When Should You Start Seeing Results from Your SEO Campaign?

SEO can be tricky. Traffic is a necessary element when it comes to seeing success for your website. In many ways, it’s the most important element; without traffic, your website is almost useless.

For this reason, people get restless. If you’ve hired a company to handle your SEO, or if you’ve chosen the do-it-yourself route, you probably want to see results quickly. The faster that you get results, the faster you can start generating more revenue for your business.

One of the most overlooked mistakes with SEO is the mismanagement of expectations. There are businesses that expect to receive dramatic results in the first two weeks. To make it worse, there are SEO “providers” who are proclaiming that you’ll rapidly receive massive rankings if you sign up for their service. They’re making it seem fast and easy, and some businesses have gobbled it up. When these “providers” don’t deliver on these promises (essentially scamming their clientele), businesses get really sour on SEO, and they believe it to be a waste of time.

If you really want to get the best from SEO, you will have to give it some time. Unlike other marketing methods (like pay-per-click, for example), you won’t experience overnight success, unless there is little-to-no competition in your market.

The length of time it takes to start seeing SEO success varies from business to business, because each business will have unique factors that contribute to their success (or lack thereof). The purpose of this post is to give a general guideline of what you should expect of your SEO campaign– assuming that your SEO strategy is sound.

The 1st step: Research

Research is the first step. With research, you’re delving into keywords and the competition of your market. Depending on the size of your business, the length of the research will vary. Some businesses may only need a few hours, but most will need a few days, if not weeks. You’ll need the find the best keywords that will give you the best chance for success. Once you have your targeted keywords lined up, it’s time to start thinking about your overall strategy. In this stage, it’s wise to review your website– the current state of your onsite optimization, any technical errors, your content, etc. If any of those things are out of order, it’s hard to see success from your SEO strategy. The state of your website is ground zero.

How long should the research/planning stage take? Anywhere from a few weeks to 1-2 months. It depends on your business. Will you see any game-changing results in this time period? Most likely not; you’re only laying the foundation.

The 2nd Step: Execution

At this point, it’s time to start executing your strategy. Some people employ different strategies than others, and the amount of time it will take for you to see results will vary due to a number of different factors. So, it’s hard to say when you should start climbing the search engines. Though, if it’s a taking a seemingly long amount of time to see any results (6+ months), then something is probably wrong– either your strategy or your research got started on the wrong foot.

There are a couple of things to keep in mind with your execution:

• The website from which you launch your SEO campaign must be optimized. Meaning, no technical issues (404 errors or 301 redirects), the onsite optimization must be balanced and thorough, and the functionality of the site should be smooth.
• Your content is important. SEO and content are in a symbiotic relationship. Great content gives webmasters a good reason to link back to your site, so make sure that your site is content-friendly.
• Trying to rank for local keywords? Make sure that your Google My Business page is optimized, and that you’ve placed citations with your accurate business information across different websites.

How long will this take? A few months. It helps to have a company like ours handle SEO, because we know what we’re doing and have ample experience in this area. But if you do it yourself, you can very well see success, but you might run into some roadblocks due to your experience.

Moving Forward

SEO is ever-evolving. There might be a new Google algorithm update tomorrow that could change everything. That’s why it’s imperative to keep your ear to the ground, gain more knowledge, and continue testing what works and what doesn’t.

Are you ready to discuss your next SEO project with the leader in digital marketing? If so, contact Zen Agency today! We are a group of SEO experts.