‘How Long Does It Take to Get Top Search Engine Rankings?’ – the dilemma of every SEO client.
The problem with this question is that it isn’t logical. Why? Here is an analogy: A library has a revolving shelf and it has more than one million books. You go to the librarian and asks him which book is in the farthest corner right now.
He may give you an assumed figure, but even he would not know the answer. There are many answers to it. But the one that you should know right now is that the library moves.
Not the Right Question
Think of Google algorithms. They change from time to time. So, this question isn’t even the right one. With it, clients can get an estimate of how much space they are going to get, but will that space in search engines translate to profits?
In our case, where the companies are trying to make the most money from their products and services, the question should be: How soon can clients expect leads from the efforts of the SEO company?
Even this question may not offer a plausible answer because it is all about trial and error. But it will at least help them learn what they need to learn to pace up the efforts.
The Ahrefs Study – DA Matters
Domain Authority (DA) of any website matters a lot in bringing it to the top of search engines. And, DA is made up of these three core factors.
- Age of the website
- Reputation/Traffic it gets
- Ranking in search engines
Moz was the first one to come up with a DA mechanism to rank the popularity of all websites. It is used by all SEO experts and helps them evaluate the website for better bargains. It can also help website and store owners get the best value from professional monthly SEO packages.
Increase Your DA
Ahrefs report says that if your website is not in the top-ranking pages on Google than perhaps you can take it thereby increasing your DA.
Now, if you are not sure how to increase your DA, you can either hire a marketing agency to do that or you can follow these simple tips:
Ways to Improve DA
- Increase your domain age.
- Add quality content that gets backlinks
- Focus on brand promotion
- Wait for a while. It takes time.
There is nothing more to it. It is dead simple.
All domains age but alone that doesn’t account for higher DA. For that to happen, your website will need to publish quality content that can make waves around the world.
Ahrefs study suggests that domain with a better ranking can see their pages on the first page of Google within a month or two. This is because Google algorithms are designed in a way to rank high DA websites even higher in the search results.
Choose Low Volume Keywords
If you want to rank higher for your desired keywords, then choose low volume keywords. It is easier to rank for low volume keywords instead of high-volume keywords. According to the Ahrefs study we discussed earlier, even higher DA websites take more time to rank for high volume keywords, And, 70 percent high volume websites don’t even rank in the top 100 Google results for high volume keywords.
It is better for websites to focus on low volume keywords when trying to rank in search engines. Low volume keywords have less competition. While it is true that they have less traffic but think about it. Is it worthy enough to rank on 100th position for a high-volume keyword or to rank for 1st position for a low volume keyword? I bet you will go in favor of the latter.
The below image describes how many days it will take for a web page to get ranked.
For those who are reluctant to rank for high volume keywords, it can take from 300 days to 350 days to rank for these keywords.
Length Still Matters
Google algorithms still focus on the length of the website. If the article is only 500 words and the competing website is writing around 2500 words, which website do you think will get the top spot? One with better quality content. Not to forget that word length is also an indicator of quality content. So, focus on that.
If you are not sure how much words to write in each article, simply check the word length of articles that your competitors have written. This will give you a fair idea about the length you need to rank your articles higher for the desired keywords.
According to this report, top spots are always reserved by websites that have the highest content length. But this doesn’t mean in any way that you can write anything in just to increase its length. The content needs to be relevant to the search query.
For example, if the keyword is for ‘best ecommerce platforms for small businesses’ then the content should be around this keyword.
Always Answer the Query First
A few experiments have shown that websites that answer the user query properly get the best rankings on Google. This is irrespective of the content length they have or the type of content they right. You can read more about this on Revising Word Count in 2019. The authors say that it isn’t the content length that makes a content rank higher. Instead, it is the backlinks that make the content unique. And, the backlinks co-relate with the length of the content.
Final Words
These are some of the most practical tips of 2019 to rank your website in search engines. If you are still not sure about how to rank your website, you can always get help from SEO agencies. Numerous SEO agencies exist. Find the one that best serves your needs.