Are you trying to launch your website and build up its recognition? Or you are working on a client’s website or page for the same purpose?
Regardless of the situation, one question will be asked, either in your head or your client’s. “How long before I see results on ranking?”
This question can be answered simply: “It depends.” Many factors go into Google’s ranking system, but I’m here to help you understand what’s needed to help you improve your ranking in Google’s SERPs.
Let’s get started!
How Are Websites Ranked?
Before we can answer how long it’ll take to increase your rank, you need to understand the criteria used to rank your website. After all, it isn’t just one or two things that determine your Google rank. Below, I have compiled a list of some of the top criteria you should know.
A new site’s rankings can be improved more easily if you know this information beforehand, so you can pay close attention to these criteria and avoid having to overhaul your website later.
However, that doesn’t mean that improving your ranking on an existing website is hopeless. You just need to do your research, go closely through the different pages of your website, and know which myths about SEO and rank building are true and which ones are false.
It’s important to know that there isn’t an exact formula you can follow to increase your ranking. That said, here are some of the key factors that Google considers:
1. Content Quality
Quality content is always going to be better than quantity.
When Google bots search websites, they weigh the quality of the posts, the length and originality of the content, and how frequently new content is published.
The more high-quality posts you put on your website, the more Google bots will return there, leading to a higher ranking. Creating quality content is also an excellent way to gain backlinks to your website, which can help increase your rankings. AI content creation tools (like Copy Ai) help the process be fast and effective.
There are several methods to obtain backlinks. You do your own link building, or you can outsource it to an agency that specializes in getting them. Either way, you mustn’t engage in buying backlinks because this can decrease your ranking rather than increase it.
One of the common ways of doing link building is via guest posting. This involves reaching out to high authority websites and blogs in your niche to publish quality content on their platforms. In return for your contribution to their websites, these platforms reward you with backlinks.
Many business owners and regular site owners try to do “link building by guest blogging” themselves. But several anecdotal pieces of evidence have shown that the approach doesn’t yield the best results. A better practice is the hiring of guest blogging agencies.
Guest blogging agencies have the experience to create quality pieces that guarantee quality backlinks. Plus, many of them also have existing relationships with top websites that can leverage your site’s ranking benefits.
2. SEO
Utilizing search engine optimization in your content will help ensure your website’s visibility to indexing programs, like Google bots.
SEO strategies should also include headings, link building, titles, image optimization, site load speed, and keywords when writing your content.
Technically speaking, we can categorize the above-listed strategies under two main umbrellas: the on-page strategies and the off-page strategies.
Google takes both strategies pretty seriously. In its eyes, implementing one and neglecting the other is like baking a dough without adding yeast.
If you commit plenty of efforts to improving your site speed (On-page SEO strategy) but forget to build backlinks (off-page strategy), you can rest assured your site won’t get anywhere near the first pages of the SERPs.
Of course, it’s possible to do SEO yourself, but there are also digital marketing firms that specialize in SEO services and can help improve your website in this area.
3. Keyword Competition
Having the right keywords in your content is important, but if your website is new, you might want to start with keywords that are less likely to be used less frequently by your competitors.
Why is this important?
If your website is new, and you use all of the same keywords as your top competitors who have had their websites up longer, then they’ll have a headstart on you for rankings using those keywords.
Therefore, you should come up with fresh keywords that’ll still help you rank get ranked, but without dealing with as much competition from the Google bots that scan your website’s content.
If you don’t know what keywords your competitors are using are being used by your competitors, there are methods that you can use to find this out. For instance, you can go to certain websites and get detailed reports about the keywords that your competitors have used.
This will allow you to alter your keywords so that you aren’t matched against competitor websites that have been around a lot longer than yours. This is especially important if your website is brand new.
4. Clean Domain
If you want to rank high on Google’s SERPs, the one thing you have to have is a clean domain. Building a rank takes time, and although there are cheats you can use that’ll work, in the long run, they will only hurt your ranking.
Using schemes like buying inbound links or keyword stuffing are frowned upon by Google, and when their algorithm catches onto this, they’ll penalize your website until you correct the issues they find. Using schemes like buying inbound links or keyword stuffing are frowned upon by Google. Especially when their algorithm catches onto this, resulting in penalization of your website until you correct the issues they find.
Therefore, when you start your new website, you want to make sure that its domain remains clean to avoid any issues with Google’s ranking algorithm in the future.
5. Domain Age
Ranking with a new website is difficult but not impossible. According to most indexing programs, a website is classified as new until it’s been in circulation for at least six months.
