SEO is simple to understand, easy to implement, but it takes time.
It takes a lot of dedication and consistency. If you think you can quickly see the results of your SEO efforts, you are delusional.
On average, it takes at least 3 months of continuous SEO efforts to get decent traffic from Google. That is if you’re working on an established blog or website.
It could take more than 6 months for a new blog or website.
I don’t agree with this statement much, but there is a Google Sandbox for new web properties. That includes everything from blogs to eCommerce websites.
Google Sandbox is a phase where the search engine algorithm prevents newly created websites from ranking in SERPs. Your content will still get indexed. It just won’t rank for any seed, short or long-tail keywords.
While there isn’t exactly a Sandbox, Google takes a good look at the overall presence of the website for at least 1 to 3 months, in 2020. In the early decade, this phase was way more than 6 months.
Websites automatically get out of the Sandbox and start ranking on SERPs. You don’t have to do anything manually.
However, this doesn’t mean you can’t rank new websites quickly. Using link building strategies, and brand building, it’s possible to rank even a month-old websites for low-competitive keywords.
The key is to remain consistent with your content and not indulge in any quick-traffic SEO schemes. Don’t buy links from Fiverr, don’t use PBNs – ever, and don’t try to cheat your way by selling posts for links either.
In short – don’t get involved in so-called Black Hat SEO techniques. This includes:
- Buying/selling links
- PBNs
- Footer link injection
- Hidden element link injection
- Creating redirection chains
- Cross-domain link building
- RSS content aggregation
There are many more Black Hat SEO techniques, but you get the gist.
I’ve never used any of these techniques, and I would suggest you do the same.
Stick with SEO techniques that are useful to both your audience and search engines.
With consistent on-page SEO combined with On-site and Off-page SEO, you’ll get the desired results. Slowly, but this is the right way for long term success.
Check out these SEO articles to make your website SEO-friendly:
- 7 SEO Tips to Increase Rank of Blog Posts On Google SERPs
- 19 On-Page SEO Strategies To Get Organic Traffic
- How To Optimize Long-Form Content for SEO in 14 Steps
- 12 SEO Strategies for Bloggers To Increase Organic Traffic
I’ve Been Doing SEO for a While. Why My Traffic is Still Low?
It could be because of a number of factors.
SEO alone can’t get you anywhere.
Google is a user-focused search engine. Your aim as a content marketer is to create content that helps people.
Content that solves a problem, helps in a decision, saves time, provides knowledge, and so on. People search for this type of content and as a search engine, Google has to rank the best content for the user query.
Now it has its own factors to decide which content is best to rank in the top 10 positions. And to help Google understand our content, we use SEO.
But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the sheer usefulness and quality of the content. If it can’t give what the title promises, no matter how hard you try. It will still not get any or very low organic traffic.
You need to create the best content. Even if it takes longer to write, it has to be solid & informative.
A mediocre blog post isn’t going to work anymore.
So, your focus should be on putting SEO efforts into helping search engine crawlers understand and evaluate your content.
And your aim should be to create the best possible content for the keyword you’re trying to rank for.
After all, it’s the real humans who are search engine users. If they like and share your content, Google will follow.
Quick Solutions
Even after doing everything right, you’re still getting poor results. It’s time to change your strategy.
Perform an SEO audit to understand what’s wrong with your website structure. It will also show you how many errors your website has.
Check your domain, it could be marked as spam by Google. Also, make sure your content isn’t plagiarized.
Try narrowing down your niche; it could be you’re writing about too many topics that don’t relate much.
Make your website more user-friendly. If your website is ugly, has unreadable blog posts, then it could result in a high bounce rate and low page per session.
Your website should load fast. Slow websites can get penalized anytime.
Check your IP address. Ask your web host how many websites are hosted on your IP address. If any domain that has been blacklisted for spam is also hosted on the same server as yours, it could result in a complete IP blacklist.
Here are a few SEO tools and resources that should help you:
- SEMrush – for in-depth site audit and keyword research.
- AnswerThePublic – to understand what users are searching for on Google and find ling tail keywords.
- Setka – A web-based tool to help you write and design user-friendly content
Don’t let low traffic, zero comments and zero revenue let you down.
Focus on your skills. Improve your writing skills, product or services, whatever you’re offering.
Keep putting the right efforts in the right direction, and success will come. It’s all about patience.
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