I thought I’d break down a question which I get asked all the time here at
Kaizen Digital – “How long will SEO take to work?”
Well… there isn’t a an exact formula for how quickly SEO will work and if anyone tries to tell you otherwise, they are lying to you!
There are so many variables that go into SEO and that’s why we don’t give unrealistic goals to anyone we’re considering working with, or existing clients of course.
Not only do we review your competitors’ SEO strategy, we also consider the overall marketing strategy of your business. This allows us to gain a greater understanding of how your brand and business are navigating through a noisy digital landscape.
There are 3 key areas that we believe have a big impact on how long it will take for your SEO campaign to gain traction:
Content
Competitors
Technical SEO
Why your competitors important
It’s super important to analyse the competition, especially those who are ranking for the search terms you’re interested in ranking for. SEO isn’t about re-inventing the wheel, it’s about implementing best practice, emulating strategies that are working for others and spotting opportunities others might have missed and capitalising on them.
Trying to outrank a major PLC firm for a super competitive keyword, will take longer that trying to rank for more specific searches with less search volume. So how long does SEO take to work? It depends on the competition.
Content Marketing
Content is a major ranking factor and it is SUPER crucial that it serves a purpose and enriches the user experience while visiting your site. The days are gone where you are rewarded for stuffing keywords where the sun doesn’t shine… this “black hat” techniques will negatively impact ranking performance.
Content pieces don’t need to be thousands of words long: there isn’t a fixed limit on how much content you need to perform well in search. The key point is that it DOES need to serve a purpose, for example
Solving a problem
Answering a question
Educating your audience
So how long does SEO take to work? It depends on the quality and frequency of your content game.
How does technical SEO impact performance
Having the most beautifully designed website, with the most well-written, super engaging content ever created….will mean nothing if Google (or other engines) can’t access or “read” the site. The technical aspects of your on-site SEO need to be nailed, well executed to ensure that the Google robots can make sense or your site. Other tech aspects, such as page load speed etc, are important for the user experience, so things like slow-running scripts need to be addressed.
Link acquisition or link building is also still super important, and is one of Google’s major ranking factors. Good backlinks tell Google that you are an authoritative and somewhat influential in your space. We achieve this through acquiring relevant and authoritative links naturally, giving you a healthy backlink profile.
So how long does SEO take to work? It depends on your technical SEO game .
Conclusion
No one can guarantee SEO results for a certain keywords or search terms. That being said, it is possible estimate a time frame where you’ll start to see improvements, with educated guessing based on variables. These improvements can be anything from reductions in bounce rate, increase in page views, increases in traffic and ultimately, higher SERP positions. With experience and with time, you can get better insights into how quickly it may take to rank in certain niches.
So how long does SEO take to work? It depends…
