How long does it take for SEO efforts to change rankings?

by 64 replies
73
Per the advice of people here I've begun to build backlinking to my site via blogs and videos as well as on Facebook. I already have existing Twitter and Tumblr blogs for the site but post links there as well. About how long should it take for me to notice an improvement? It's been a couple weeks so far and I don't see anything.
#search engine optimization #change #efforts #long #rankings #seo
  • There's a lot of variables... If you're building an extremely small amount of links and they're not really anything special (For Example only Social Bookmarks) then you may not move at all....

    If you bought 200 High PR homepage links you'd move up overnight... (Not recommending this by the way not as safe as it once was.)

    Depends on competition.... There's just a lot we need to know if you want a decent answer
  • From what I understand, you need to continuously make new content and build backlinks as well as active followers to those social media networks and slowly your rankings will improve. Proper back linking is not a 1 time process.
  • I prefer safe. My site is over 4 years old and I really want to build it for the long term. The new content is forthcoming on my site constantly, as it is a large forum/social network. I'm always adding new features to it. Offsite is the problem.

    So far around 8-10 new videos with links posted.

    What more do you need to know? I can supply any details that would help you give me better advice.
  • If any you can see improvements after around 72 hours once your backlinks are indexed.
  • There are so many brilliant minds working for Google right now that are very good at spotting trends and they are savy and they know what's going on.

    Right now, Google wants good, quality content. they want their customers that come there to search for something to have a good experience so they will come back. They will hopefully buy something from one of their advertisers, which in turn prompts their advertisers to spend more money with Them.

    So right now Google wants good quality, original content on a regular basis. How long a person stays on the page is important. If they go there and they're gone in a few minutes, They probably didn't like the content and Google also assumes the content is no good and your ranking is not as good as it could be.

    You must track this and find ways to keep people at your site longer. Make sure you know who is your target market and what information they want and give it to them.

    Seo is not a quick marketing strategy but the people are of higher quaility usually and are more educated, so are a good prospect of buying what you have to offer.

    I would figure on at least a 90 day plan.

    Keep at it.

    You'll see results.

    Steve
  • Thank you.

    We are already an authority site for one subject but we need to expand into related subjects in order to survive now since interest in our main subject is dying. Google loves us but only for one thing. I am trying to get the backlink up for the other areas, but so far I don't see anything happening.

    The main strategy: posting links around, on social sites and esp Youtube through video promotions. How many links does it take though?
  • If you do proper back linking then Google will most luckily crawl your pages within hours. And also you should take to consideration what Steve pointed out.
    • [1] reply
    • Well, then I am definitely not doing proper backlinking.

      I'm having new videos posted with links to the site's various sections, got like 10 of them at least now. Some blogs, etc, and a new one today on Reddit. But it's looking like I'm just not doing this right? What do I need to be doing that I'm not?
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • Exactly 14 days 10 hours and 5 minutes
  • I did not come here to be ridiculed. If you have nothing to -add- to this discussion please leave me alone. I'm doing my best to supply all the information that I can and I can't help not being an SEO expert.
    • [1] reply
  • Oh, ok. Sorry. I guess I'm just frustrated. I've been running in circles spending thousands of dollars for months and nothing to show for it.
  • Groovystar, I did not see you mention if you were using high competition keywords, but you must be for "thousands of dollars for months".

    I am not at that level, but those that build backlinks for high competition keywords do certain things,: Quality high Pr to first tier, usually build quality backlinks to the tier two and backlinks to tier three backlinks. And use other things such as private networks.

    Most of this done to tier 2 and higher, to keep your main site clean and without penalties and slaps.

    You probably all ready know that. If it is stiff competition, it could take a 6 months to a year to get where you want.

    So my suggestion is that you consult with someone besides who you have been dealing with, to get a second opinion. It can't hurt.

