Remember the good old days when you could just throw some random keywords into an article and see your web traffic shoot up?
Well, things have changed! Nowadays, getting more traffic takes time and know-how.
How long does that process take, though?
Depending on the age and type of your website, along with who you choose to handle the intricate task of implementing SEO strategies, the outcomes can vary significantly.
Let's delve into this with more detail.
How Long Does SEO Take? Three Different Factors
SEO cannot guarantee immediate results. If a service promises something like "5000 new site visits within 24 hours" in exchange for payment, they are not trustworthy.
The reality is that SEO requires time to deliver results.
For new websites, it usually takes about 9-12 months to see results. However, if your website is over 2 years old, 99% of our clients see good results in the first 4 months!
Here are three key factors:
1. Time Frames for Older Businesses
Older websites have a significant advantage over newer, less well-known websites. Even if your older site isn't performing well when you search for SEO services, it has had more time to establish a strong web presence. Additionally, you've probably opened up other channels that can help support your SEO efforts with minimal work.
More Content Available from the Start:
The main focus of SEO work is on content. An SEO specialist usually starts by checking out the existing site content to understand its current SEO quality.
If there's a lot of content, it's easier to begin implementing SEO by tweaking what's already there, and the site will have a good base to support new content in the future.
Having a large backlog of existing content is also crucial for attracting web traffic in the long run..
Established Site Structure:
If your website already has a good structure with a homepage, service pages, a blog, and other important parts, it's much easier to start using SEO strategies.
You won't need to do a lot of planning or designing to add new content. Just making small changes to what you already have and adding new content will take less time.
This means you'll start seeing the benefits of your investment sooner.
Established with Search Engines:
One of the awesome things about older websites is that they're already ranked in search engines. The idea isn't to start from the beginning, but to work on what's already there and aim for a better ranking.
Older sites also tend to have some level of traffic, which means you don't have to start from the ground up like with new sites.
Expected Time Frame:
If you've had your website for at least two years, you can expect to start seeing some really great results within 4-6 months of implementing strong SEO practices. While this might not be the absolute best result you can achieve, it's a good indication of what's to come in the long run.
At Shelley's Social Media nearly all our clients with 2-year-old sites see awesome results within this time frame, with many seeing them in less than 4 months. Keep up the good work!
2. Time Frames for Newer Businesses
If your website is pretty new, it's going to need some extra work, and it generally takes a bit longer before you start seeing results. It’s not a huge difference, but you’ll need to be patient. But don’t worry, the result will be worth the wait.
There are a few good and not-so-good things about using SEO on a new site. Let’s talk about those.
A Fresh Start:
One of the cool things about having a new website is that you get a fresh start. Older websites might have tons of content, but that also means there’s a bunch of stuff to update or redo to fix past mistakes.
With a newer website, you have a lot less to deal with, which gives you more freedom to make big changes without having to navigate around an established site structure.
Less of an Established Presence:
As a new website, you haven’t had enough time to build a loyal following of visitors or establish a strong presence across different marketing channels. This means you will need to focus on attracting people to your site in the first place and work on establishing your initial presence.
This will add significant time to your expected SEO schedule and will require patience on your part, as opposed to the relatively quick results that established site owners can expect.
You also probably don’t rank well in search engines yet, or your rank is likely very low, depending on the content you have created and how you have established your online presence from the beginning.
More Planning and Structuring:
SEO is almost entirely about the organization with keywords, or glorified labels, just being one facet of that. Older sites likely already have an established structure that makes implementing new, SEO-centric, content afar easier process.
When creating content for sites that don't have that pre-established structure and organization, there's a lot of planning involved to maximize SEO capabilities. However, this does give you the added benefit of starting your site off on an SEO-focused approach to site structure.
Expected Time Frame for Results:
Newer websites have some cool stuff going on, but they need more patience. Usually, our average client with a pretty new site doesn't start seeing good results until 9-12 months into the process.
It might seem like a long time, but you have to think about all the time-consuming work that goes into setting up a new website, getting it going, and finally seeing the results.
3. The SEO Specialist You Hire
SEO is a pretty tricky process that you can't just learn in a weekend. It needs dedication, staying up-to-date with search engines, understanding various markets and industries, and knowing how to put it all into an SEO strategy to make your company stand out.
Trying to handle your business and excel at everything while also dealing with SEO is almost impossible. So, you'd probably want to think about hiring an SEO specialist. This choice will also impact how long it takes to see results from your SEO project.
Higher-quality SEO specialists will make the right moves and streamline the process. They've mastered SEO, and they can operate on the fly without any unexpected hiccups or ridiculous delays. Their work is also more likely to be effective regardless of other factors.
In comparison, a low-quality SEO specialist will likely experience blunders along the way, take longer to plan and execute an SEO strategy, and generally provide lackluster results; even if you’re in a highly popular industry with tons of potential.
Try Shelley's Social Media for Reliable, Affordable, and Impactful SEO
You definitely need good SEO for your site. But it's not just about getting SEO work done; the quality of the work matters too. If you want to see real impact, you gotta work with the best. That's where Shelley's Social Media comes in.
We offer affordable, reliable, and consistent SEO results that have impressed tons of top companies in the US. Our quick and thorough SEO service has brought meaningful results to 2-year-old companies in just 4 months, and newer companies in as little as 9.
Don’t use a subpar service, schedule your free consultation call with me, today.