One of the common questions our clients ask us at Zibster is, "How long does it take for SEO to work?" While there's no one-size-fits-all answer, we can provide you with a focused timeline to help you understand when to expect results.
Before we start, remember SEO is not a magic bullet, it takes ongoing work. If you want our team to help optimize search results for your audience, check out our SEO Go Service.
Building a strong foundation (First month)
The first 30 days of an SEO campaign are crucial for laying a strong foundation. Start by conducting in-depth keyword research, identifying the most potent and niche-specific keywords that will boost your online presence. Sometimes, the less obvious keywords can be the most effective in gaining traction with minimal competition.
Once you have the right keywords, focus on implementing on-site efforts to optimize your website's content and ensure prominent keyword placement. This optimization helps search engines like Google take notice of your website and improve your rankings more quickly.
If you have already set up these free tools to watch analytics, publish your sitemap, and to help you see what is working.
Google Analytics
Google Search Console
How to add Google Analytics on your website
How to Verify my website with Google Search Console
How to submit my sitemap to Google
Keyword fluctuation and on-site optimization (Months 2-5)
During the next two to five months, you may notice fluctuations in your keyword rankings. This is perfectly normal as Google and other search engines assess where your website fits in the search results for different keywords. On-site optimizations that you implement in the first month will start to take effect around month three. This includes updates to your website content, any new pages you add to your website, page titles, meta descriptions, and tags that align with your target keywords.
Additionally, during this period, you should work on both on-site and off-site efforts to enhance your SEO. This can include further refinements to your website content implementation and link building to improve your website's overall authority and credibility.
Building E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness)
At this stage, you should emphasize building your site's E-A-T with search engines. E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
Experience refers to the credibility of the author (you) within the topic, while Expertise relates to the high level of skill and knowledge in a field. Authoritativeness is about establishing your brand as an industry leader, and Trustworthiness is crucial for gaining user and search engine trust.
Ways to build E-A-T:
- Quality Content - Well-documented, up-to-date, and focused on your target audience
- Expertise Demonstration - Show your expertise on your profession and subject matter (blog)
- Authoritativeness - You are the voice for this subject, build a presence online through social media and in your location
- Trustworthiness - Good reviews and testimonials, HTTPS and other security measures build trust
- Good User Experience - Easy-to-navigate websites reduce bounce rates and keep visitors on the website
- Social Engagement - Interact online through your social media channels
Building your E-A-T helps Google recognize the importance of user experience on your website, contributing to higher rankings over time. This process occurs during months 2-5 of your SEO campaign and is like framing a house, ensuring a sturdy structure to support future growth.
Progressing to higher rankings (Months 6-9)
Around the six-month mark, you should start seeing some of your target keywords break into higher rankings on Google's search engine results pages (SERPs). However, the work doesn't end here. You should continue with on-site optimization efforts to maintain your rankings and nurture keywords to outperform your competitors.
During this period, it’s important to continue creating high-quality content, link building, and strategic keyword targeting for optimal results.
Expanding your reach (Months 9+)
Having built a strong foundation and achieved success with your initial keywords, it's time to expand your reach. You should continue monitoring and optimizing your existing keywords to ensure they remain on the first page of search results or work toward getting on that first page.
Additionally, at this point you can begin targeting new, relevant keywords. The more quality keywords you have on the homepage or landing page you are using, the greater your visibility and potential to attract new customers.
Consistency is key
Like maintaining a fit body or honing a skill, SEO requires consistency. If you stop your SEO efforts abruptly, you may see your hard-earned rankings slip away. It's crucial to remain consistent and keep investing (time and/or money) in SEO to sustain and further enhance your website's success.
SEO is a gradual process. It's an ongoing investment in the success of your website and business, contributing to increased exposure and customer trust over time. Just like building a house, SEO grows and evolves, providing long-term benefits for your online presence.
My website is optimized, now what?
After you’ve optimized your website, interactions and engagements will grow, but you have to continue putting in the work or your SEO can stall. SEO isn’t magic, there is behind-the-scenes and front-end work you must keep up with. Here is how you can ensure your website ranking doesn’t tank (psst, it is mostly blogging):
Content expansion: Blogging allows you to regularly create new, relevant, and valuable content. Each blog post presents an opportunity to target specific keywords and topics that align with your business and audience, including new content areas. This content expansion contributes to a more extensive online presence, increasing the chances of attracting organic traffic from various search queries.
Keyword targeting: By incorporating target keywords into your blog posts naturally, you can improve your website's relevance to specific search terms. This enhances your chances of ranking higher in search engine results for those keywords and attracting relevant visitors to your website.
Internal linking: Blogging provides an opportunity for internal links within your website. When you link to and from relevant blog posts and other pages on your website, you improve the overall website structure by telling search engines how the pages are related, ultimately making it easier for search engines to crawl and index your content. Proper internal linking can also help distribute link authority and improve the ranking potential of important pages.
Freshness and recency: Search engines value fresh and up-to-date content. Regularly publishing blog posts signals to search engines that your website is active and relevant. Fresh content can contribute to improved rankings, particularly for trending topics or time-sensitive queries.
Backlink opportunities: High-quality blog posts can attract inbound links from other websites or blogs. These backlinks (or links back to your website) serve as a strong signal to search engines about your website's authority and credibility. Earning backlinks from reputable sources can positively impact your overall SEO efforts.
E-A-T building: As mentioned in this article, building expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T) is essential for SEO success. Blogging allows you to showcase your expertise in your niche, establish your authority on specific topics, and build trust with your audience by consistently providing valuable content.
Engagement and social sharing: Engaging and informative blog posts are more likely to be shared on social media platforms. Social signals can indirectly impact SEO by increasing visibility and driving traffic to your website. Additionally, increased engagement with your content can lead to higher user satisfaction, which may positively influence search engine rankings.
Long-tail keywords: Blogging provides an opportunity to target long-tail keywords (longer phrases), which are more specific and sometimes less competitive. Ranking for long-tail keywords can attract highly targeted traffic, leading to better conversion rates and user satisfaction.
SEO takes time. It does not happen overnight, if it does, consider yourself lucky! It takes strategy and patience. Blogging is an important part of SEO efforts to create valuable content, target specific keywords, build authority, and engage with your target audience. By incorporating a well-structured and strategic blogging plan into your SEO efforts, you can enhance your website's visibility, authority, and success on the Zibster platform. The challenge is the waiting game.
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