How Long Does It Take To Get To The First Page On Google?

TommyCarey Level X³

May 31, 2016, 4:02 pm

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How Long Does It Take To Get To The First Page On Google?

I get this question a lot with my new clients. When I hear this, I know the person who is signing up with me may be unhappy in 30 days when they're not ranking #1 for their difficult keywords.

Now then, with 8% of search traffic making it to page 2 on Googles search, it's pretty obvious that rankings matter a lot – and this takes time. When you're considering investing in SEO and PPC, so many website owners are wondering how they can get their website to page 1 in Googles search engine, and exactly how to get to that coveted #1 position that pulls in the most traffic.

The short answer is that no one can tell you exactly how this works, not even people who work for Google (unless your name is Matt Cutts). I'm not here to leave you a vague question and answer, that's not like me. Keep reading ;)

We're not Google

In addition to Google updating their search algorithm all the time, they also have a fresh crawler and deep crawler. They fresh crawler sends bits of fresh information back to their home base. The deep crawler, which is more predictable, is the main crawler that sends back tons of information back to their search engine. Then there is the calculation and propagation time to value every link, every page, and every website and then rank those against billions of search queries.

In short, no one (not even Google employees) know the exact formula that helps websites rank in the top of the search engines.

What we can do is take an analysis of a top competitor of ours and write down a detailed plan that they did and push it towards our own website. After this, we can get a basic time frame of what will happen and how long it may take to rank a website. In addition, we can adjust the plan to favor some different keywords and pull traffic in from less competitive areas while also targeting the same keywords our competitors are.

A Websites Quality Affects It's Success

If your website isn't seen as an authority and you don't update it very often with fresh content, it may take a while to rank up. In addition, if your website has obtained a penalty you have to assess exactly what that is and fix it. After you fixed the issue you need to then submit a reconsideration request before you can begin to be seen as an authority in your field and Google considers your for their search engine again.

We Don't Control Your Competition

By designing a game plan to increase your rankings and bring in traffic and sales we know that your competitors will be pushed down since not everyone can be at the top. However, it's very likely your competitors aren't just going to stand there and watch you destroy them.

Assume your competitors have already been doing SEO and Marketing. You will now need to do the right amount of work to match them and a little added work to surpass them. Sometimes a competitor has a few years head start and it could take a longer time for them to see you as a threat. Additional resources can help, but sometimes it just takes the slow, persistent, and aggregated authority built over time to rise in the search rankings.

Well, What If I Don't Want To Wait For Results?

I understand you want to see an instant ROI on your investment, but that doesn't happen when you're doing SEO for your website/business. It takes a technical know how of the search engines in order to not mess up your website and push it to the top. To do this, you need to show Google that you are the top dog and that you should be put at #1 in their search results for every keyword related to your website. You also need to show your visitors that you are the best deal around with the best content, services and/or products at the perfect price.

SEO Is Not A Campaign With A Start And Stop Date

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a long term ranking and branding technique that is on going. It defines your audience, learns what they are looking for, engages with them, nurtures that relationship, and in return, rewards you with their business. By understanding this, you’ll realize that it doesn’t matter how long it takes to get to the first page of a certain ranking, because you will know that just getting ranked isn't the only thing.

Now Forget Everything Above!

With all stated above in mind, here are some ballpark figures you can use.

Low to Medium Difficulty – With a good consistent strategy and no other major website issues, it is reasonable to expect that in 3-6 months you'll be in the top 10 search result for your keywords. As said before, this also depends on your competition who isn't going to just sit and watch you rank over them.

High Difficulty – Due to the high amount of competition, a highly difficult niche can take at least a year to see page one results. People don't like to hear that, but it's true.
You can shorten this time frame by using PPC (paid ads) to get to the top.

Extremely Difficult – It's possible that you will never see the first page of Google. And it could be out of reach for some small businesses because the cost of doing the SEO or outsourcing it is too much to be funded. For a larger company in an extremely difficult niche, it could several people working together (a team) to achieve top rankings.

