» When Will I Rank in Google?

Aaron Wall recently posted an article called How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google? He mentions that he gets asked this question quite frequently. This seems to be the only thing new clients are ever concerned about with their search marketing campaigns. And I will have to agree with Aaron on this one, “to compete in competitive marketplaces you have to out-think the competition or invest more than they do. When you start from how little or how quickly you have the wrong mindset.”

As he mentioned several things you should be concerned about. They are fresh quality content, building your brand, and make social connections. You want to build a site that is informative to your users and that also has a clear message of what your website is about and what product and services you are offering. This is a huge mistake I see happening all the time. Put yourself in your target audience’s shoes. Would you be interested in your site? Are you finding the information you are looking for based on the keyword phrases you are typing into the search engines? If not then it’s likely your potential customers aren’t finding what they want either.

So how long does it take to rank in Google? Aaron emphasizes several things that effect how long it will take to rank in Google.

If you site doesn’t have much competition in the search results space then it is possible that you may be able to rank highly in a month.

Is your site brand new? If so and your competition’s site is much older it can take you’re site a year to get in the top position you desire. However if they aren’t marketing their site well then it may be easier for you to rank in that top position. You may want to build links over a period of time to gain recognition. If your site is older you may be able to be more aggressive with the link building.

It is important to continuously monitor how much time and effort your competitors are investing. You won’t rank above them if you’re not investing the time.