When it comes to SEO, there are many things that affect how long it takes for it to kick in. The simple answer is: it will take as long as the effort you put into your SEO strategy. While there are over 200 ranking factors that can influence how quickly your website will rank, there are a few key ones Corkboard Concept focuses on which will speed up the ‘rankability’ of a site. These include content, inbound links, and other competition. Let’s take a closer look at them and how they can speed up your SEO efforts.
Creating Meaningful Content
Content is at the heart of an SEO strategy and is what Google uses to determine what your website is about. Content includes all the copy and imagery on your website, which could be in the form of webpages or blog articles.
When it comes to deciding what kind of content will start ranking quickly, you need to look at what people are actually searching for and how much competition there is for your content topic. At Corkboard Concepts, we look at commonly asked questions and trending topics as these form a great basis for a content strategy.
Now when it comes to content length, there is no right or wrong answer. However, you have to remember that really short articles are not deemed as informative and can be suffocated out by longer-form content from other websites. So while we’re not suggesting that you need to write 2,000-word articles, it is better practice to write longer-form content.
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So now you might be asking, how often should I be posting new blogs on my website? Again, it really depends on your business’ capability of pumping out content, but as a good place to start, try to get up one a week. If you already have lots of really good articles though, you don’t need to wait to post them up. It’s better to get them up on the site and ranking, instead of holding them off.
The more content and articles you have on your website, the better chance your website has of ranking quicker. By having fewer blogs, you will be limiting the ability to rank for more search terms – and thus seeing the effects of SEO will be slower.
If you don’t have the capacity to write lots of new blogs for your website, it could be a good time to revisit some of your existing blogs and add to them. This can save you lots of time and is good practice to do every 6-12 months anyway.
Getting Quality Inbound links
An inbound link is when another website provides a link to your website, generally in the form of hyperlinked text. Think of Inbound links as signs of trust (or a handshake), another website thinks that yours is worthy enough to link to – and this is a really good sign that search engines take into consideration.
These inbound links are one of the strongest ranking factors that Google considers, but it’s not just about the quantity, quality is crucial here. Simply adding your website to tons of directories overnight will look spammy and may get you penalized. However, receiving links from websites in a similar industry to yours or from websites that are highly ranked is super beneficial. It’s better to have fewer links from higher authority domains than it is to have lots from low authority ones.
You also need to consider how frequently you receive these inbound links. As mentioned earlier, if you get lots of links to your website overnight, Google may see this as dodgy behavior, which is not so good. However, if you were to receive a few links stretched out over time, this looks far more natural. This is another reason why it can take some time for SEO to start showing effect.
Considering Other Competition
This is arguably one of the biggest indicators for how long it will take for your website to start ranking on google. While you can control things like the content on your site and links from other websites – the competition that already exists can be a difficult thing to combat.
For example, say you are a vehicle dealership, chances are, there are thousands of other websites with a similar intent to yours. That will make it a lot more difficult to rank quickly just because there are many other sites with similar keywords and content who probably have already spent a lot of time optimizing their site. However, if you are a very niche business selling an exclusive breed of orchid, for example, it will probably be easier for you to rank as you don’t have to compete with other sites.
It’s always crucial to consider what competition exists and what they’re doing already. A good digital marketing agency will be able to tell you whereabouts you stand against your competitors and potential strategies to beat them.
So what is the MINIMUM amount of time you can expect to wait before the SEO ‘stuff’ happens?
While we can’t give you a definitive time-frame, we normally advise clients to wait at least 6-8 months before they start noticing more organic traffic to their website. In fact, roughly only 5.7% of newly published pages will rank in the top 10 google positions in the first year. So when you’re considering your strategy, you need to factor in time.
SEO can really have amazing results for your business – but it does take time and effort to get there. As a famous Kiwi model, Rachel Hunter, once said ‘It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.’ This was originally said for a hair shampoo ad in the 90s, but it’s the exact same mentality that should be applied when thinking about how long it will take for SEO to kick in. But by focusing on content, inbound links, and your competition – you should notice organic traffic start to pick up.
