Digital marketing and SEO are all about meeting expectations. From the websites you build to how quickly things happen, it’s important for businesses of any size that their consumers expect high-quality service when interacting with them online – no matter what platform or channel they use!
Marketing efforts don’t always come with fast results, especially if we talk about search engine optimisation. The process of improving a website as a way to increase its ranking on search result pages can take up 6-12 months just like most people say but it really depends on the site and how complicated their code is to make changes which in turn affects the timescale for getting those rankings going again.
Maybe you’ve been wondering how long SEO will take to work and what would happen if a business suddenly quit its efforts.
What Is SEO and Why Does It Take so Long?
SEO is a lengthy process that pretty much translates into making your website accessible to consumers and search engines.
1. SEO and Search Engines
Improving your website’s rank in the SERP is essential on many different levels. Improving this will give you a number of valuable perks, but one that stands out to me as particularly important has do with:
- Increasing traffic
- Improving brand recognition
- Being more trustworthy, as pages on search results are generally considered high-quality by users.
The search engine’s job is to answer the web’s most pressing questions. For instance, if you type “best haircuts 2020″ on Google Search and it will bring millions of potential results but also need them ranked in a particular order so that users can easily find what they are looking for with just one click or tap.
This is where ranking factors come in:
The answer to what exactly does a search engine need in order for your website to be ranked on the first page of SERPs is not an easy one, as they never tell us all their secrets. However, we do know that user experience matters and should always strive towards providing our users with fast loading times so it doesn’t slow down their browsing process or cause errors when searching through Google results.
The internet is an ocean of information, and the search engine algorithms are your map to finding what you’re looking for. They will use web crawlers like minions in service of this mission: they crawl through all possible answers so that people can easily find them with just one click.
The web crawlers can’t actually read your content – it’s just a piece of code, programmed to look for certain signs in marketing known as ranking factors.
Search engines rank websites based on how well they provide the best user experience. The top ranking factors include things such as:
- Having content that’s relevant to the search query
- Having fast-loading sites
- Using the right keywords
- Optimised navigation
- Mobile-friendly design
- Pleasant, visually-pleasing design
- Good click-through-rate
- Engaging content
- Social media links
- Good meta descriptions
- Link building strategies, etc.
As you can see, there’s a lot to cover here. It’s why any SEO strategy is considered a move for long-term implementation, as you likely cannot cover everything right away.
2. SEO and Users
Search engines are getting better at ranking pages based on what users want. People today have short attention spans and will move onto something that is more relevant, even if it takes a few seconds longer to load.
The SEO strategy you put in place should be both for search engines AND users. It will help more people find your content, but also improve their overall experience on the website as they’re browsing through pages of information looking at what is relevant to them specifically – not just any old link juice!
SEO can take anywhere from a few weeks to months, depending on how well you make your website appealing and engaging for users as well as search engines.
What If You Stop Your SEO Efforts?
You might think you don’t have the time or energy to optimise your site, but that isn’t true. You just need some inspiration and motivation – and we’re here for both.
The answer is complicated, and there are many ways to look at it.
First, as far as search engines are concerned SEO never stops. If Google knows about your website then it will take a web crawler through and bring you back on page 20+ of SERPs without any efforts from yourself at all.
Then, all your other digital marketing campaigns may suffer as a result as well. Think of efforts like:
- Content marketing
- Social media campaigns
- Email marketing
- Pay-per-click marketing
Content marketing is important for generating leads, but it’s not effective if the user experience prevents people from easily accessing your content. A high-quality website with engaging and informative posts will help you generate more sales in less time than writing one long article.
SEO is an essential part of any business strategy, but it’s important to know the right way for your company. If you don’t need SEO or are content with social media alone then by all means skip this step – whether that will bring enough growth in revenue becomes another story altogether.
Be in It for the Long Run
If you want to see the results of your SEO efforts, then patience and a good strategy are essential. You’ll also need resources like time or money that can be invested into long-term implementation – maybe even with help from an expert team who knows what they’re doing.
Book a free 30-minute strategy session with a Search Engine Optimisation Expert Australian Internet Advertising now to reach our SEO team and start planning your next steps.
