My Clients
Talking of Design
How Long Does SEO Take for a New Website in North Wales?
Short version because I know you’ve got things to do:
- Google can discover a new website fairly quickly, but that isn’t the same as ranking well.
- Competitive organic rankings usually take months rather than days.
- Established competitors may already have years of backlinks, reviews and search authority behind them.
- The first four to six months give us a much better period in which to assess progress.
- We should look at overall visibility, clicks and enquiries rather than obsessing over one keyword.
“How long will it take to get on Google?” is one of those questions that sounds as though it should have a nice, simple answer. It doesn’t. SUCK IT UP! Sorry. Too much coffee.
Sadly, Google has neglected to provide us with a large red button marked PUT THIS WEBSITE AT THE TOP NOW GOOGLE YOU SWINE!
There are really two different things we need to consider.
The first is how long it takes Google to discover and index the website. The second is how long it takes that website to become genuinely competitive for the searches that matter to your business.
Those are very different things.
Being indexed isn’t the same as ranking well
A new page may be discovered by Google within days or weeks. That simply means Google knows it exists and can potentially include it within search results.
Getting it to appear prominently is another matter.
If we’re targeting a competitive service across North Wales, we may be competing against businesses that Google has known about for years.
Those competitors might already have:
- A long-established website
- Relevant backlinks from other websites
- A well-developed Google Business Profile
- Plenty of genuine customer reviews
- Useful supporting content
- Years of search history and brand awareness
Website owners who pay their web developer loads of money— Sorry, worth a try though right?
That doesn’t mean we can’t compete with them. It simply means we shouldn’t expect years of accumulated authority to disappear because our shiny new website went live on Tuesday.
Good SEO gives us the best possible starting point
When I design and build your website, I make sure the on-page and technical foundations are there from the beginning.
From there, we can start building on those foundations through useful content, backlinks, reviews, local SEO and ongoing analysis.
As Google begins gathering information about the website, I can monitor what it is appearing for and identify where we are starting to gain traction.
So, how long should we give it?
I generally prefer to look at the first four to six months as an initial period in which we can properly assess whether search visibility is growing.
During that time, I can monitor things such as:
- Increasing search impressions
- A wider range of relevant search queries
- Organic clicks
- Changes in average search position
- Local search visibility
- Enquiries and conversions coming from search
That gives us a much more useful picture than repeatedly Googling the same phrase and becoming either delighted or mildly furious depending on what appears that day.
SEO is about growth, not one magic ranking
The aim isn’t simply to reach number one for one chosen keyword.
What really matters is whether the website is becoming visible for more of the searches your potential customers actually make — and whether that visibility is turning into useful traffic and enquiries.
Wondering whether your SEO is actually working?
If your website has been live for a few months, I can review the data with you and show where visibility is developing, where opportunities are appearing and where further work may be worthwhile.
Fill in the enquiry form, email me at kev@kevadamson.com, or call me on 07974 697740 and we can have a look at what the hell Google has been up to.
Also in the After Launch SEO series:
