SEO Results Take Time
By Scott Van Achte (c) 2009
Senior SEO, StepForth Web Marketing Inc. (http://news.stepforth.com)
There is one important factor to remember whenever you are
involved in improving the organic rankings of a website, and
that factor is time. One of the most common questions I receive
as an SEO is How long till I start to see results? This article
is dedicated to anyone who has ever asked that question.
It doesn't matter what industry you are involved in, or what
techniques you follow, in all cases you will be a prisoner of
time. In the vast majority of cases search engine rankings don't
come over night.
Regardless of the scope of the SEO campaign you are undertaking,
you will have to wait for results. It doesn't matter if you are
undertaking a massive link building & social media campaign
combined with extreme content development - you will still have
to wait for those results. Just how long you need to wait
however, will depend on a large number of factors.
In this article I will discuss some of these factors and give a
few scenarios to help you gauge how long you may need to wait to
start seeing results.
Factors to Consider
How long it will take for rankings starts with a few key
factors:
How optimized is your site before SEO?
If your established site has no optimization in place at all,
and has navigation that is blocking search engine spiders,
sometimes opening the site up can result in a rather quick
turn-around for results.
How many inbound links does your site have?
If you have an old site with no links, this will add to the
time you need to wait. If you have a number of links already,
Google will probably be in to check out things within a week
or so of updating.
How new is your website?
A brand new site with no links has to wait. Google may find
you, but probably not. If you do nothing, your site may never
be indexed - you must get a few links, and an XML sitemap if
you want to stand a chance with a new site. Click here
(http://news.stepforth.com/2006-news/Google-XML-Sitemaps.shtml)
for info on how to install and set up an XML site map.
How flexible is your site?
If your site utilizes a content management system, how
flexible is this system for customization? If your current
back end will not allow for SEO based changes, this will
drastically slow down your ranking progress.
How competitive is your target phrase?
This is huge. The more competitive a target phrase is, the
longer you will likely have to wait, and the more links,
pages, and fresh content you will probably need. Picking a
target phrase that has searches, but modest competition is
your best bet to get started. As long as your "dream phrase"
is relevant, you can go after the bigger fish once your site
has some links, content, and has started to find its place on
the map.
Is your site positioned to be able to compete?
Take a look at the top 10 sites for your target phrase. If on
average the ranking sites have 10,000 inbound links and 1,000
plus pages, and your site has 7 links and 12 pages, you're
likely doomed. You don't need to match the numbers of the top
10, but you do need to be in the ball park. If the top 10 is
littered with all the big guys like Amazon, eBay, and the
dreaded Wikipedia, you might just want to consider reevaluating
your goals. If your site is not in a comparable position with
the rest of the top 10, then you need to either step up your
efforts in order to compete, or plan on waiting a very long
time.
Get Google to Visit Your Site
How long it takes to start seeing results starts with Google.
Once Google spiders your site you will still have to wait for
the updated cache to appear in Google's index, and in most
cases, you will have to wait longer still to see any impact in
the search rankings.
In most cases getting Google to your site is relatively easy,
but it can sometimes take a month or longer. Even a site with
some inbound links and an XML sitemap, may have to wait a
while.
Typically an established active website will seldom have to wait
more than a month to get Google's eyes; however, if your site has
been sitting stagnant for several years, it may take longer.
How Long Will it Take For Rankings?
You now know some of the determining factors, but how long will
it take for your site to see an improvement in its organic
rankings? I really wish there was a solid answer to this
question, but with such a vast array of variables there is no
way to know for sure. I can say however, that from experience,
the timelines below are fairly accurate.
Niche Industry
A niche industry is represented by phrases that are
relatively specific, such as "widgets Bellingham". While they
don't require a geographic modifier, phrases focused on a very
specific area often are considered niche. Phrases used for a
niche site will also often return less than 100,000 results in
a Google search. The top 10 ranking sites will also often have
less than 100 inbound links each.
Timeline:
- Brand New Site: Possibly as little as a few months
- Established Site: Potentially it could literally be over
night, but most likely around 6 weeks.
Medium Industry
Medium Industry terms are slightly more general, but still
include some kind of modifier, such as a state or color;
"Washington Widgets" or "Blue Widgets". These phrases often
represent no more than a few million results in a typical
Google search with the top 10 ranking sites having between
100-1,000 inbound links.
Timeline:
- Brand New Site: 6 months to a year
- Established Site: 2-4 months
Highly Competitive Industry
These pages are those with phrases that are rather broad and
seldom have any modifiers, such as simply "widgets". You will
often find tens or even hundreds of millions of competing
pages in Google for your target phrase. Often the links
required for the top 10 will be in the thousands, or tens of
thousands (sometimes even in the millions).
