Are We Number 1 Yet?
SEO has become a buzz word thrown around in the industry far too often without a true understanding of what purpose it serves. This is exemplified by the typical question, "How long until I'm number one on Google?"
Understanding the process and defining objectives is critical when undertaking any valuable SEO project. There is a misguided notion that SEO is a once off project, rather than an ongoing process.
The "Are we number one yet?" mentality is a flawed paradigm. Real metrics like page views, unique visitors, social shares, inbound links, conversion rates, lead generation, sales and return on investment (ROI) should be the benchmarks against which you judge your SEO projects performance.
The flaw in itself comes from the fixation to be number one. But number one for what? And is number one for a particular keyword going to provide the highest ROI? Often more relevant long-tailed keywords results in traffic to your website that is actually valuable, and it increases sales and profit for your business. This compared to a lot of traffic from highly competitive generic business keywords, such as "motor dealer", that in the end is not relevant to most visitors and results in minimal returns. In essence, do you want more traffic or a measurable outcome like leads or sales? And no, they don't always go hand-in-hand.
The question still looms, “how long does it take before I see results from my SEO activities?” The answer is unique to every situation. There are a variety of factors like the trustworthiness and authority of your website, technical SEO properties, the quality of your website, back links, how valuable your content is, the responsiveness, etc.
No matter the starting point, SEO is not a quick fix - it is a long-term marketing tactic. As an entrepreneur or small business owner you should understand that at minimum a 9-12 month commitment is needed. Do not waste your money on SEO if you can't make such a commitment at this point in time. Rather look at investing in PPC or other shorter term tactics.
However, there is no doubt that the benefits of an effective SEO strategy paired with a strong content strategy is worth the investment!
A good SEO consultant would explain all of this to you of course.