takes into account your domain age, in some cases rewarding sites that have been established for some time and which are regularly updated.
As search algorithms get smarter and more refined, keywords are becoming a more highly scrutinized part of the SEO picture. While you used to be able to impact your site’s rankings simply by packing a page with competition keywords, modern SEO practices require you to be more strategic.
Search engines can tell if your page is just a spammy list of search terms and long-tail keywords. What they are looking for now is content that is helpful, and they will rank pages accordingly. So while your target keywords and low-competition terms are still important pieces of the SEO puzzle, you really have to consider them within the larger context of these other factors.
These are just a few examples of critical SEO factors to consider, but they give you some idea of just how many ways there are to optimize your site. And as a result, why it may take some time for your efforts to show up in metrics, rankings, and organic traffic.
How Long Does SEO Take to Impact Your Site?
Finally we arrive at the question that every SEO agency receives (right after the question about pricing) — “How long is it going to take to see significant results from all of these SEO efforts?”
And the answer that you’ll get from every credible SEO expert is, “SEO success takes time.”
Given the example factors listed above, and the many other factors that impact search volume and ranking, the truth is that SEO takes however long SEO takes and it is an ongoing process. This answer is not meant to be a copout or a dodge, though. And there are areas where you can get a better estimate of what to expect from your SEO work.
First and foremost, don’t expect to see any results in the first month. And in fact, many SEO experts will offer you a range that spans anywhere from three to twelve months.
One of the biggest factors that will impact this timing is also one of the biggest reasons why businesses turn their attention to SEO in the first place. And that is competition.
If you are in a relatively niche industry, or are offering a very unique product or service, you may see results in your SEO efforts much sooner simply because you are competing against fewer businesses. If, on the other hand, you sell running shoes or breakfast cereal, you are going to have a much longer road ahead because of how many competitors there are in the space.
Another factor that can impact the time frame for your SEO results is whether you are a local business or not. If you are focused on local services in your area, local SEO can help move things along and impact your organic traffic sooner.
If you run an HVAC company in a small town, for example, you are not likely to see enormous search volume. However, people are much more likely to search for services that are in their town, and this is where you may see the results of your search engine optimization in a shorter amount of time.
As you develop your SEO strategy, make sure that you establish both realistic goals and KPIs. Because while they are often conflated, they are separate items to consider.
Realistic goals, such as “increase organic traffic by 15% in the next 12 months,” helps not only to manage expectations but also define and refine your plan. And KPIs are the measurements that help you understand whether you are making progress toward those goals, or if you need to make adjustments to your approach and strategy.
As far as giving you a general expectation as you get started, Ahrefs says that it will take three to six months for SEO efforts to show up in your results. Similarly, Clearscope says that it can take three to twelve months to see results on Google, depending on the competition, content, and other factors mentioned earlier.
Take Aim At Improved SEO Results
There is a great deal more that we could share about the ins and outs of search engine optimization. For as many different businesses, customers, and products as there are in the world, there are just as many different ways to approach your SEO efforts. But the information we have offered here should give you a jump start on planning your SEO campaign or the development of your new site.
About the author
Joel Mehler
A graduate of the University of Alabama, Joel was first introduced to digital marketing and SEO while participating in an international internship program in Barcelona, Spain. Joel maintains consistent oversight on strategy performance, client relations, and day-to-day operations. Joel is an avid traveler and spends much of his free time in search of Atlanta’s next fun trend.
