How Long Does SEO Take to Work?

SEO is a type of organic digital marketing strategy that is designed to help your website improve their search engine rankings.

We all know that Google (and other search engines) are amongst the most powerful tools for digital marketers. Need to find a local grocery store? We go straight to Google. Searching for a product that will help you remove stains from the kitchen countertop? Google has the answer. Or maybe you just want to find out more about a particular topic. Type a few keywords into Google and you’ll find yourself straight down the rabbit hole.

If, as a business owner, you can manage to get your website ranking highly for these keywords, you are far more likely to attract the attention and interest of potential customers. However, doing so is not as easy as it seems.

SEO is a highly technical type of marketing strategy that requires a unique combination of science and imagination to get right. What’s more, having your website occupy a top spot on Google’s SERP (search engine results pages) does not happen overnight. It can take considerable time to start seeing consistent SEO results, which is something that all business owners need to keep in mind when deciding to work with an SEO company in Melbourne.

What does an SEO strategy involve?

One of the most important things to keep in mind when undertaking SEO is that Google’s main goal is to provide a good experience for their users. This means that their users can find the information, product, or service they are searching for in the shortest time possible. The task of an SEO specialist is to know how Google’s algorithms work to rate and rank pages.

Google is quite open about what they are searching for in a web page. They regularly release updates to their algorithm and provide plenty of information on their own website about how SEO specialists and website owners can improve their search result rankings.

Google tells us that an SEO strategy is typically made up of three separate components; on-page SEO, off-page SEO, and technical SEO.

Combined, these three approaches signal to Google that your website is trustworthy, reputable, and features quality content that will be of use to people using their service.

On-page SEO

On-page SEO refers to changes made to your own website that help Google better understand what types of products and services your company offers. Typically, an on-page SEO strategy consists of the following:

● Use of title tags
● Inclusion of meta descriptions
● Use of header tags
● Quality, keyword-rich content
● Optimising images

Off-page SEO

Google doesn’t just crawl your website to gain an understanding of what your business offers. The Google bots actually scan the whole internet!

One of the best ways that you can signal to these bots that your website is trustworthy is by having it linked to other quality websites, a process known as backlinking. Other off-page SEO strategies include:

● Content marketing
● Guest blogging
● Social media marketing
● Reviews
● Local citations

Technical SEO

Finally, technical SEO. This process refers to technical changes made to your own website that will improve the user experience. It is closely related to on-page SEO.

Technical SEO strategies include:

● Site speed optimisation
● Canonicalisation
● Site structure
● Removal of duplicate content

How long should I expect to wait before seeing SEO results?
Now we know a little bit more about what goes into an SEO strategy, it’s time to talk about how long you should expect before seeing results.

Broadly speaking, your website ranking should show improvements within 6 to 12 months. This might seem like a significant period of time but what you need to understand is that Google wants people to go about SEO ‘the right way’. This is also known as employing ‘white-hat strategies’, which involve abiding by Google’s terms and conditions and producing quality content that is of use to your audience.

The opposite of a white-hat strategy is a black-hat strategy, which generally involves underhand tactics and use of spam websites to generate increased traffic.

SEO companies that employ black-hat strategies may promise quick results, but this can come at a huge cost. Google has been known to severely penalise websites that do not follow their terms and conditions, effectively removing them from search results.

All of this is to say that if you are looking for a company that provides SEO services in Australia, avoid any that promise you will see significant results within a matter of weeks. While there may be some movement, an effective SEO strategy requires time and dedication and a trained SEO professional will understand this.

The great thing about SEO is that it is an organic marketing strategy, meaning that it will continue to produce results for years to come, without the need to pay for placed advertisements. So while you may have to wait a few months for your efforts to pay off, you can expect long-term benefits that see increased customer interest for years to come.