Why does it take long for Google to rank a website is a frequent question asked by multiple business owners.
What happens most of the time is that there is a lag time of between 6 months and 1 year before search engines improve their results listings.
But if you have quality informative content that goes viral and online users signal your content to be content with value, your website listings can improve in few hours.
Unfortunately, it is not all content that will go viral on the web.
That doesn’t mean that you should invest in low-quality SEO strategies by practicing black hat SEO techniques because it will cause more harm to your business even though it will have a quick positive effect on your business.
If you are a business owner I want you to know that there is no shortcut for SEO if you want to run an SEO campaign for your business, but there are few SEO points that you will need to be aware of.
You don’t need to try to manipulate search engines if you want to rank high in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
Trying to manipulate search engines by practicing black hat SEO techniques (Buying links, keyword stuffing, use of plagiarized content e.tc) will negatively impact your business website.
Even if you are successful with black hat SEO techniques, the results it will generate will only be for the short term, and your website will also be penalized if search engines found out that you practice black hat SEO.
Although it takes time for white hat SEO practices to generate results for your business, but the results it generates will last long and bring endless opportunities to your business.
It will normally take around 6 months to 1 year before white hat SEO techniques start to bring desired results to your business.
So you should be careful of SEOs that claim to increase your website visibility to the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs) in a short period of time.
Search engines' algorithm changes frequently to present online users with the best websites that have answers to their problems.
There is no SEO consultant or agency in this world that will be so precise about when your website will make it to the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).
You can learn how search engine rankings work, and why it usually takes up to 1 year for websites to start gaining visibility in the search rankings.
SEO is worth the investment if you are interested in the growth of your business, this is because search engine results are forever effective;
Search engines will consistently generate traffic to your website even if your business is no more.
If you are still in doubt about the reasons why it takes time for Google to rank your website, then you should pay attention to the few reasons I listed below;
6 Reasons Google Takes Time to Rank Your Website
1. Search engines serve online users, not your website
The primary concern of search engines is to provide the best online experience to their users.
They don’t care about your business or other businesses' competition over the first page of the search result.
Search engines are interested in displaying the most relevant, informative, educational, and high-quality results to every search query of their users.
Search engine giants like Google and Bing pay attention to how their users engage with any web content before their search bot decides on how the content will be visible in the search results.
Even if your content has been optimized lots of times, the content itself must be high-quality content.
This is the reason why Google evaluates every piece of content on the web on more than 200 rankings factors to ensure that only the best quality content is presented on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs)
You will need to align the optimization of your website with search engine objectives if you want your business website to make it to the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).
What I mean is that if you want to make it to Google top spot “you need to serve search engines user with great content.”
Although gaining the top spot in Google search results is not only about writing great content, there are other SEO factors that you need to consider;
Factors like website mobile friendliness, easy navigation, website speed time, etc.
The combination of these other SEO factors takes time, that’s why it takes months for any website to earn visibility on the search results.
2. You need to do research to target the right keywords
Keyword research is one of the important elements of running an effective SEO campaign.
Although the use of keywords for SEO campaigns has significantly evolved over the years, it is still relevant today because it is part of what determines your website's ranking in the search results.
Your website will be visible to your target customers when you create quality content with the right keywords.
Keywords research is more about doing research on keywords that are related to your business.
The keywords will serve as a topic for any content you want to publish on your website.
This keyword research is what makes it easy for search engines to rank your website based on topical relevance.
3. Publishing your web content early is an added advantage
According to research, websites that earn the top spot on the first page of search results have been around for more than two years.
The domain age of a website has a huge impact on how well it will rank in the search results.
The older a website the more credible and trustworthy it is in the eye of the search engine.
This is the reason why it is almost impossible for a new website to start ranking as soon as content is published on it unless the content goes viral after it has been published.
4. It takes time to create quality content
You will have to publish quality content for your website to rank higher in Google.
Unlike the olden days that 500 words articles could earn you a top spot on the search results.
To rank higher these days you will need to publish quality long-form contents that search engine users will love.
Google ranks websites with high-quality content higher than websites with low-quality content.
According to Backlinko, web contents that earn its spot on the first page of Google search engine results have more than 1,500 words count.
This means that long-form content can rank higher than short content.
5. It is hard to earn Backlinks from third-party websites.
Years back it was easy to earn quality backlinks.
However, it is now hard due to new search engine rules, search engine guidelines to earn quality backlinks from third-party websites have been very strict in this modern era.
With how hard it is to earn quality backlinks you can still earn some backlinks by publishing high-quality content on your website, influencer relationships, outreach, or by guest blogging.
Earning backlinks from credible third-party websites that are related to your business will earn you a vote of confidence from the search engine.
If you earn backlinks from other websites search engines will flag your website to be a trustworthy website.
The more quality backlinks you are able to earn, the higher the search engine will trust your website and make it rank higher in search results.
It is a long and tedious process to earn backlinks from third-party websites in this modern era.
That is why you need to make use of an all-in-one SEO toolkit like Semrush to easily build your backlink profile.
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6. Neglecting Social media as a search engine ranking factor
According to research, social media also plays an important role in search engine rankings.
Ranking your business website in the search engine is not just about gaining a higher position.
Your website traffic can increase if you post your web content on your business social media channels.
The number of times your social media followers shared your content and the number of engagements it has will also have an impact on your website search engine rankings.
This means that you also need to pay attention to how your social media followers interact with any of the web content you shared on your social media channels because it also has an impact on your website rankings in the search engine.
Conclusion
You need to be patient if you are running an SEO campaign for your business because SEO is a long-term investment.
It requires you to do a lot of groundwork before your website can earn visibility and earn a top spot on the first page of search engine results pages (SERPs).
After your website has gained visibility from your SEO effort you should not stop working on your SEO strategy because SEO is an ongoing strategy and not a one-time investment.
If your SEO campaign foundations are strong, your website rankings will increase exponentially and your business will be open to endless opportunities.