You know how right after you post something on social media that you’re crazy excited about, you keep checking for reactions and comments every few minutes because you can’t wait to see who engaged with it?
It’s normal to feel the same way after you’ve performed a basic technical or advanced SEO on your website. You try to Google Search frequently to see if your website is moving up in the results pages.
But then, wait…. Nothing’s happening?!
Even if you didn’t personally ask these questions yourself, there’s a good chance you wanted to at some point. So, let’s dive in!
Scenario: You just did an SEO service on your brand-new website.
There are two big reasons for this:
It can take mere days all the way up to several weeks for Google (and the others) to receive and begin to use your site’s content in their search results. That’s called “indexing”.
Your search history results are stored in a cache memory that works just like the one in your personal internet browser. The cache memory in your personal internet browser is going to speed things up to reload a page you’ve already visited before by accessing it from the cache memory instead of rendering it from scratch every time. The same happens with your search history results. For efficiency’s sake, you’re basically getting the same results each time as you did before until it refreshes itself. There’s no set interval for Google to do this, but it happens faster for sites that are regularly updated with relevant content.
Keep in mind that every single person’s search results could yield some different websites and business profile listings, even when using similar keywords. Things like a user’s physical location in any given moment (think cell phone searches), personal search history, plus other variables, shape what results Google will deem “relevant” to that user.
Google (and others) track every person’s unique search history, which includes data from many other sources, to understand the intention behind the search so that relevant search results can be provided. And more importantly, the most relevant ads and sponsored content.
The internet holds so much incredible information now! To sift through it all to find what we want, we have to use search engines, and those companies want to know you like the Holy Ghost so they can promote, sell, and profit while you’re engaging with content.
Scenario: You just did an SEO service on your existing site.
Even though it seems like an existing site previously optimized at some point should already be well established with search engines and have less wait time to benefit from SEO adjustments, that’s not always the case.
Just like in the first question, when settings get updated or new content like pictures or text are added and submitted for indexation, it can take days or weeks for the algorithms to respond and incorporate the new stuff. You just need to give it a little bit of time. Sites that have a clear navigation structure, and have a history of regular updates, especially with high-quality content that is relevant to visitors, will see the quickest indexation speeds.
It’s a valuable practice to check the analytics of your website every month or so to get a higher-level perspective on trends so you can make thoughtful adjustments if there are any big dips in website performance.
“Thoughtful adjustments” can involve many different strategies depending on your industry and what SEO steps have already taken place. This is a good time to get a pulse check by an SEO specialist to ensure all of the technical settings are still on-point, and determine what other actions can help lift your online presence.
Scenario: You want to make changes to your existing or brand-new Wix site, and you just completed your SEO.
Things like, changing wording in headers, swapping out photos, and adding or deleting pages can definitely have an impact. It doesn’t mean changes are bad, but some technical settings probably need to be adjusted and the web pages re-indexed as a result.
Our best recommendation is to touch base for a quick chat to determine what steps may need to be taken, especially if we’re currently monitoring your SEO.
And one final bonus question:
What can I do to help my SEO?
Try to be patient while you're working through your SEO strategies. That's a tall order, right? In some cases, things can start adjusting very quickly, but holistic SEO and moving the big needle is a long game.
There’s a lot you can do strategy-wise depending on your industry and where your customers like to find you, but we always recommend a few things as a priority:
• Keep fresh, relevant content on your website that your visitors find helpful
• Get those Google reviews for your Google Business Profile
• Re-index your website regularly, especially after you refresh content or make changes
We go into more detail about these here.
How long has it been since you updated your website content and optimized your site? We’d love to help you succeed. We will make an honest recommendation based on 15 years of experience. Need more social proof? Check out one of our 160+ Five-Star Google reviews.
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