SEO. Three letters that strike fear into the hearts of everyone… or at least, all those who own a website. Those letters don’t take up much space, yet they form the backbone of your website. At least, they should do. The more attention you pay to search engine optimisation methods, the easier it will be to start ranking for the keywords and phrases you would like to be found for.
What does SEO mean?
It’s easier to understand the fluid nature of SEO if you know what it means. If you optimise your website for the search engines, you’ll find it easier to get more organic traffic from that source. You may well get traffic from other sources too – social media, links from other websites, and on it goes. But people place great importance on getting traffic from the search engines. Rank on page one for your search terms in Google and you can expect a nice boost in traffic.
But how long does it take to achieve this?
The magic 8 ball says: “Ask again later!”
In truth, there’s no firm answer to this. SEO encompasses many elements, such as:
- Strong keyword-based titles for your pages and posts
- A logical sitemap
- Links between different pages on your site
- Inbound links from other reputable websites and sources
- Cutting down on errors, dead links, and so on
- Making sure your site loads quickly
- Ensuring your site displays well on all devices – mobile ones included
Even this doesn’t cover it all. Furthermore, the time it takes for your SEO efforts to start bearing fruit will depend on the industry you’re in. Consider someone with a weight loss blog. They’re probably going to find it far more difficult to rank highly for competitive keywords compared with someone promoting a site selling knitted jumpers for puppies. You can see the second example is far more ‘niche’ than the first. That could make it easier to rank for relevant terms. There’s less competition, hence it’s easier to rank more highly.
The best piece of advice is to make sure you’re developing great content and publishing on a regular basis. This tells Google your site is live, active, and fresh. Aim at satisfying your readers first, even if you don’t have many yet. Don’t forget keywords, build relevant high quality links back to your website and do everything you can to keep SEO at the forefront of your mind. The rest will take care of itself in time.