Hiya Reader,
If you've seen any of my posts on Threads or IG stories this past week you know I've been going THROUGH IT over here.
Last Tuesday, literally 2-hours after I finished writing & scheduling out last weeks newsletter, I got rushed to the ER in an ambulance.
I ended up having to have emergency surgery for a ruptured ectopic pregnancy.
We got there just in time bc the internal situation was pretty bad.
All in all, I'm feeling very grateful to be alive & have a new respect for the medical system & people that donate blood. Idk where I'd be without it.
Physically I'm doing a lot better, which is WILD given the circumstances. The human body is crazy. Truly. Emotionally, it's been a lot.
Life is so precious & hard as fuck sometimes. But I'm still giggling over dumb shit on the internet sooooo my personality is still 100% active lmao
And now you're probably like GIRL WHY THE FUCK YOU SENDING AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER????? GO TO BED.
I am in bed.
Thank you very much #workfromhomeinbedvibesforthenext2weeks
And it's nice to chat & think about SEO + business instead of health stuff TBH.
I miss work.
And I also have an incredible VA who pulled out this week's newsletter from my long lost archives so I didn't have to write this one from scratch 🤪
I couldn't let my 40 week stretch of sending newsletters collapse like my fallopian tube (too soon? probably lmao but I have my sun & venus in the 8th house (astrology girls know) so dark humor is the ONLY WAY THROUGH THIS HELL OK???).
But today we're chatting about...
How long does it take to *realistically* see results with SEO?
(and give you a quick lil' sanity check so you can wait with a lil' less worry)
My perspective is a little different than what the other SEO experts have to say…
Because, it depends.
But I want to explain WHY it depends.
Most SEO agencies will tell you it takes at least 6+ months to get results.
And this isn’t necessarily wrong
I know why they say that.
SEO takes testing & tweaking, and building momentum because Google judges a website on 200+ factors.
BUT, that “6+ months” also needs context.
Because it *actually* depends on where you’re starting, your technical setup behind the scenes with your website & what keyword you’re targeting.
I’ve had clients get on page #1 for a target keyword within 3-4 weeks.
How did we get *quick* results?
Because the keyword we were targeting wasn’t too competitive.
The keyword had a good monthly search volume & low competition.
So it was essentially a gap in the market that we were able to fill, which is why we got results quickly.
The other thing to keep in mind (that also plays a role here), was that my client’s page was also a (really, truly, honestly) great solution to the problem for the keyword that we were targeting.
And we knew that because we dove into the intent of WHY a potential user would be searching that keyword, to begin with, and then we made sure our page content was aligned with it.
(Learn more about the importance of "intent" in this previous newsletter)
For more competitive keywords or keywords that you’re “kinda targeting but not really, just sprinkling them here and there on your pages or your website in general” those can definitely take 6+ months in order to get results.
If ever.
Because here's the honest truth...
If you want to get on page #1 of Google, you have to be the BEST solution to the problem.
...and you have to portray to GOOGLE that you’re the best solution to the problem (aka have content on your pages that SHOWCASE you know what you’re talking about in a way that helps your people aka PROVE IT).
And sometimes it takes 6+ months of testing to figure out HOW to do that in a way that makes sense for your website & business.
The biggest takeaway?
The biggest takeaway here is that “how long it takes to get on page #1 of Google” is based on a keyword-by-keyword basis.
Some keywords you might be able to show up for relatively quickly.
For some keywords, it might take a longer time.
Annnnnnnnd it depends on how new or fresh your website is.
Did you just launch your website in the past 6 months?
Okay, then it’s prob going to take a bit because Google doesn’t really “trust” or know your website quite yet.
(By "website" I mean domain name, not design. Your SEO rankings follow your DOMAIN NAME).
So, there’s a lot to juggle here LOL but I wanted to explain WHY you can sometimes get results quickly, and sometimes it’s more of a slow burn.
Because there really is no overarching timeframe.
BUT before you even worry about how long SEO takes, there’s a much more basic question that needs answering first:
Is your website even searchable on Google & Bing in the first place?
Because if your site isn’t indexed, no amount of patience is gonna get you results. 👀
I walk through the easiest possible way to check this (like, under one minute kinda check) in a new YouTube video that’s a quick way to see if search engines can actually find your site.
(If Google & Bing can't find your site, AI ain't gonna find your site either. They use the search engines index's in order to find, crawl, scan info. This is step #1).
>> Is Your Website Searchable on Google & Bing? (The Easiest Way to Check)
This one-minute check reassures you that something's actually happening behind the scenes and the results are eventually gonna start tricklin' in.
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👇 Action step for this week:
Usually I'd add something more in-depth here, but I'M IN BED & CHILLIN' & HEALIN' so if you KNOW your site is already searchable, you're ahead of the game. Action step for the week complete ✅
If you're not sure tho???? I'm gonna need 3 minutes of your time (2-min to watch the tutorial & 1-min to DO the check), and then you can get back to eating candy canes & reading gift guides... .
- Type "site:yourdomainname" into Google.
- Make sure results from your site start popping up.
- Do the same thing on Bing.
That’s it.
One quick check now = way fewer SEO question marks later.
>> YouTube video on how to do this quick lil' check for Google & Bing here