    If done wrong, this can push you down, not up. Much has changed.
  • Can I consult with you? Or anyone, I'll take anyone's advice who knows more than me. I've been taken for my money for "consultations" as well. And I've had it with crooks. I won't be paying for anything that I don't see the results before I buy. Someone tells me they can help my site rank well? Wonderful--I'll pay them the day after I SEE it ranking well.

    Also had it with "the real actual truth about SEO and how to really do it" videos that don't actually tell you jack shit. XD I'm not buying them, not buying any E-books, nothing.

    I am trying to rank various parts of my site to certain keywords like "wolf roleplay" or "vampire roleplay" or "my little pony roleplaying." It's a roleplaying site so these are 3 of the various things we feature. Nobody is finding them though, they are only finding us through the dying Warrior Cats fandom because that's all that the site ranks well for.

    Does anyone know what I'd be up against here? I'm only willing to invest a single thing in SEO that is actually going to work. Again--in the past, I've been nothing but scammed by SEO "consultants" and "experts." I've been ripped off way too many times so I'm telling everyone right now, I'm not buying ANYTHING I don't actually receive BEFORE money changes hands. I want to know how to do this myself. I'll take any useful advice I can, preferably backed up with real, actual examples of these techniques of SEO in action and actually working to raise a site.

    Currently I'm not dealing with anyone--I dropped the last SEO "expert" who promised to help raise my site up, gave him over $1000 and nothing but him telling me to wait a little longer and a little longer then he was gone and so was my money. This was early in the year/late last year. After that I swore off SEO forever. I'm back now because my site is dying and I am being advised by people here that it's probably the only way to save it.
  • Oh and I should add that I've got the time and drive to put the work into building links/content myself. Most of my time has been spent on adding content to the site itself. But it is becoming obvious to me that really isn't enough. I don't blame Google et al. for not paying attention since it's to pages of my site that up till recently haven't been promoted at all pretty much. But that's where the member activity is thriving the best and where I need to expand so that's what I have been doing.

    The problem is I just do not know how to set up a good SEO programme or what to do to begin. I tried paying for expert work and advice--that didn't work out so good.
  • Something does not sound right because these should only be medium difficulty to rank.
    I hear your pain. Been there myself with someone who took a few thousand from me years ago with little to show for it.

    P.M. me. Tell me what all you have done and and how long you have been at it, for each keyword.

    Who is doing your backlinking now, what they doing and how long they have been at it, for each keyword.

    I don't promise anything. I might be able to give you a couple suggestions. I will get back to you Sunday afternoon. Busy day for me. I am in the U.S., Pacific Standard time.

    Jeannie
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • DJ: I would only pay someone for that kind of work after I saw positive, measurable results for my site. Thank you for the offer though, if this is okay with you I will PM you. Heads up, though, I've been badly burnt over the years by scammers and so I go into nothing money wise without the proof in the pudding first. Currently I'm digging myself out of a hole made by a programmer who charged me $1300 a month only to screw the development up so badly that now I have to pay another programmer $1000 just to undo what he did and rebuild it. Fun times this summer....

    Sorry to vent. It's just been hell. Not to hell and back, just a one way trip here XD .

    All right! Going to try and be detailed here, might as well lay out what I did since it didn't work anyway, no golden secrets in here.

    For Warrior Cats and Warrior Cats RPG, those were the big terms that we never had to do much SEO for since our site revolved around them and I was naturally exchanging links with similar RPG sites at the time, this was a few years back and the site was built up over thest seasons and years. It was advertised by members on their other websites.

    Recently, our other RPing section has taken off while the rest of the site has begun to wither. I think it is because the book series is over and interest in it is fast fading. The decline correlates well with this.

    I purchased a new domain for a portal to the other roleplay area, roletopia.com and this was only a couple months ago I did this. I put it in signatures on a few forums, blogged it, and put its link in a few videos. No results. It is indexed, but it doesn't come up for any terms like play by post roleplay, forum roleplay and other things that it does.

    Recently I began a promotional contest involving my members. They would go create blogs and videos promoting various parts of the site, like the wolf, vampire etc. sections of roleplay and link the pages to those parts of the site. It's been just a few weeks of this. I don't see any measurable change in signup rate, in fact it simply continues to slowly die as if I haven't done anything.

    Most of my time has been spent adding content and activities to the site itself. Roleplay events, new avatar builders {I illustrated them myself, saving money} new boards, new skins themed to those boards. The members on the site already say that they love them. I see them using the new features. Yet nobody is signing up.

    Oh I should mention. We already have a FB fan page, a Twitter, a tumblr, a blogger, link on Reddit, a crapload of videos, you name it. The FB and Twitter have follower numbers in the 4 figures. They are apparently not all they are chalked up to be.
    • [2] replies
    • Sorry you did not understand. I was not asking you to put all that on a public forum as to exactly what you did. I meant for you to P.M. that info.

      You can take that off, by editing your post, if you wish. Or leave it if you don't care.

      Questions:
      - Can you change the header of your site?
      - Can you contact past members?
      - Would you be willing to poll them and for answers give them some kind of reward
      or at least say we would like you to come back and try out our new _________?

      I am retiring for the night. Will talk with you tomorrow.

    • Here are some suggestions:

      I suggest you read the book Who Moved My Cheese?: An Amazing Way to Deal with Change in Your Work and in Your Life by Spencer Johnson and Kenneth Blanchard. You can get it at a bookstore or order it at Amazon.com It will help you with your mindset and the stress, which sounds like it is really getting to you.

      This is the biggest problem - If interest is dying out and books are no longer being published, there is only so much you can do. You say that attrition is about 90% in your niche anyway, so the two together would certainly affect the people that continue on with your site.

      Your present site is well backlinked on the internet from other similar sites and forums with warrior cat keywords, and traffic is reported as going up at Semrush.com.

      Your new keywords don't have enough links pointing back to the site. Can you get more backlinks from forums for your new keywords? ( there is another problem I will mention below).

      Side note: It looks like a cat site, so I don't think it portrays the whole roleplaying theme you want.

      Your new site would be a great new start, And you would be able to get it established for more roleplay keywords. Many of these are only medium competition. It won't be that hard. You have not done enough backlinking and marketing to establish it on the internet and in peoples minds yet.

      It sounds like you have spent your money on programming, not getting backlinks through a search engine optimization company. You say you don't mind doing the work if you know what to do.

      One think I can suggest is that you subscribe to Onlywire.com and signup for the bookmarking sites and bookmark each section. I don't do more than 25 of the good bookmark sites at a time.

      Before you do that, you have got to have better onsite Search engine optimization. You don't really have any and it is holding you back. It is what lets the search engine bots know what your site is about.

      I don't see any H tags. This is the headline, with a keyword or two included. <H></H>tags, placed in the html. So your first paragraph "WCRPG is a play by post roleplay site..." needs to have a headline within those tags, and before the paragraph, that is appropriate for each section or page. Google "how to use h tags". You can use more than one H tag on a page.

      The meta name "keywords" could be better researched and used as well, for each page.

      Run both sites and reach more audience.

      This is where a poll may come in handy. Your traffic is going up, so why are your sign ups not going up. Find out what is going on with out assuming.

      Part of it on the old site, is the whole theme does not fit where you want to take the site now. It may be turning people off.


      Social networking is going to be a good bet for getting people to come to your site. The other thing is if you can actually put something in front of people at the other roleplaying sites and siphon off of them.

      As well, you probably do, but keep in contact with everyone, whether they are a current member or not. If they don't want to hear from you they will unsubscribe. Till then, you have their permission to be in contact.

      That is it for now. For your new site, go through all you did for your old site in the way of exchanging links, twitter feed, mentioning it on facebook, etc. As well as the bookmarks

      Jeannie
      • [1] reply
  • SEO is a extremely subjective! Some of the websites for which you will do SEO may not respond to your hard work even after 6 months or more, and some may respond very fast - maybe you'll get a ranking within 3 months. But the point is you never know when will Google come with new guidelines and you have to start all over again!

