If you find yourself asking your prospective link building agency how much time it will take for them to help you rank high on the search engine results pages, know that you are not alone. After all, SEO is gaining popularity by the minute, making small business SEO services a must-have for small businesses. Its widespread use is proof of its effectivity when it comes to helping business websites ascend the SERPs ranks. It’s always good to understand that search engine optimization is not a short-term solution for your business needs, but rather a long-term and – most of the time – an ongoing one.
SEO in Time: A Dual Perspective
For those who are new to SEO and are asking themselves “What does SEO stand for”; SEO stands for search engine optimization and entails using strategies, such as targeting keywords, building high-quality backlinks, and ensuring mobile-friendliness, to get higher brand visibility and increase traffic online.
When it comes to time investment, there are often two concerns: how long will it take to see results and how much time needs to be spent on SEO tasks. Understanding these two views of SEO in relation to time may require a dichotomized perspective.
Quick SEO Results Vary
Let’s first look at the rate by which SEO techniques work.
Generally, several factors will affect how fast your site will feel the effects of any SEO efforts. For example, the more crowded the niche you choose, the longer it will take for SEO tactics to push your site up the ranks.
To get an idea just how much competition you are facing, try doing a search online yourself. As much as possible, use the keywords you want to rank for. Be detailed and specific, if you need to, so you can see just how many companies are also rooting for the same set of terms you want to be associated with your business website.
After you hit the search button, look closely at the websites that hit the highest spots. Then take a good look at where or which page your site stands. Scroll further down to see how many results turn up. Obviously, you’ll find your SEO efforts quickly take effect relative to a sea of hundreds of competitors, versus thousands or ten thousands more.
Competency and budget also play important roles in SEO’s rate of effectivity. Needless to say, a successful SEO analyst will have the upper hand when it comes to the latest link building strategies and the trending SEO tactics. If you have the financial means to sign up for guest-blogging services, you can use it to speed up your website’s SEO results.
Ultimately, companies who allocate more funds to hire experienced professionals, like a link building company, can expect faster results because they have more resources to pull off their campaigns.
In other words, the timing of SEO results may vary depending on several factors. To measure just how fast SEO can help you rise among the ranks, take note of the density of your chosen niche. Consider your SEO tactical know-how (and that of your hired pros). Also, do not forget that the way you plan your initial budget allocation or how you make the most of your year-end marketing budget can also impact how fast your SEO plans can take you to the top.
Quality SEO Takes Time
Next, let’s look at how much time you will need to invest in SEO tasks.
Like any business strategy, the best ones will always require greater investment. As discussed above, ranking in the SERPs does not happen overnight. If it did, you can be sure some black hat SEO was involved in it (or at least some gray hat SEO playing dangerously between white and black lines).
For SEO to be effective you need to know which variables to tweak.
So, how do you do this?
Definitely, you will need to conduct a website audit to know the SEO-readiness of your website. You certainly cannot assume the status of your website and jump to a conclusion that your link building agency can do all the work for you. This step alone can take one to two months on the average, to ensure that you carefully audit your website’s needs.
If you are tempted to skip this step and go straight to hiring a link building company to get things over and done with, you risk missing a thorough site-wide evaluation. Because if you are not able to tell whether your site needs a partial change or a complete revamp your newly-availed blogger outreach services will be not as effective, which is why is it always a good idea to consult an SEO specialist first for a full site audit.
So, take the time to assess your website’s weaknesses. Is it your keyword strategy that you need to be working on? If you haven’t yet, then you can switch to long-tail keywords based on natural language search so Siri and Google assistant can relay your latest content on voice search.
In addition to this, you will have to invest a considerable amount of time and effort to make sure you are executing SEO techniques properly. This includes conducting thorough research on effective SEO trends. Using SEO on your website for search engine rankings is way different from optimizing it based on the current trends.
But proper SEO execution does not end in the newest tricks. It also means taking time to regularly create and post high-quality content. Remember that you are creating your content to attract more visitors. But you also need a link building strategy to reinforce that content. Stick to building quality links as advised by your link building agency, it may take some time, but the results will always be worth it.
SEO at the End of the Day
While businesses are keen to use various SEO techniques to gain a competitive edge, some companies still remain skeptical about SEO. This is because SEO is not exactly a match for those looking for instant gratification – it takes a lot of effort and time.
Effective keyword strategies, link building, and content creation (to name a few) – all of these take up a considerable amount of time to be planned, to execute, and to take effect. In fact, big companies have a dedicated team or department or perhaps even an SEO analyst or specialist to manage SEO strategies and results. Others, especially those who do not want to keep and employ an SEO specialist to do the job, outsource their SEO tasks to other companies such as a link building company.
At the end of the day, if you want to reap the rewards of quality SEO, be prepared to wait for results. And give it time.