Timeline:
- Brand New Site: Anywhere from 1 to 5 years
- Established Site: Could be as long as a year or more
For a brand new site, starting with nothing, in most cases you
will be looking at around a year before you start to see
significant ranking changes. You may get the odd ranking here
and there, and start to see some traffic, but for any phrases
that are remotely competitive, it can take quite a while. Unless
you have a very tight niche, expect to wait at least 6 months
before you see any movement at all. This is not to say that you
can't get quick results, but in the majority of cases it is
quite rare.
For more established sites, rankings tend to come much more
quickly. One significant factor in determining time is links. If
your established site has lots, but the site itself is simply
lacking fundamental SEO or proper navigation, then you can
sometimes see results rather quickly. If you have no links and
need to build them, it significantly increases the wait time.
Even for an established site, achieving links in a competitive
industry can still take some time.
Rankings Are Taking Forever
There are a number of reasons why your site may never achieve
results. If you find that your campaign has been going on for a
long time and you have seen no movement what-so-ever, it is
possible that one of the following is hindering your efforts.
Spamming & Penalties
In some cases your site may take forever to achieve rankings,
or the rankings may never come at all. If your site has been
previously penalized for spamming, you absolutely must clean
up all traces of the past dirtiness.
Once the site is entirely cleaned up, then you can apply for
re-inclusion http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/
answer.py?answer=35843). This is certainly no guarantee that
Google will ever pay your site any attention again, but it's
the first step to the land of maybe.
Duplicate Content
If your site has utilized mass amounts of duplicate content,
chances are you will not ever see rankings until you replace
it all with something original and meaningful. There is no
"duplicate content" penalty per-se, but you are essentially
penalizing yourself if you copy content. Google tends to look
at the first instance it finds online for a piece of content
as the official source (not always the case).
If you copy content that is already out there and indexed by
Google, they will discount your content as it is already
indexed somewhere else, and your site or page will simply not
get any rankings for it - and rightfully so.
Links (or lack thereof)
If your site has no links, you probably will not get any
rankings, even after you are fully indexed. This is not always
the case, I have seen sites rank well for various phrases with
zero inbound links - but it is rare, and should not be relied
on. Build up your links (http://news.stepforth.com/blog/2008/
06/bakers-dozen-ways-to-increase-link.php)– period.
On the flip side of this, let's say your site has thousands of
links, but they are from free for all sites, link farms, or
"bad neighborhoods", and so on - they won't help you. These
links won't necessarily hurt you, but will be essentially
ignored. You need quality, relevant links.
Competition
You just may be out of your league. If you have a small
operation, and are competing for a major ultra competitive
term, chances are you will never see the light of day. Not to
say it is not possible, but if you are competing in a well
established industry where literally 10's of thousands of
links are required, and your target phrase is experiencing
millions of searches a month, you need to weigh your targets.
Chances are your keywords need to be re-evaluated as your
chances of success are slim.
Not Listening
If your SEO gives you actionable recommendations, follow them.
Recommendations are given for a reason, to help you achieve
rankings. If you are not willing to implement what is
suggested, then your campaign may go nowhere. I have seen
websites fail to rank simply because clients ignored
recommendations. Your SEO will not be able to help you if you
refuse to implement their advice.
A Little Success Story
I have seen rankings come literally within hours. It is very
rare but it happens. In one specific example a blog post was put
up on a very specific niche topic that had almost no coverage
online. Google coincidently spidered the blog within an hour or
so of posting, and within an hour from that, the blog post was
#1 in the organic results for the most relevant phrase. The site
saw a giant spike in traffic for the next couple days while the
phrase was a hot topic. (The search phrase was very specific and
localized: "election results"). This shows that for a site with
an established link base, and a good reputation in Google,
rankings can sometimes come extremely quickly.
Regardless of industry and target phrases, you will have to wait
for your search results. Just how long you will wait varies on
far too many factors to give a solid number, but expect to wait
for results anywhere from a few days to several years. It's the
best time frame I can give without knowing specific details of
your site and project.
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Scott Van Achte is the Senior SEO at StepForth Web Marketing Inc.;
based in Victoria, BC, Canada and founded in 1997. You can read
more of Scott's articles and those of the veteran StepForth team
at http://news.stepforth.com or contact us at
http://www.stepforth.com/,
Tel - 
250-385-1190
, Toll Free - 
877-385-5526, Fax - 250-385-1198
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