    Basically it is your niche and the competition that you are ready to face. Ah! It also depends on how aggressive can you be in your efforts...
    • [1] reply
    • Oh, I made it public since it didn't work anyway. People want to steal those secrets, well, I hope they're ready to watch their sites shrivel up. I'm not here to hide my SEO gold, I have none to hide. I wouldn't be here if I did, lol.

      I'm willing to change my site's header. I have abbreviated the name in the past--to just WCRPG and put other slogans like "Roleplay for All" and stuff. {That didn't work either.}

      I've spoken to members past and present and found out what made them all stay: finding someone else on the site who became a special friend. Heartwarming, eh? The non heartwarming part: only around 10% of members who sign up stay. The other 90% don't find a friend. We have tried a lot of different approaches to help with this, including mass emails {which reached past members} none to date have worked.

      I discuss that in more detail in my other thread, in Marketing main board. You can find it here: http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ml#post7115880

      Manishak: I am ready to be as aggressive as I need to be--no point in bringing a knife to a gun fight. I can either do what I have to do to save my site, or not bother. I say bring it on. I'm ready to run the race, just don't know where the trail is so I'm standing still.
  • Well it depends on a number of factors like the amount of links you are building and the quality of the links. You need to also improve on your content and you should know that improving on your ranking isn't just going to happen, its a process that might take time.
    • [1] reply
    • [DELETED]
    • It's a forum/social network; what do I do to improve content on those. I already am adding artwork and new features to it. I could list what I've added this year if it would help you guys give me better advice.

      On waiting: It's been almost a year already. So waiting a little longer won't kill me.
  • Banned
    A week or 2 week from my experiences.
  • Banned
    In couple of weeks you should see some changes in the traffic and the SERP. You have to work for more than 3 months then you can see the PR change.
    • [1] reply
    • I don't care about PR, I just need more people to see the site who are in other genres besides Warriors. It's been well over a couple weeks and there is no traffic improvement at all.
  • In my opinion (I am no SEO guru)

    The quantity of time it takes to update will decrease and decreaase.

    Google strives for constantly updatable information.

    All trends ultimately go in that direction.

    People want "live" updates, and "live" google searches.

    Stay tuned.
    • [1] reply
    • Banned
      It takes between a few days and 6-7 weeks since Google launched their new patent of delaying things, although they only filed it quite recently it has been like that for a few months now.
  • I had a look at my unique daily hits on Forum Topsite. Jeannie's right, our traffic is not only up, it's WAY up. I've never seen it this high. That changes the situation. I'm getting hits, they're just not converting. People aren't seeing what they want on my site when they first visit it is my only guess.

    I already have a theme planned out for a new layout, my programming abilities are limited, but I could "dress it up" in new colours and such and try and highlight the site's features. I just don't know how exactly. I've tried different skins in the past and never had good results. I tried several over the summer alone.
    • [1] reply
    • Hey Groovystar, you are welcome.

      Even if you changed the Header picture sequence out to a static Header with just a headline and then a subheadline about Roleplaying without emphasizing the cat warriors. My guess is as you think, they are not finding what they are looking for when they come. Who wants to roleplay a wolf, and comes to a site apparently about cats?

      And you must do the on site search engine optimization if you want to attract search engine bots and being crawled. It will help your visitors to know that they are on the right page and it is what they want on that page.

      Can you get to the HTML? You would just place the roleplaying headline at the beginning of the paragraph in an <H1> tag.

      Then for the poll, you need an exit popup set up. You can google "what to ask in a poll when visitor leaves without signing up" or something similar for some ideas. Look through the first two pages for ideas and what might apply.

      You would run two sites. You can create a new twitter, but you cannot create a new facebook. But you can certainly run both by your current people.

      Do any of the other RPing sites allow banner advertisements, sell solo ads or would make announcements? Do any of them have adwords running on their sites? If so, you advertise through adwords targeting their site.

      Yes, time to act, while you have more traffic.

      You know, as far as what would work for skins, etc. Check out other RPing similar sites on the first page of Google. Do something similar, rather than come up with something totally off the top of your head. If they have had it for a while, it is probably working out ok for them.

  • All right--I've begun work on the new logo and planning for the layout. Jeannie, would you be willing to give me an honest opinion on it once I have a preliminary image of it done? I don't think I can objectively design a new layout, but I will put in the work myself wherever I can.
    • [1] reply
    • I can take a look at it, but have not dealt with a game site up till now, so I may not be the best one to ask.



  • Well firend that will depend base on the keyword you wish to rank for. How many sites are competing for that word. It depends if your site is less than a year old, it also depends if you ping your backlinks to get the full credit for your efforts. Do you have webmaster tools? Do you have google analytics installed? These are all factors. Also did you build links with anchor text for what word your trying to rank for or were they naked www.mydomain.com urls? I would use a diverse body of anchor text for that word and ping them after I created them. I hope this helps and good luck with your SEO efforts.
  • It depends on the competition on the keyword you are doing optimization and how much backlinks you are getting.Also it also depends on the sites you are applying SEO techniques to get results.If the sites are of low quality or PR then you will not get Link juice for which you are spending your money.
    • [1] reply
    • We are definitely building backlinks, most of them too new to show effect probably but for some there should've been some signs. Now I find traffic is up, but signups are not, so the thing I am going to do is a redo of the layout. Not totally changing it but adjusting it overall. It's due for a new skin anyway.

      Thank you guys, so much.
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • If you're doing it right, it shouldn't take more than a couple of weeks for things to start moving. It depends entirely on the type and quality of links you're building and the competition levels of the keywords you're targeting. I'd say you are probably focusing on low quality link types and that's why you're seeing no results. In most link profiles, it's only a very small handful of high quality links that actually account for the rankings.
  • Hello there!
    The increase in traffic may also depend on the social media where you are posting your links. Are your followers active? There might be a huge number but you have to make sure that that number is actually clicking those links that you are posting. Results may not be apparent especially if you have ghost followers.
    Regards
  • Premiumwriting: Thank you for the advice; I'm not sure how to change that situation, especially as I need multiple links. And like I've said, I'm not putting a penny into any SEO services until AFTER I have seen results from it.

    My followers I am not sure how active they are, but they all followed me with no further incentive than wanting to follow me--I've never bribed for followers or anything like that. I just post updates on the site there.

    Someone else mentioned changing my layout so I've thrown myself into that project, spent most of the day on it and last night. Again I ask if anyone would be willing to view the proposed new layout once it is done? Or does the layout really just not matter?
  • SEO Efforts to change rankings require a minimum period of 3 months in which high quality backlinks would be build up and hence gain in rankings.
  • It all depends on the competition if you got an easy competition then you will rank fast if you got a strong competition then you will rank slowly that's why I prefer to take my time in keyword research.
  • Man I gotta love those random answers on WF. I'll get you on the first page in 4-6 weeks, pay on results. Add me Skype
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • I have changed my site's skin/layout! Anyone who was telling me I needed to do this, you can visit it again and let me know what you think!

    Godmode: Thank you, we're trying to rank for a number of things. I think though that the problem isn't that we aren't being seen it's that we aren't appealing to those who see us.

    But I can add you on Skype, sure!

    Well, so far the new layout is doing nothing for signups. The change should have been immediate. It means I either didn't change it in the right way or the people who I want to be seeing it aren't.

    I need people's honest opinions on what they think the layout does for the site now, as opposed to before.
    • [1] reply
    • You current layout gives the indication that there are a number of role playing models they can choose from. It is better than just cat pictures.

      Just give the new layout a try for a few days and get a poll going. Ask what they were looking for, did they find it, what would they like to see that you did not have, etc. See the post I had about poll taking above.

