When talking about SEO, one of the things that website owners want to know is how long until they get results.

A firm that simply wants to close the deal would promise a short turnaround time – say a month or two. However, a reputable SEO company knows that timetable is not feasible – it’s like shooting for the stars.

Landing a prime spot on search engine results pages (SERPs) does not happen overnight. It can take four months up to a year before results are achieved.

Furthermore, SEO work should be done continuously to keep or improve your position. It is not a strategy that you can pause for a month then reactivate when you want to and expect your previous progress to still be there.

To earn a spot on the much-coveted first page of SERPs and maintain your rank, consistent and regular SEO work needs to be done.

Why SEO Results Take Time

“Why is it not possible to get immediate results?” you may ask. Well, how quickly results are achieved depends on three factors – competitors, inbound links and content.

Competitors

The more competitors you have for a specific keyword, the longer it is going to take to rank high or reach the number 1 spot for it.

This explains why it is easier and faster to be on top of SERPs if you are selling a unique product, say, for example, lightsaber chopsticks. If you are the sole company with this product, then you would not be up against a lot of webpages (possibly none at all) for this keyword. Hence, it is not impossible to be number 1 for this search query quickly.

However, this is not the reality for a lot of businesses or websites that have several competitors. Moreover, the degree of competition is going to vary according to the target market.

What does this mean? Businesses that focus on optimising their content for the local market will encounter less competition as compared to those that target a national and an international audience.

Inbound Links

One of the important things you need to do when optimising your website is to have numerous inbound links.

But when it comes to link building, it is not just about the number of links but also the quality. If you have hundreds of links but the majority of them are from irrelevant websites, these would not help your SEO efforts.

Simply put, you need a high volume of good quality links, but admittedly, getting them is not easy. It is not something you can grow quickly using the recommended methods.

While there are strategies and tools which can help you abruptly increase your inbound links, using them is detrimental to your optimisation efforts.

Search engines like Google have measures in place to alert them of black hat practices. If you are caught using these prohibited strategies, your site can be penalised which can result in lower rankings.

Basically, the faster you grow the high-quality links you have, the quicker it would be for your website to climb on top of search results. Again, this is not something you can rush as you need to comply with the guidelines set by search engines to avoid penalties.

Content

How often you publish content also affects how quickly you would achieve your desired results. By regularly churning out fresh content, users have a reason to go back to your website. These repeated visits signal search engines that people are getting an excellent experience on your site.

Many SEO specialists believe that user experience (UX) plays a role in the ranking of sites. Hence, providing new content frequently can improve UX which in return, results in better or faster SEO results.

Moreover, by publishing content on a regular basis, search engine spiders are going to crawl your website more often as well. This also has an impact on how fast you would be seeing improvements in rankings or traffic.

Just a reminder:

While you need to post content frequently, you should not sacrifice quality. Search engines like Google prefer high-quality, long-form content.

So, don’t publish just for the sake of having something new on your site. Ensure that the content you are putting out is of value to users.

Get Experienced SEO Specialists for Better Results

The speed at which you get your desired results is not just affected by the variables mentioned above. Other factors come into play, one of which is the kind of SEO specialist you hire.

Get an amateur and you can expect the process to take longer. Meanwhile, enlist the help of a seasoned SEO specialist and you can get results within a reasonable period of time.

These experts have the knowledge and experience (as well as the tools) essential in making a page appear on the first page of SERPs. Even in situations involving moderately and highly competitive keywords, you can trust them to help your site make significant progress.

For example, in case you are competing with a high volume of webpages, qualified SEO specialists know the value of studying your competition. They are not just going to look at where your competitors are at today, but where they are heading as well. Doing these things is necessary in determining how much effort and what steps are necessary to outrank them.

Lastly, experienced SEO specialists are equipped with the know-how needed in dealing with the unpredictability of website optimisation.

You see, SEO is an ever-evolving field where changes or modifications are introduced regularly. The ability to quickly understand and adapt to these changes is crucial to the success of SEO efforts.

In conclusion, be realistic with your expectations. Results are not going to materialise in a few weeks. Depending on your chosen keyword and SEO specialist, improvement in organic ranking and increase in traffic may happen in a few months or even a year. So, stay patient and continue doing the work.

Get the SEO results you want with the help of our experts. 3r’s SEO specialists have a proven track record of helping Irish businesses get more traffic and leads. Call us on 019609023 or visit our website to learn more about our services.

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Photo by Paloma Gómez