How Long Does It Take to Reap the Benefits from SEO?

SEO experts get this question all the time: “If I invest in an SEO campaign, how long will it take for me to see the benefits of it?”

It’s a good question and you should not be afraid to ask it.

When you’re investing money and effort into something, you don’t want to wait too long before you can see some return on the investment.

However, this is also a very complex question, since everyone who gets engaged in SEO techniques understands that the results take time. You’ll have to commit to a constant and consistent long-term strategy, and you’ll have to be very patient. If you abandon the strategy, you’ll lose a lot of money and you’ll never see any results.

There’s no way to give a simple answer to that simple question. There are many layers to SEO, so the only simple way to answer would be: it depends. You don’t want such a random answer, do you? That’s why we prepared a detailed response to one of the most common questions that business owners have before investing in SEO.

First, We Have to Understand What SEO Is

Before we can talk about the time it takes for seeing results, let’s talk about the effort. Everything depends on the effort and the strategy you have. To get to that point, we have to understand what SEO actually is.

Search engine optimization is a simple, but demanding form of marketing aimed at improving the search engine visibility of your website or blog.

Google, Bing, and Yahoo are search engines that rank their results according to relevance to a user’s search. When you use a phrase like what is SEO in Google, you’ll get results that answer that question. All those websites you see in the results have probably employed SEO techniques to get their high ranks.

When you engage in an SEO campaign, you’re focused on using the right keywords in your content. Google’s Keyword Planner is one of the most common tools that marketers use to identify prospective keywords.

This is where things get complicated. You’re not the only one targeting these keywords. All other businesses from your industry want the first spot in Google’s results, so they employ similar content marketing techniques to get there. That’s why it takes a lot of effort to get ranked, and that’s why it takes time and patience.

With each update that Google makes to its algorithm, it makes sure to deliver results that offer value to the users. If your content is relevant, valuable, and up-to-date, it stands a chance to rank your website on the first page of results.

The search engine algorithm takes many factors into consideration when launching the list of results. It will look at the keyword agnostic features, domain level, use and traffic, social metrics, and page level. That’s exactly why the SEO strategy addresses all these aspects of a marketing campaign. That’s why the campaign is layered, and that’s why the answer to the time question is complex.

So How Patient Should You Be?

Timothy Wales, part of the SEO team at ResumesPlanet, explains that it’s possible to see faster results thanks to the latest Google algorithm updates: “At this point, search engine optimization is driven by natural language search. We should be thankful for that, since the keywords are not as competitive, and we can develop more relevant content. When you focus on a large number of natural language searches, you might expect to see good results after four months of hard work.”

The general rule of the thumb is that website should see results after six months of heavy engagement in SEO practices. A case study by Andrew Dennis showed that it’s possible to get from zero to 100,000 visitors in one year.

However, your success will be influenced by many factors, so it’s impossible to give a straightforward answer for your specific campaign.

What Makes Drives Faster Results of an SEO Campaign?

Now, this is the real question you should be asking. If you take every step to make the optimization successful, you may expect great results in a matter of months. If you lag behind your competition, you can drag the process for years and you still won’t get your website on that first page of results.

It’s all about the effort. These are the main factors that make an SEO campaign successful:

1. The Keywords and Search Phrases You Target

Today, people’s searches look like the normal questions we use in daily communication. With the rise of voice search, it’s really important for you to target long-tail keywords. So if you’re promoting a pool cleaning business, you won’t just focus on keywords like pool cleaning Texas. You’ll also target phrases like Who do I hire to clean my pool in San Antonio?

2. The Quality of Your Content

Google is aiming to drive its users towards high-quality content that answers their questions. When you use keywords to rank in the results, you must infuse them with the valuable content.

Think about delivering value all the time. When someone reads your content, they have to feed their interest for information and leave your site more knowledgeable than they were.

3. The Location of Your Business

Since you can claim your business on Google, there’s no reason to avoid that step. You’ll add a location, so you’ll make your business easy to find. The search engine will appreciate that. It will show your business to the target audience from a relevant location.

In addition to these important factors, your competitive environment matters, too. If you have many competitors or few strong competitors that dominate the rankings, it will take you more effort and more patience to see some results. If you’re in a highly specific niche without much competition, you’ll immediately see results from the SEO campaign.

Search engine optimization is affected by too many factors, so we cannot accurately predict the moment when you should start seeing results. If you keep working and you keep focusing on the right strategies, your efforts will inevitably lead to success. If you’re not seeing any results within a year, it doesn’t mean you should give up on SEO. It means you should change something in the way you approach it.

Author Bio:

Warren’s lifestyle is full of hiking adventures. When he’s not busy with his guitar or enjoying the sunny day outside, he excels at blogging skills and leaps through social media. You can meet him on Twitter and Facebook.