      How much of your hits that is being counted might be bots? Something I did not ask before.


      • [1] reply
  • it depend how well you build your links. high quality links with theme base also matter alot.
  • One of my site that was doing well in SERPs for the past TEN years tanked last week from thousands of hits to lower hundreds and another EMD site that was between number 1 and 3 on most of its keywords got hit bad the week before so we all have to roll with the punches Google is dishing out these days. Keep doing all the right things and sites will rise again in SERPs and traffic. You have gotten some invaluable advise from Jeannie who surely does know her stuff. I wish I could get her advise on my site. So keep faith and patience and dust will settle soon.
  • The problem is I need to expand a niche site into a more general site. And I just do not know how to do this without alienating the current people there for the niche {Warriors} who are declining because the series is no longer popular. We haven't fallen in SERPs. If anything we are as up there as we have ever been. We just aren't getting as many hits because those terms aren't as popular now. It is going to kill our site if we don't broaden.
  • I'm so sorry, for however I screwed up. I'm not good at this. I have been trying different things. I've added like 10 different new features to the site this year alone.

    I'm so sorry. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I know I did something bad.

    Please give me another chance.
    • [1] reply
    • This was in answer to me about doing a poll. And the other part is that I did research and told you about not having any onsite seo. You approach it that seo is a myth and won't help you at all. So there is nothing I can do to help you.



      • [1] reply
  • I usually see results in 3 - 5 days
  • Really? What do you do for results like that?
    • [1] reply
    • Excellent and clever On Page/Off Page SEO. By off page, I am taking more about high PR contextual backlinks... WITHOUT FAIL, I always see results fast.
  • Nobody will be able to tell you exactly how much time it should take you to get noticeable ranking. There are a lot of things depends on it. It can take 1 week or even 1 month.
  • How do I GET High PR links though?

    I've built over 50 backlinks mostly on Youtube for various keywords and I'm seeing no results yet. Signups continue to fall. We hit a new low record for signups today. I feel like giving up and just dying. I wish I was dead, because nothing I do ever works.
    • [1] reply
    • You have a terrible and failure mindset... fix that first or no one can help you... :p

      but to answer your question, by owning or renting them.

      and those youtube backlinks are no follow, so they wont help increase your rankings on Google. they only help add diversity to your backlinking portfolio.
  • Backlinks normally take around 72 hours to be indexed. You can see changes with in3 days after creating backlinks.
  • Its depend upon your targeted keywords strength. If you are targeted high competition keywords it takes some long time maximum 2-3 months, else your targeted keywords should low competition its takes short time minimum 15 days. What every the time taken you should do your work sincerely, don't lose your confidence upto bring the good results in SERP.
  • Link Building needs a time for you to see the result. Couple of weeks is just a short period of time. Give yourself at least a month or two to see its effect on your site. And I think you need to add some task on your site. I haven't read that you are doing some article marketing.
  • This mainly depends on your keyword, it can take upto 3-6 months or even a year to rank for 1st page of Google
  • There's absolutely no time limit on keyword ranking movement. Keywords can move due to your backlink strategy, on page optimization, off page optimization, customer interaction, and also depending on your competitors SEO strategy, which is something people tend to overlook. It really is relative to the competitiveness of your niche. For example you could be building 20-30 links a day for a specific keyword but your competitors could be targeting the exact same keyword and building 60-70 high quality links a day, so the chances are you wouldn't really see any real change. SEO is a waiting game. SEO agencies tend to give you a 6-9 month window of when you will see improvement but the truth is that it's all just guess work.
  • Banned
    A week or 2 week from my experiences.
Join the discussion

Next Topics on Trending Feed

  • 73

    How long does it take for SEO efforts to change rankings?

    Per the advice of people here I've begun to build backlinking to my site via blogs and videos as well as on Facebook. I already have existing Twitter and Tumblr blogs for the site but post links there as well. About how long should it take for me to notice an improvement? It's been a couple weeks so far and I don't see anything.