How long does it take for a website to rank in the search engines?

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How Long to Rank in Search Engines?

The question of how long it takes for a website to rank in the search engines and start paying off comes up quite frequently. There is no hard and fast rule for this since it is how long to rank another factor that is controlled by the search engines. The situation is also quite fluid since he search engines change their methods and algorithms regularly and the changes they make sometime affect this.

You may find that you can get a small amount of search engine traffic from the lesser known search engines quite quickly but this is not going to be enough to meet your targets. Google and Yahoo are going to take a bit longer. Currently Google is applying a kind of quarantine period to new websites, which means that you are unlikely to get any significant traffic for three to six months or perhaps even longer.

This unofficial process is nicknamed the Google "sandbox" and the theory is that it has been applied to limit the number of “fly by night” websites whose sole purpose is to make a quick killing with advertising. Other more cynical people say that it was designed to force people into paying for Google Adwords (see below), so that Google could increase the profit it was making before it went public in August 2004.

This is not true but either way it is likely that you are going to have to wait for some time unless you are willing to pay for your placement using Pay Per Click (PPC).

There is an element of luck involved in this. It has been reported that some new sites have ranked within a week or two and started delivering traffic more or less from the outset. A more likely scenario is that it will take three to nine months for your website to appear anywhere near the top of the results. This may also depend on how much competition there is in your business area. Some people say it takes longer in competitive areas.

(Note: If you have an already indexed, existing site that is being redesigned because it is not performing you probably will not have to wait as long. The sandbox is only applied to new domains.)

Paying for Placement or Pay Per Click (PPC)

If you cannot wait for results there are other options. You can pay for entry to Yahoo under their pay per click scheme and then pay them each time someone clicks on your link.

More information here, http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/index.php

Google use a system called AdWords, which may offer a better return on investment (ROI). With AdWords you create your own ads, choose keywords to help them match your ads to your audience and pay each time someone clicks on them. You can set a maximum monthly budget so that you know what your advertising is going to cost you.

More information here, https://adwords.google.co.uk/

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