One of the most common questions Bellevue SEO professionals get asked, “how long does SEO take to work?”

Unfortunately, this is also a difficult question to answer, because SEO is complex and there are many components that go into optimizing a site.

Some agencies may give you a quote of three to six months, and while this can be a good quote, there are far too many factors to say that for sure, you will see a considerable change in your SEO in that amount of time. At Bellevue Public Relations, we have identified some of the key components that go into how long it may take for you to see results in your Bellevue SEO.

Competition

The demand for the products or services you provide determines the level of competition you face in your industry, both offline and online. If you have a product that has both demand and competition, this means you are also competing for the same keywords.

Also, you are not just competing with your competitors for those keywords; you are competing with the SEO professionals they have hired; they are probably investing as much in SEO as you are, if not more. This means that it may take longer for you to climb in the ranks in your search results.

One thing that can help is optimizing for local keywords over national or global ones because there is less competition on a local scale. If your company is national or global, you can still optimize local keywords in a few cities or states.

It is important to note that the closer you get to the top listings, the more difficult it can be to rise in the ranks because those companies typically have a larger budget to spend on their SEO. Depending on your niche, it can be challenging to get to the top. Working with your Bellevue SEO expert can help you unseat the listing sitting at the top, but it will take some time to get you to that point.

Link Building

While content is important, link building has always been one of the most important parts of SEO. While on the surface, it may seem like link building is about nothing but volume, numbers alone will not work anymore.

At one point in time, you could set up a program to generate links to speed up the process artificially, but Google caught wind of that and changed it. Some companies will sell you backlinks, but they are not quality, and while they may give your ranking a temporary boost, it will not last long.

Google pays attention to the quality of your links now, and the tech giant says, “Any links intended to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s guidelines.”

What makes a good link?

You want links from sites that are relevant to you and your target audience. Having a blog about digital marketing and having links from blogs about cookies is not relevant to you. This means they are not the right kind of links for you. You also want links on authoritative sites. These domains rank well organically, and they have a high number of links from quality domains.

As Search Engine Land puts it, “High-quality links are generally more difficult to earn, so they will be more difficult for your competitors to replicate. And they tend to last longer, as opposed to links generated using automated methods.”

It is important to be cautious in your link building; if you suddenly start acquiring links at a rapid rate, Google will notice and think you are doing something fishy. Try to keep a steady pace with your link acquisition, so you do not raise any red flags.

Content

Everyone says “content is king” for a good reason; it is a vital piece of the SEO puzzle. However, just like with link building, you need quality over quantity.

You do not need to churn out a stream of 300-word articles about your industry to boost your SEO; in fact, that has the potential to work against you. However, this does not mean you need to make every piece of content you publish 2,000 or more words.

As long as the content answers the question or solves the reader’s problem, it is okay if it is only a short, 500-word post. Sometimes, you only need 500 words to cover a topic, and if you try to turn that into a 2,000-word piece, you may end up creating low-quality content. Your readers can tell when you are grasping at straws to fulfill a word count. As long as you cover whatever your title says you will be covering, it is okay if you have shorter posts.

Post Frequently

Unlike link building, which you need to approach at a slow and steady pace, you can go from producing new content once a month to once a day without appearing suspicious to Google. When you have good content to publish, you can go ahead and publish it. The sooner it is released, the sooner it can begin to help improve your SEO. Try to develop a consistent publishing schedule to show Google new content is added regularly, which can help your SEO. A steady publishing schedule will also encourage people to visit your site regularly, which can also boost your SEO.

Conclusion

Those factors all contribute to your search engine ranking, and it can take several months before you see your desired result. Google itself said it can take up to a year before you begin to see a significant impact on your SEO, and even then, only 5.7 percent of new pages make it into Google’s top 10 within a year.

SEO takes time to work, but eventually, you will begin to see an improvement in your rankings. Working with a local digital marketing agency can make your Bellevue SEO start to rise at a better rate than trying to go it alone.