But as search engine algorithms have evolved and the online space has become more competitive, the SEO landscape has changed drastically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every business owner wants to see results come quickly. But when it comes to legitimate, proven SEO strategies, results simply don’t happen overnight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Any agency that says otherwise is not to be trusted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Below, we\u2019ll cover the real factors that will affect how long it will take for SEO to get measurable results<\/strong> for your business, as well as the minimum time investment to really get your money\u2019s worth from SEO.<\/strong> When it comes to SEO, business owners often ask, \u201cHow long does it take for SEO to work?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Which usually means, \u201cHow long before I rank #1 in Google?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n This is the wrong question to ask because ranking #1 in Google isn\u2019t the end goal. The goal is to generate qualified leads and sales opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In other words, organic search traffic is only as valuable to your business as the revenue it generates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The real question that you should be asking is, \u201cWhen will SEO start generating sales and leads for my business?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Based on our experience and that of our colleagues at other reputable SEO agencies, we can give an estimated timeline of 4-6 months<\/strong> for SEO to begin producing some form of results, which could include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n The above timeline represents our average client experience. This is when things start to work, but not necessarily when you achieve your end goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n In a crowded industry, many of your competitors will have experienced SEO professionals behind them to improve and maintain their rankings. Understanding the level of competition based on your products\/services and location will help you get a sense of how long it will take for SEO to get results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, a small local massage therapy clinic will face less competition than a real estate brokerage business serving a large city, amongst many other real estate brokerage businesses. That same brokerage would face less competition than a national-level mortgage company with competitors in every market in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Search results are all relative, and that is the key to understanding why SEO works differently for different businesses online Quality over quantity, like most things, is always the way to go. Having fewer, high-quality links from relevant websites will have a much greater impact on your overall results than having a greater number of low-quality links from other irrelevant websites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Acquiring higher quality links are much harder to earn, having them on your website will make it more difficult for your competitors to replicate and compete with you. As well, higher-quality links last longer and keep their effective power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The speed in which your business online can acquire links takes time, make sure to look out for any abrupt increase in links. This could identify an inorganic attempt at a manipulative ranking and negatively affect your business’ SEO. When your website appears on a Google search results page, it becomes part of what Google offers its users. And Google cares a lot <\/em>about its users’ experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When your site is healthy and SEO-friendly, the work being done on the content and external links side takes effect much faster. On the other hand, a site that is not technically optimized for SEO will move slowly or not at all. There isn’t a set length\/word count for SEO optimized content. It just has to be long and detailed enough to solve the visitor’s problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You could build an entire strategy around these \u2018golden\u2019 keywords, climb to #1 in the rankings, and have most of your traffic come from them within a few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People just don’t search like that anymore. Plus, the web is way more competitive today than it was in the early 2000s. There are nearly 2 billion websites today, compared to just 17 million in 2000, an increase of nearly 11 thousand percent<\/a>.
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Long It Takes for SEO to Generate Leads and Sales<\/strong>
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There are numerous factors to consider when determining when you can expect to begin seeing SEO generate results. It would be impossible to cover them all in detail here \u2012 but some of the most significant factors are:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n1. Importance of Competition in SEO Timelines<\/strong>
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Generally, the more competing websites that your business is up against, the harder and longer it will take to see your website climb to the top of search engine results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n2. Importance of Inbound Links in SEO Timelines<\/strong>
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Acquiring more inbound links will help your business achieve the SEO success you are striving for more quickly\u2026 but it is not all a numbers game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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3. Importance of a Healthy SEO-Friendly Website<\/strong>
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SEO isn\u2019t just about keywords and content. Your website’s internal workings also have a big impact on how it ranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, a big part of its search ranking algorithm is focused on checking the \u2018health\u2019 of your website. It looks at technical aspects of the site that have an effect on the user experience, like:
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4. Importance of Content in SEO Timelines<\/strong>
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Quality content published on your website plays a vital role in how quickly you will see SEO results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with quality content requires consistent content. Maintaining a publishing schedule will encourage Google to come back to your website to read and learn more about your expertise. It also encourages users to return, suggesting a positive user experience that Google\u2019s signals will notice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you focus on producing helpful content that answers specific questions your target market may have, you will see results. Users will come, have a great experience and build trust with your brand (possibly reaching out) and Google has more information about you to determine where else you can rank.
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SEO Timelines Then vs. Now<\/strong>
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To explain why<\/em> SEO doesn’t happen overnight, it helps to recognize a crucial difference between the early SEO landscape and what we see today.
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Old SEO: When Low Competition Got Big Results<\/strong>
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In the early days of SEO, it was possible to skyrocket a website\u2019s search ranking by identifying and optimizing for a small number of high volume, low competition keywords.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The trick was to target keywords that were popular, but not competitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nowadays, it\u2019s extremely<\/em> rare to find a single keyword or small group of keywords that can drive a lot of traffic to your site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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New SEO: Targeting the Long Tail<\/strong>
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Today, people are adding more words than ever to their searches to get faster, more specific results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They\u2019re asking specific questions that they need answers to, rather than searching individual keywords and seeing what comes up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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