Exactly How Long Does Great SEO Take

One of the most common questions faced by companies that specialize in offering search optimization services is how long it takes to see results. Unfortunately, it’s impossible to determine exactly when you’ll notice an increase in quality traffic to your website from higher rankings on search results pages. That said, most experts will tell you that in about four to six months, you’ll start seeing results. The following are just a few factors that can affect how quickly you’ll start realizing a return from a professional search engine optimization campaign.

• Your Starting Point – If you’re starting out with a website that is already somewhat optimized for SEO in terms of its coding and other technical aspects as well as having fairly good content, then you’ll have a leg up on competitors who are starting without this as far as how quickly you’ll rise in the search results. How long your website’s been around and what, if any, search optimization work has been done on it before will have a bearing on what needs to be done to get it performing well.

• Search Focus – What type of business do you have? This will affect whether you’re looking to dominate keywords locally, nationally or globally. A retailer can sell nationally and perhaps internationally, so local search will be less important. If you’re a laundromat, dentist, plumber or other local service business, on the other hand, then you’ll be looking to dominate search results in your locality. How long it will take you to rise in the search results in this event will be heavily influenced by the next factor of how long search optimization can take.

• Geographic Area – If you’re in an industry where there’s more local competition than there would be in most other localities, then you’ve got a lot more competitors to climb above in the search rankings. Also, you can bet that many of them either have in-house search optimization professionals or are using a professional digital marketing agency, so you need to up your game in this regard to have a chance.

• Your Time or Money Commitment to SEO – As with anything else, the results you get from search optimization efforts, and how quickly you get them, will vary depending on how seriously you take it. If you’re not a big enough company to hire an in-house search optimization staff, you may need to consider utilizing the services of a professional agency that specializes in this field.

SEO Results Grow Over Time

Search engine optimization will require some patience on your part as a business owner. While you should start seeing results a few months in, you’ll see even greater results in 12 months and later. This is a long-term digital marketing strategy. If you’re not ready to commit to a budget with this reality in mind, you may want to try another approach altogether. For those who are willing to make the commitment of time and resources, search optimization will yield a higher return on investment than you’re likely to find in any other online marketing method.

Finding the Long-Tail Keywords That Bring Quality Traffic

Gone are the days when you could find anywhere from 5 to 10 particularly relevant keywords that would bring in an impressive amount of high-quality traffic to your website. With numerous companies in every conceivable industry jockeying for position against others over popular keywords, the competition can just be too intense. With the proliferation of smartphones, people speak longer, more specific and exact search phrases into search engines than they used to type in many years ago. It takes a tremendous amount of research and discovery to find a wide enough array of these types of what are known as “long-tail keywords” to make a significant enough boost in your website’s online visibility.

The Major Factors That Contribute to Search Optimization

Unless you have some employees who happened to be savvy search optimization experts in their previous employment, you’ll probably need to work with a digital marketing agency that can help you get the results you need. Beyond long-tail keywords, there are numerous factors affecting your webpages rankings on search engine results pages, and the following are a few of the bigger ones.

• Page Loading Speed – Both users and search engines like to get to the content on your website quickly.

• Optimized Content – Beyond just focusing content on critical keywords, it needs to offer value to visitors, so they hang around to read it. More time spent on a website is rewarded by search engines, and high-quality content also converts more visitors into leads or buyers.

• Mobile Friendliness – Most people access the internet through their phone or other mobile device, so if your webpages aren’t optimized for mobile, you’re wasting your time and theirs as well as killing your search rankings.

• Technical Aspects – This is where you need to delve into the nitty-gritty work of search optimization. Making sure a website has title tags, meta descriptions, image alt tags, a sitemap and other similar elements.

• Trust and Authority – People buy from sellers they trust. Link building strategies are an important part of increasing your trust and authority with search engines, so they show your site above a competitor’s website.

• Social Media Integration – It’s 2018, and social media links are a feature that both website visitors and search engines look for on your website.

Professional Help in This Highly Competitive Industry

The biggest problem with trying to “go it alone” is that the field of search optimization is constantly changing. Search engines are continually updating their search algorithms, and strategies and best practices must be adapted to these changes in order to maintain your search rankings. For your potential customers, if your business isn’t on the first page of Google when they type or speak a search query into their phone or computer, then you may as well not exist. You already spent money on creating your business and running it for however many years it’s been around. Don’t curtail your chances for success now by not following through on enlisting professional help to get you noticed in a powerful way that only grows over time.

A digital marketing agency with experience can help you navigate the treacherous waters of SEO, so you’ll have the best possible chance of dominating your competitors. Website Marketing Company is a digital marketing agency based in Orlando, Florida. With 12 years in the digital marketing field and about 1,000 SEO campaigns completed, they have the expertise to get your company website on the front page of Google under those keywords that will bring you the traffic and leads that can explode your sales and growth. As a full-service website marketing agency, they can also help you with web design, pay-per-click marketing and social media promotion. While they can’t promise exactly when you’ll see the results you’re looking for from SEO, you can be confident that they’ll get you there faster than agencies with less experience and certainly faster than trying to do it all yourself.