The short answer to this question is “You can expect the best results in 4-6 months”, but the long and most common answer is “It depends….”. Read more to find out the three key pillars of SEO, which when done in the right way can drastically change your game.

Being a founder of a digital marketing agency, this is indeed the first and most common question asked by my clients while consulting or drafting their SEO/content strategy. The answer is inevitably complicated and depends on various factors such as website technology, budget, competition etc.

The reason is the search engine domain is constantly evolving and coming up with new changes and challenges almost every single day. You don’t only have to optimize your website but analyze your competitor’s efforts as well.

Do rankings matter?

Rankings do matter but it should not be your sole criteria for deciding the success. Wil Reynolds, VP, Seer Interactive often says that don’t mistake output for outcomes. Ranking is an output but sales, visibility and lead generation are outcomes. A top-ranking blog is worthless if it is not generating any leads and is not aiming conversions.

An ideal SEO agency or digital marketer would work on all SEO aspects ensuring your ranking, visibility, conversions, thereby, turning your blog into a brand.

In a nutshell, there are essentially three pillars that are responsible for the SEO game and thus, decide your blog’s position on Google. These are:

Competition
Content
Inbound Links

So, the answer to the question, “How long does it take for a blog/ website to show up in Google top SERPS”, is by understanding, evaluating and working on the data behind these variables to get the desired results.

1. Understanding the competition

A couple of decades ago, it was pretty easy to rank on Google or other search engines. Just a few keywords in URL, content and title- Bingo! You started ranking. And maybe you became a #1 rank holder on Google in a few days or weeks.

But today, to improve the user experience, Google keeps on rolling new updates. By the time you successfully adhere to the new algo, another update is launched.

It still might be pretty much less laborious to rank for less-competitive keywords or local area but if you are targeting a larger domain, every step is strenuous and draining. The reason is, first, a high volume of competitors and second, competition with top SEO professionals behind the top-ranking pages.

Stiff niche competition and brains of top SEO professionals behind these pages are two main overlooked aspects by most of the businesses/ bloggers. So, it’s vital to judge your competitor’s level and get the competitor analysis done by a best digital marketing consultant or SEO analyst before starting your work.

2. Content

The thumb rule is to create original, unique and engaging content if you wish to drive traffic and bring organic users to your website. In case, you are just stuffing your blog with hundreds of 300-word articles written by inexperienced writers without any plan-of-action, it’s not going to move the SEO needle.

But, that doesn’t mean that you need to publish a 3000-word beast. These myths have been officially debunked by Google officials. They have clearly stated that even a 100 word short write up can rank as long as it is solving the user’s query. Check this snapshot of famous SEO, Jennifer Slegg stating that quality always trumps quantity.

The SEO genius Brian Dean analyzed approx 900 million blog posts and concluded that the long-form of content earns 70% more inbound links than the short ones.

Also, many bloggers think that publishing new content too quickly or frequently may harm their rankings as it may look unnatural to Google. But, the truth is if you have brilliant content then you must publish it immediately. Waiting for the right time just delays your SEO.

hrefs, one of the top SEO tools, has performed a case-study on how does age plays a role in deciding the rankings? As per their findings, 95% of the new pages may take around a year to get themselves listed on the first SERP. Indexing for a news site is done in minutes, for an old blog- it takes around 1-2 days and for a new blog, Google crawler may take 4-5 days to index.

But, that doesn’t mean you should stop posting new content. Regular addition of new content to the website encourages the Google bots to crawl the website and it, therefore, speeds up your SEO efforts. Secondly, the new content encourages users to return to you, thereby sending positive UX signals to Google.

Just creating fresh content doesn’t suffice the efforts; sometimes updating and deleting old content also enhances your SEO efforts.

Check this post to understand how you can update, improve or delete content for SEO enhancement.

1. Inbound Links

We all know that a few high-quality inbound links are far better than hundreds of low-quality ones. The reason is that high-quality links are authentic, difficult to earn and even more difficult to be replaced by your competitors.

Also, the speed at which you earn authentic links or generate low-quality links could also affect your SEO. An abrupt increase in generating unnatural links could send suspicious signals to Google indicating an unnatural attempt to influence the rankings.

This could trigger a manual review and you may end up getting a manual penalty if Google Webmaster Guidelines get violated.

Conclusion

There are more than 200+ ranking factors that impact the SEO but it becomes way too difficult to focus on all parameters. You might see an increase in organic traffic in a few weeks in case of less competition. For niche and broad areas, highly competitive keywords could take up to a year or even more!

Have patience and stay determined. Follow and subscribe us to know the latest trends in the world of Digital Marketing!