When SEO professionals are asked how long it takes for a page to update, they respond with answers that range from days to years. Depending on what the page is about, these timeframes can vary dramatically.
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. The results of your SEO strategy won’t be visible right away, but it will eventually work its magic.
1. On-page optimization
Many SEO experts Gekkoshot believe that on-page optimization is the foundation of a great digital marketing strategy. This includes things like working keywords into titles, meta descriptions, and other aspects of your website’s content.
It’s important to be careful not to overdo this, however, as keywords should be used naturally and with context. For example, it’s a good idea to work your keyword into the title tag of each page, but not in a way that is obvious or sounds forced.
Search engine algorithms are constantly changing, so it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and best practices. With a proactive approach, it shouldn’t take more than 6 to 12 months to see measurable organic results from on-page optimization alone. But remember: your competition is also working hard to update their SEO strategies!
2. Keyword research
SEO experts use keyword research to identify search terms that searchers enter into Google. This enables them to create content that matches the intent of these searches, which in turn improves a website’s ranking on Google SERPs.
A thorough keyword research plan includes bucketing keywords into topics, analyzing monthly search volume (MSV) and latent semantic indexing (LSI). It can take between 4 to 6 months for a keyword map to be completed and recommendations implemented.
LSI research helps cut down the list of keywords by using related terms to provide a more complete picture of user intent. A great way to do this is to head over to Reddit and start searching for broad topics that your target audience is interested in. Then, look for phrases that are related to your product or service.
3. Link building
Regardless of what the experts say, it takes time for link building to have a noticeable impact on search engine results. The process can take anywhere from three to 12 months before any positive changes are visible.
A new website will take longer to see the effects of a link building campaign than an established one. This is due to the “Google Sandbox,” a concept that suggests new websites are suppressed for a period of time until they prove their quality.
Brand-new sites also have to compete with other pages that already have years of links and traffic behind them. It can take months or even years for a new page to rank for highly competitive keywords. The best way to speed up this process is by targeting competitive pages and building links on them.
4. Keyword density
After Google got wise to keyword stuffing, SEO became less about the number of times a certain word appears on a page and more about creating content that coordinates with your search terms. However, this doesn’t mean that keyword density isn’t important.
Keyword density (also known as keyword frequency) is the number of times a keyword appears on a piece of content in relation to its total word count. For example, if a piece of content uses the keyword “goldfish” ten times in 1000 words, it has a keyword density of one percent.
Ideally, your content should contain your target keywords in a natural way without being overly repetitive. This will help your site rank well for relevant search terms and encourage users to engage with it.
5. Content creation
Content creation is the process of pinpointing topics that are relevant to your target audience and then developing a strategy to create high-value digital media around those topics. This can take the form of blog posts, infographics, videos and more.
It’s also important to keep in mind that content needs to be refreshed regularly. Topics can change quickly, and your marketing team may need to update the information in a piece to reflect these changes.
When updating a piece of content, make sure to include the new version in its URL. This will help Google understand that it’s an updated version of a page and will likely boost its search engine rankings. It may also help it qualify for a featured snippet spot. This is particularly helpful for queries that are difficult to rank for.
