By Jim Clanin
Having provided Atlanta SEO services for more than 10 years, the one question I get asked the most is ‘How long will it take for the SEO to work?’, or ‘when can I expect to rank at the top of search engines?’ While I would love to answer confidently with ‘tomorrow’, that is never the case, and I’m a terrible liar.
The answer is never that simple because the question is really misguided. SEO regularly changes as search behaviors regularly change. So what a client may have understood about SEO six months to a year ago, may or not be relevant the next year.
For example, we used to use be able to identify ten relevant keywords that would bring in the majority of a websites search traffic, mostly because they weren’t very competitive. Things have changed, and online search behaviors have changed into a more natural language search than just a keyword search. People are using more than one keyword to search and are using normal questions with 3 or more keywords. This is because people are using voice command tools like Google Now and Siri to speak their searches instead of typing.
Users are also using more detailed searches to get more targeted search results quicker. Because of these changes, ranking for search has changed from choosing a couple of top keywords to ranking for natural language searches, which will continue to change and grow quickly.
In the scheme of operating a business that needs lead or sales generation, rankings don’t matter, or they are not the primary focus to measure an SEO campaign with. The real question should be, ‘When can I expect SEO to produce leads or sales?’ Unfortunately, the answer to that isn’t easy either. It would depend on several factors like the age of the website if SEO was performed previously on it, the amount of content and several other SEO factors.
All websites are different, even if they are selling the same services or items or in the same industry. A client should plan for a six-month engagement. This assumes everything goes well and the site was “healthy” to begin with. If the site has been blacklisted or penalized for some reason, it can take much longer to resolve the issues and get the SEO campaign back on track.
After six months, you can start to see results. However, SEO results grow over time. The results you see at six months will be much less than the results you will be getting after 12 months. But even though you see results, and you’re happy with them, you must maintain them. You shouldn’t just stop SEO efforts and expect to continue to receive those results. It’s like working out, once you reach specific weight or activity goals, you must maintain them.
If you’ve only budgeted for one-time SEO work and are interested in ‘checking it out’ to see what happens, you may want to consider spending that money somewhere else. Like working out and eating well, SEO is a long-term marketing strategy, and a strategy and investment worth doing.