Final Thoughts

If you get to the top of page 1 easily it's probably because that keyword isn't targeted by your competition since it doesn't get any traffic and click throughs. If you're getting traffic from the wrong audience, it's a waste. And if you are getting the right traffic from the right audience but you can't convert them, nothing matters.

Instead, think about how you can cater to your audience and give them something of substance. If it's content, make sure it's engaging and makes the reader want to read another page. If it's a service, make sure your copy is engaging and makes the potential client want to sign up. If it's a product, make it the best it can be and price it competitively.

Also, be the quickest and most informative inside your user friendly support system! People will pay a few dollars more if they get a response from you that is more than a one or two word answer. Answer follow up questions that you know they are going to ask. Respond quick, within 30 minutes, and your sales will increase.

Thanks,

Razzy

Comments

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procoder

Thumbs up for this great article, i really liked it! This phrase said it all "SEO Is Not A Campaign With A Start And Stop Date".

10 years ago

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anwebservices

Great article with really good information. I guess, this article should be offered by all Seoclerks freelancer who are offering SEO services, to their customers, so customers could easier understand how this works and that we don't have magic wands to rank them high and it's not peace of cake

How Long Does It Take To Get To The First Page On Google?

That's why quality SEO services simply can't be cheap as chips because it's becoming harder and harder task to do, specially for websites with high competition.

10 years ago

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EliteWriter

That is a very interesting article. I enjoyed reading it. I agree that unfortunately there are many clients who expect great results within a short period of time. This is not however a spell or some form of magic. There are so many things that factor in and get in the way. As you correctly pointed out, nobody knows Google's formula, and then there are also the penalties to see to, and competitors who also strive to do better than you. It is ultimately a long journey, and one that calls for a lot of effort, time and consistency. Clients need to appreciate that and hopefully if any of them read through your post they will be enlightened a bit on these matters that need to be dealt with. I do hope that their expectations may be a bit more realistic then.

10 years ago

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augusta

Quite an insightful article for everyone that need to succeed online.I think we should always forget the time or duration and focus more on achieving the target which is ranking high
if we focus more on this,we will only succeed but turn in quality jobs or post.

9 years ago

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hitmeasap

Thank you very much Razzy for this great article! It contains tons of valuable information for both sellers and buyers. This article will definitely come in handy for people with concerns and questions. As soon as they find it. I will cross-promote this where I see it would fit, so others will find it more easily. Excellent work.

Best Regards,
hitmeasap

10 years ago

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vinaya

When you search my name (Vinaya Ghimire), you can see that my name appears on the top of Google search index. That's because there is no another person with this name having a more online presence than me. This implies that if you have unique content, a content on the topic that has not been covered online, you will always be ranked high.
I have an article titled "Hindu Gods and Fertility Symbols" If you search keywords such as Hindu fertility Gods, Hindu Fertility Symbols, you will likely to find my article on the top of the page. This is because there are few contents on this topic.

9 years ago

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jaymish2

@Vinaya you are so right, that's a great strategy you suggest, for your page to rank. To add on that you can twist commonly searched keywords that are hard to rank and combine them with keywords with less competition to rank higher in the search engines. I also suggest trying to rank on other search engines, where I think they would be less competition to bring you more traffic.

8 years ago

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Corzhens

If the name of your site is not so unique then I guess you have to do a lot of SEO work so that your link can get into page 1 of the search list and hopefully it can inch upward until it achieves your dream of number 1. SEO work is not that hard although not that easy either. You begin with the uploading of new contents that is directly related to the niche of your site. And with the uploading you tag your content with keywords. That can greatly help your site’s ranking in search engines.

8 years ago

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SEOClerks

How Long Does It Take To Get To The First Page On Google?

How Long Does It Take To Get To The First Page On Google?

Comments

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procoder

anwebservices

EliteWriter

augusta

hitmeasap

vinaya

jaymish2

Corzhens

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