It is essential to understand that effective SEO is a long-term marketing tactic. An effective SEO campaign can take 6 – 12 months to drive results, and it may also take as long (or longer) for ROI to be realized. It is also important to remember that SEO results are never constant.
Keyword Research
Many factors influence how long does SEO take. For example, the competitiveness of your industry or the type of keywords you’re targeting may impact how quickly you see SEO results. Similarly, the age of your website and its current rankings can affect how quickly you notice SEO improvements. Once you have a firm grasp of your keywords, you can begin to plan for content creation and digital PR campaigns. This month will also typically involve analyzing existing content and ensuring it’s organized most effectively to maximize SEO performance. This could include re-categorizing certain pages or consolidating them to avoid keyword cannibalization. It may also have the start of guest posting activities.
Link Building
A website’s backlink profile is among search engines’ most important ranking factors. Each link acts as a vote of confidence, telling Google that a page is valuable and relevant to its topic. This is why working with an SEO agency that builds high-quality links is essential. Link building is an iterative process, so your team will continue to create and optimize content and make technical changes throughout this month. By this month’s end, you should see improvements in your organic traffic and search rankings. During this phase, your team will build quality links by creating enticing content people want to share. This includes guest blogging, infographics, and other outreach strategies.
Content Creation
According to a survey that combined the expertise of 75 SEO professionals from various industries, well-written content can generate new potential customers within the second month. This is because search engines like Google value quality over quantity. Once the SEO team understands which keywords to target, it’s time to create website content. This can include everything from blog posts to product and service descriptions. Website content is written for two audiences: customers and search algorithms. Unlike in previous years when content creators could “stuff” their pages with keywords, modern search engine algorithms are complex and constantly changing which websites deserve preferential placement on results pages. As such, optimizing existing content and producing new content that will rank quickly takes a while.
On-Page Optimization
Once your team has analyzed your keyword research and performed a thorough technical audit, they will begin to optimize your pages. They will update existing content to ensure it matches your target audience’s search intent and add new content where needed. On-page optimization is a crucial step in the SEO process, as it helps Google understand your website and its content. It involves optimizing individual web pages at range and code levels so that search engines can index them. During this stage, you will likely see some early signs of success. However, it is essential to remember that SEO only works slowly and can take up to a year to see results fully. The reason for this is due to the nature of SEO.
Social Media
Social media has reshaped the world in ways we can barely comprehend. It can also be used as a powerful marketing tool, and it is essential to understand how to interpret the data and get real insights that will help your business.
For example, social media listening can identify patterns in language, ideas, and topics that can be incorporated into a long-term marketing strategy. It can also reveal social trends shaping politics, business, culture, etc. Most SEO freelancers and agencies tell clients it takes 4 to 12 months to see results from their efforts. While that is somewhat accurate, it’s essential to look beyond the timeframe and consider how significant the results will be. Only then can you determine if SEO will work for your business.
