The results of SEO can take a while to see, but at least we have analytics. (Photo by Stephen Phillips – Hostreviews.co.uk on Unsplash)
Why Does SEO Take So Long to See Results?
You’ve done your keyword research, optimized your website content, and launched it into the expanse of the internet. It’s been one week and…crickets. Is it you, or is this taking a while? And why does SEO take so long in the first place?
It’s true: SEO (a.k.a. search engine optimization) is a long game. It can take months or, in some cases, up to a year to see results. The good news is, your investment and patience can pay off in the future when your pages are seeing higher search engine rankings.
Here’s some insight as to why SEO can take a long time to mature.
Domain Authority (DA)
Every domain on the internet has a Domain Authority score. This is a score representing how much authority a given domain has across the internet. Scores range from 0 to 100, and the closer you are to 100, the better.
Why is that better? Because the higher your Domain Authority score, the more visibility your domain has across search engines. Your website pages are more likely to rank higher in search engines if your DA score is high.
How do you get a high DA? Your website receives backlinks from other high-quality websites (sites with high DA scores) and fewer links from spammy, low-quality websites. You also create great content that many people are reading, engaging with, and sharing.
Once you improve your DA score, you can expect your SEO to start showing results, too.
Competition
Depending on your industry, you may have lots of competitors that you’re up against in search. And those competitors may have been doing SEO work for years now. It’s not going to be easy for you to surpass them in search results, but it doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
When you have competition, SEO is going to take longer for you to see results. That’s because those other businesses have already put in the work you’re just starting. They may have a high DA score or a high volume of links from other sites like major news outlets or educational institutions (both very authoritative in Google’s eyes, generally).
You, too, can rank high in search engines, but it may take more time if you have others drinking from the same well. To get more insight, you may want to do a competitive analysis.
Content
The bottom line here is, if you’re not creating high-quality content on a regular basis, then your SEO is going to take longer to show results. In fact, content remains one of Google’s top ranking signals.
The more regularly you publish new content to your website, and have visitors returning to read it, the more Google sees your website as helpful to search users – and may rank it higher in return.
Keep in mind, this content needs to be highly valuable, too. It’s not merely about the volume of content or the schedule but, most importantly, that it answers users’ questions and offers value. How do you know that it does? You’ll see people sharing it with others, posting it on social, or linking to it – and Google will see that, too.
Conclusion
There you have it, some of the main reasons why SEO takes so long to show results: Domain Authority, competition, and content. If you’re not sure how these components factor into your own SEO performance, then reach out to us. We’re happy to explain how each one may be impacting what you’re seeing (or not seeing) in the search results.
