It's also likely that you aren't quite sure what this even means.

SEO stands for Search Engine Optimisation, which is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through the optimisation of your website,
content and various technical SEO-related factors.

When it comes to SEO, everyone expects quick results to make it to that top spot on Google. Many website owners have unrealistic expectations, expecting instant results as soon as their SEO campaign starts. But in reality, it takes time and a lot of effort. So when can you expect to see results in SEO?

When it comes to how quickly you will see results after setting off with your SEO campaign, there are multiple variables to take into account. These include your: 
  • content and website design
  • domain name / URL
  • onsite errors
  • domain age
  • page speed
  • online competitiveness of the industry you're in, and
  • target market.
These are all but a few factors that will impact how effective a website is at ranking in search engines and how long SEO takes to work. It's much easier to win a race against 30 runners than a race against 300 runners.

The same is true with SEO. When your goal is to rank high, it is much easier to rank high for a specific region versus worldwide. For example, you would see better results if you are targeting people in the Western Cape versus Internationally. Google uses location indicators to provide results.

If your main goal is to rank higher in the SERPs, you'll need to beat out the other competition in order to accomplish this. At the very beginning of an SEO campaign, you’ll most likely notice your rank increase dramatically, outperforming very low-ranking websites.

Once the lower ranking sites have been overtaken, the competition on the first page can be harder to outrank. This is because search engines feel that they have answered the searcher's query and have more authority in the particular search space.

This is where the time to see SEO results can be impacted. You will need to show search engines that you are an expert in the field. It is important to consider how established your competitors are in your industry. Brands that have been in the industry much longer will be more difficult to beat.

The reason for this is that they would generally:
  • have a higher domain authority (search engine ranking score)
  • have more backlinks
  • are considered trustworthy, and
  • have served the users with answers that search engines deem adequate to a particular search query.
It is important to think of SEO like the investment of a savings account. The longer you put money away for, the better results you will have over time. SEO is the same; the longer SEO is being used, the better your results will be. 

If you spend two hours a month on SEO, your results are going to take much longer to materialise versus spending 10 to 20 hours a month on SEO. We need to understand that the more aggressive you are with an SEO campaign, the more likely you are to see results faster.

For more information, visit www.elemental.co.za