During this time, websites aren’t not considered trustworthy because they haven’t yet been verified as providing quality content. Therefore, it can be difficult to increase your ranking during this time, but it’s not impossible.
You should take this time to work on your website to make sure ensure that it provides solid content and is ready to go full-speed once it is older than six6 months.
The other option experts suggest buying expired domains for better and faster ranking due to the age and authority it already has created. Authority means the metrics that the domain has already achieved and links acquired.
These aged domains can be used for new site domains, or you can redirect them to a new domain. But, be careful to check spam scores, spammy links, or google penalize domains. Otherwise, it’ll harden your circumstances for ranking.
6. Website Performance
No one wants to go to a website and wait minutes to see the information they are searching for. Website performance is the measurement of your website’s speed and a variety of user experiences that effectively get across your goals.
When it comes to website performance, there are a few areas that you can check. For example, how fast does your website load? Is scrolling through the animations and content on it smooth?
If you find that your website performance isn’t where you want it to be, here are a few tips that you can use to help improve it.
Check And Add Smoothness and Inactivity
You should want your website to have reliable information and be exciting and easy to use. Having a well-performing website is guaranteed to help you rank higher on Google’s SERPs.
Some of the things you should check for when testings are working buttons and the smoothness of scrolling through the website. You’ll also want to check on any pop-ups on your website to make sure that they pop quickly and animate without glitches or delays.
Reduce The Overall Load Time Of Your Website
What is the load time of your website? The load time is the time that it takes for your website to download onto a user’s computer when they are browsing. Some of the things that can affect your load time are how many files you have on your website, their size, and the site’s latency.
One way to reduce the load time is by reducing your file sizes. If you have images, videos, or audio files embedded in your web pages, you can reduce their sizes by changing their resolutions or formats, as the case may be.
Bear in mind that changing resolutions/formats might impact the quality of the media you’re publishing. This is why you have to find the perfect balance between quality and size.
You can also use cookies to preload your website, which is an excellent way to help reduce the load time.
Pick And Choose Most Important Assets Wisely
If you are worried about the performance of your website, one of the most important things you can do is always provide ensure your most reliable and high-quality assets are loaded first and foremost.
This will allow your users to see the most vital information on your website first, rather than waiting for everything else to load in.
This trick is particularly applicable to the product and service-based websites. If users are coming to your page to view products or services, it makes sense to make the load of the items first before any other thing. That way, users don’t have to wait around to view what they’re actually on the page for.
Keep Track Of Your Success And Failures
Not every strategy will work well for you, and it’s important to know which ones you wish to use to help increase your ranking. But how do you find out which strategy will be right for you?
One way is to track your website data effectively by creating a flowchart online. Flowcharts are an excellent way to see what strategies have given you results and which ones you should stop using.
When making your flowchart, be sure to create it using data from at least a couple of months, or preferably longer, to guarantee you will get enough applicable information.
After all, most rank-building strategies take time to start showing proper results. A flowchart will allow you to see the ups and downs of the different strategies with real-time data connected to your website.
All you have to do is take the information from your website and put it into your flowchart to see what’s best for you. This can also be a good way of getting more bang for your buck when paying for services to help increase your ranking. Analyzing real-time SERP ranking data can provide valuable insights into the effectiveness of your SEO strategies.
Budget Can Dictate The Amount of Time
When you start managing the budget for your website and services, you have to realize that your budget can affect how long it takes for you to get a ranking on Google.
You’ll want to invest money in creating quality content and social media posts that can help drive site traffic.
No one likes to think about money, but when you are trying to set up a business and need the traffic to your website, it’s essential to know what’ll help and what won’t.
Some services will help increase your ranking faster, but it is never guaranteed. Therefore, you will need to weigh cost versus reward when looking into ways to improve your ranking. You can consider festival discounts or sales from service providers in order to get some cost-cutting.
But, ultimately revenue describes the efforts being placed on business growth.
Insights and Takeaways
Although the answer to the opening question isn’t a simple one, there are many things that you can do to narrow a general timeframe for increasing your ranking.
The time it takes for a new website to rank in Google’s SERPs varies according to many factors. However, you can make sure that your new website is full of high-quality content from the start, which will help you to rise in rankings.
There are many SEO tools that you can also use to help increase your rating. If you want to make sure you’re gaining rank in Google’s SERPs, you should ensure that your website is clean and that you do not engage in anything that could cause Google to penalize your website.
So, to answer how long it will take for your website to rank, you should take heed of different practices. The more prepared and informed you are about how rankings work, the more likely your website will rise in rankings faster – but it will still be a process to get where you want to be.
