How Long Does It Take? SEO and Organic Marketing Results
Sunday, October 31, 2010
A question I seem to be getting a lot these days has to do with search engine optimization (SEO) and how long it takes to see tangible results from your focused SEO campaigns. As is true with most things that are not directly in your control, the answer is, "it depends."
Now I know what you might be thinking. My initial response may appear to be a bit of a lame answer but let me explain. Ask the SEO experts how long it will take to acquire #1 rankings for a particular keyword and you probably won't get a direct answer. In fact, some may not even respond at all. This is because any experienced SEO knows that predicting when a site may achieve a particular ranking is suicide.What happens if rankings come sooner... or later? Although SEOs know the best way to improve a website's ranking for a particular keyword phrase, they can never predicts what Google is going to do and how long it will take them to do it. That being said there are a few guidelines to use when determining the competitiveness of a particular keyword phrase.
Assuming you apply some of the basic SEO best practices such as keyword research, on page optimization and off page optimization techniques (link building), you can judge the competitiveness of a keyword by:
1. The Google PR of sites ranked in the top search result positions. The higher their Google Page Rank the more difficult it will be to outrank them.
2. The Age of the domain for the top ranked search results. If the top positions are controlled by sites that have been around for a while, this is another sign of strength.
3. The number of inbound links to the top ranked web sites for your keyword phrase. Quality inbound links are directly correlated to rankings. The more sites linking in to the top positions the more difficult they'll be to outrank.
4. Number of competing sites. This number which is displayed by Google when completing a search shows how many other sites have the keyword you're searching for. The greater the number the more competitive the term may be.
5. The number of monthly searches. Generally, terms with higher search volumes are more competitive from a ranking perspective. Not always but generally. If you're researching a frequently searched term, chances are that many strong websites are competing for the top rankings.
Now that you have a better understanding of ranking factors, you probably understanding why predicting top search results is difficult. In my experience, top results can happen anywhere between 30 days and 12 months. It largely depends on how competitive the term is; how long competing sites have ranked in the top positions; and their relative strength - based on the factors noted above.
Marketing Blog founder and top-selling author Michael Fleischner has been featured on The TODAY Show, ABC World News, and Bloomerg Radio. 
12 comments :
Sometimes, it may happen the next day when the keyword is not competitive. I did this for "training providers in the Philippines" when my clients told me that those were the keywords they used.
It happened also with "inspirational speaker in the Philippines". It appeared the next day on number one when I used it.
Unfortunately, the so-called internet marketing guru here who promote himself as a motivational speaker caught the keywords after three weeks. He used the same keywords for this three websites although he never before called himself an inspirational speaker.
His websites are older. And he knows more about SEO's than I do. He got about 12 pages titled "Filipino motivational speaker in the Philippines" each with one or two paragraphs of descriptions.
This seems unfair at first when I learned about what he is doing. But I guess, he is simply good at SEO marketing.
Great site, very interesting articles.
Steve Mills - Marketing Consultant
Steve Mills Marketing
Thanks Michael, great post as usual. I think one thing that boggles my mind is the algorithms that go into it, and how you can do really well on Google, and terrible on yahoo/bing.
another great marketing blog
http://marketmpb.blogspot.com
its fact that no one can predict for results because seo wants continue efforts for stay with a particular keyword @ 1st page of Google..results depends on your keyword how competitive your keyword is ??
Nice Article Michael Fleischner.. Thanking U A lot..
Thanks
Nawab Singh
SEO Analyst ( http://www.websolution.co.in/ )
Yes, dear.. it's lovely!
Websites have become the largest marketplace today because people want to stay connected through the internet. That's the reason why businesses are now considering the importance of these different SEO services. Houston, with its large business district, is flooded with big companies which are dependent on online marketing. In fact, I'm also employed in one of the companies here in Houston. SEO services like link building and copywriting are two of the best ways of reaching our target consumers, by providing them with short yet informative articles everytime they search for any kind of information pertaining to our product.
Great post Michael! It is so true that things can happen overnight. I try to see the value in the small strides I make with my blog. It is also so true that the Google PR algorithms are a complex formula to figure out!
Great information. Will use some of these techniques to boost my website ranking. Thanks
Very informative post. In my opinion, organic SEO need hard works and it is always better to use keyword research assistant.
We need to reach millions of customers each day and internet marketing is the best way to make this happen. Internet Marketing not only drives traffic to our site and increases our revenues, but what is important, is to share to people that we have great services that they can use or tools that can help improve themselves and their lives.
Great post for someone who doesn't quite know the basics yet. Like all things in life it takes time and energy to learn what works and what doesn't work.
Keyword research is quite a weighty issue which should be handled cautiously as it will determine your PR. If one is not well equipped to research the appropriate keyword, he should consult an expert or use the keyword tools.
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