How Long Does It Really Take for SEO to Work?

So, how long does it really take for SEO to work? Well, generally. It will take around 4 to 6 months to get any tangible results. However, the time to see SEO working hinges on other factors such as the condition of your website, the tools and software you use, the budget you allocate, the competition in your field, the quality of your content, your strategy and much more. It means you cannot bank at this time because every website is unique and has different needs and requirements. Let’s find out why SEO needs time to show effective results.

Why Does SEO Take So Long?

Remember, SEO is a process that takes an ample amount of time. It is not like other strategies or solutions that provide you with instant results. Therefore, it demands consistency as well as patience from your side. Here are the reasons responsible for it –

1. New content takes time- Making and publishing new content needs adequate research, writing and editing, and publishing. Furthermore, to ensure Google that your website is trustworthy and reputable, you need to implement the best SEO strategies, and all of this needs time.
2. Time of Google- Google also needs time for crawling and indexing pages. When you add, modify or update new content, Google starts crawling your website to know what your content is about and whether it is relevant or not.

What Are the Factors That Drive SEO’s Success?

Several factors account for why SEO takes so long. Some of them are explained here-

1. Website History

Here, Google marks a huge difference in ranking websites. Older websites have better chances of ranking compared to the new ones and have to start everything from scratch. This is because older websites may possess some backlinks and authority. Thus, Google takes more time to index older websites. Furthermore, It is more difficult to improve a site’s performance If it is witnessing a slow and steady decline in its rankings.

2. Website Architecture and Design

Make sure your website has a well-architectured internal linking. In other words, the poor or broken links should be avoided at all costs. Your website structure and its linking convey a lot to search engines about its reputation, trustworthiness, and relevance of content. Maintain links of value and remove broken links as they can spoil all of a sudden your efforts and hard work you put in affecting SEO

3. Resources

Your resources say a lot about your SEO performance. The more tools and software you have to analyse as well as implement robust SEO strategies, the better it will be. However, it will be best if you do it through an SEO agency, as it demands expertise and professionalism. Always remember to remain in touch with the SEO team and try to comprehend the devices and the strategies they employ to elevate the rankings of your website.

4. Competition

The competition here is very severe; therefore, to experience a small improvement in your rankings, you have to wait for a long time. The more severe the competition in your niche, the longer it takes to show your websites at the top of SERPs. Therefore, to rank web pages, you have to find out the innovative ways and flaws in your competitor’s strategy and check the intensity of competition in ranking web pages.

5. Keyword Targeting

Keywords play a vital part in ranking your content. To find suitable keywords, you can use keyword research tools such as Google Trends and Google Keywords. You should select keywords after looking for their search volume, popularity, user intent, and length. Also, do not forget to make sure keywords are with the flow of your content. In other words, they should not look annoying.

Stages for SEO Implementation

There are three stages to make your website valuable and productive-

Stage 1: It involves conducting thorough research about your niche or industry. After that, you have to audit your website and plan keyword pages that your audiences search online. All of this helps you find the structure of your website and will tell you where your website stands compared to competitors.

Stage 2: This stage involves making modifications to your website, changing its internal linking structure, making content of top quality, and doing technical fixes. After doing this successfully, the journey of your website towards positive growth begins.

Stage 3: By this stage, you must be seeing results. Therefore, you should focus on increasing traffic by implementing a good social media strategy. In case you are not getting the expected scores, try performing A/B Testing and Heat map Testing. These tests will greatly assist you in boosting your traffic by giving you useful details.

How Can You Know Whether SEO Works or Not?

Your SEO efforts are actually working if you experience more traffic and improved search visibility for your effective keywords. However, certain tools can help you find your rankings and also the areas where you need improvement. Here is a list-

Technical SEO tools

Technical SEO is the process of optimising a website for search engines. Here are some tools-

1. Google’s mobile-friendly testing tool- To rank on Google, you need a mobile-friendly website. Using this tool, you can check it and know how to fix it.
2. Hubspot’s Website Grader- This tool gives you a report card of your domain’s performance covering several categories such as performance, SEO, mobile and security.
3. Screaming Frog- Using this tool, you can find duplicate page titles and descriptions. It also assists you in examining URL structures.

On-page SEO tools

It is the practice of optimising web page content for search engines and users. The tools to improve on-page SEO are:

1. Woorank- It looks at issues such as title length, meta title, descriptions and headings. You can also use it to analyse keywords on the page, alt tags for images, and how your links are set up.
2. Google search console- This is a free Google tool which has features to find 404 error pages and duplicate content.
3. Webconfs- It provides a wide range of different SEO tools and is used to check dead links. Moreover, it is a browser-based tool and reports in an easy-to-read report format.

SEO Plugins

These are extension modules for content management systems, software solutions and browsers-

1. AIO SEO- All-in-One SEO for WordPress- the most comprehensive SEO toolkit to improve your search rankings without using any complicated SEO jargon. 
2. Semrush- It is one of the best SEO tools in the market. It can be used to find organic keywords and search terms. By integrating it with WordPress, you write more SEO-friendly content.
3. Schema pro- You can add rich snippets to your website which help it stand out among the competitors. 

Link Building

The process of getting other websites to link to your website is known as link building. Here are some tools to do it effectively-

1. Semrush’s Backlink Gap- It is a tool which analyses your competitors’ backlink profiles and gives you link-building opportunities.
2. Ahrefs free backlink tool- Use it to find broken links and to get insights to find website backlink profiles and domain links. 

Keyword Research Tools

Find suitable keywords for your blogs by using these tools and improve your score.

1. WP Beginner Keyword Generator- It is one of the best keyword research tools for WordPress. This is a free-to-use and simple tool that helps you dig up every possible combination of keywords for your content.
2. Google Keyword Planner- It makes your life easier by giving you suitable keyword suggestions, providing valuable insights into the average monthly search volume for specific keywords and estimation of the competition level for each keyword.

These tools will come in handy to you in enhancing the user experience of your website and in ramping up your website’s overall performance.

Conclusion

Finally, the general timeline for SEO to be working is four to six months and it is different for every website owing to uniqueness and different needs. Also, there are various factors responsible for the long amount of time an SEO takes. 

Interestingly, there are tools and software which enhance your rankings by making improvements. Furthermore, we also explored the general timeline and actions needed to perform to make SEO better. 

But all of this needs to be done under the guise of someone who has expertise and experience of years. Get in touch with Rankingeek, Contact us today!