How do I know if SEO is working?

Search engine optimisation (SEO to its friends): a concept that almost every website owner will know about, but that far fewer will be deeply familiar with.

Optimising your website for Google and other search engines is a complex and multifaceted process. Truly knowing whether your SEO is working is also not as simple as checking your ranking (although that is an important indicator of success.)

With that in mind, let’s take a closer look at the factors and considerations that allow you to more clearly judge the effectiveness of your SEO efforts.

How long until SEO takes effect?

Unlike PPC and other paid search marketing strategies, SEO isn’t a game of instant gratification. You need to do things right from the ground up if you are to realise success – a process that demands the investment of time and resources.

As such you shouldn’t expect to see a return on your SEO investment in hours, days or even weeks. Commonly SEO takes a month or two to begin taking effect, and longer to truly make a difference, but the results are more than worth waiting for.

How often does SEO need to be done?

The key to search engine optimisation is right there in the name – this is a game of making your website alluring to search engines. What Google finds alluring has changed markedly over time, and it will continue to change in the future.

SEO isn’t a process that can ever be stamped ‘complete’. Every time Google releases an update to its algorithm – which is regularly – your SEO efforts may need to be updated too. Add in the fact that your competitors are constantly looking for ways to move up the rankings, and SEO becomes a process of continual improvement.

How do I know my SEO ranking?

Search engines are the arbiters of the internet, deciding where to direct users to best answer queries. The higher your site appears, the more likely it is to get clicks, so finding out your ranking is absolutely critical. But how do you do it?

There’s the basic way: type relevant keywords into Google, and look for your site. If you’re a plumber in Auckland you might search ‘plumber Auckland’. Can you see yourself in the first few spots, or on the first page? If not, you have work to do.

But in many ways this check is quite shallow and meaningless. How can you be sure those are the keywords that your users are typing? If you don’t enjoy a high ranking, how do you know how to remedy the situation?

Audits like Growth Partners’ Website Performance Analysis offer a more comprehensive look at your SEO ranking. Between deep keyword research and competitor analysis, we not only reveal your current SEO situation, we also find out how to fix it.

How can I check my website SEO?

Search engines consider a wealth of factors when deciding where to rank your site. Knowing what these factors are, what to measure and how to improve are complex and technical challenges within the field of SEO.

Growth Partners’ Website Performance Analysis simplifies this process, turning it into something that anyone can understand. We conduct deep analysis of your website, ensuring it can be easily accessed by Google, that it performs well, and that it is filled with the sort of content that your audience (and Google) is looking for.

What is the ROI of SEO?

Before any good business invests its money, it will look to gain an understanding of the likely return. But in the murky world of SEO, where algorithms and competitor activities are closely guarded secrets, this is a task that can prove difficult for digital agencies, many of whom don’t offer to project SEO ROI at all.

Unlike most providers, at Growth Partners we lean on the insights drawn from our Website Performance Analysis to give you a tangible idea of what to expect from your SEO investment. As a general rule, you can expect your returns to look like this: modest to begin with, but rising over time.

How do I get my website to come up on the first page of Google?

‘How do I get to the top of Google?’ – it’s a simple question, but one that lacks a simple answer (beyond paying for an ad spot at the top.)

Search engine algorithms are deep and complex beasts. Getting to the top is about dotting as many Is and crossing as many Ts as possible, some of which won’t be in your direct control – Google, for example, uses backlinks from other sites to verify the authority and trustworthiness of your site. How do you get to the top? Put simply: investment, commitment and hard work.

How hard is it to rank on Google?

Ranking on Google is simple in some ways and incredibly difficult in others. To appear on any old search engine results page (SERP), you just need to be indexed by the search engine and answer the user query in one way or another.

To rank high on the SERP, you need to answer the user query in a deep and meaningful way, while also being better optimised than any other website. When you consider the fact that you are competing against every site on earth for the attention of Google’s users, it can be an intimidating prospect. But if you consider that someone has to be ranked number one, and that you’ll only be aiming to answer the most relevant search queries, ranking high can become eminently achievable.

How long does it take Google to rank a new website?

This question could be taken two ways: ‘how long does it take for Google to index my website?’ or ‘how long does it take for Google to rank my website at the top?’

It takes between four days and four weeks for your new website to be indexed by Google’s web crawlers, at which point you’ll officially be added to the search engine’s list of potential results. At this point your focus will switch to getting a high ranking, a process that may take months or years to play out, depending on the current state of your website, your audience, your competition and your chosen SEO partner.

What does SEO deliver?

Such is the depth and complexity of search engine optimisation that it can be easy to forget the ‘why?’ of it all. In the clearest and simplest sense, what is the point of SEO?

Imagine enjoying a constant and substantial stream of the warmest possible prospects – the ones that need your product or service and need it now – and not paying a cent in advertising spend to get it. This is the promise of SEO. By serving your website up as the answer to a user’s specific query, Google grants you access to people who are ready to buy, subscribe, join or partner.

And by teaming up with a company that doesn’t think of itself as a supplier of SEO services, but rather a partner in your business’s success, you’re all the more likely to realise the endless potential of SEO.

At Growth Partners we pride ourselves on being such partners. Thanks to our analytic approach, built on proprietary technology like our Website Performance Analysis, we boast a proven record of SEO success. If you’re ready to get Google working for you, we’re ready to help. Contact us to arrange a consultation with Growth Partners Director Steve Bambury today.