SEO time factors

How long?

[spinmasterspin]

Hi, I'm new to this forum and its so huge i figured if i ever had any hope of someone seeing my post, then i'd better start a new thread.

Great forum by the way.. hours of great reading material.

Basically i'm new to webdesign and SEO (3 months in), and i built a site conforming to everything i've learned about SEO.. its been indexed for 4 weeks and is already doing remarkably well in all the search engines for my generic keywords, but these are only competing with around 120,000 results.

My main keyword is up against 7.6 million results. All the websites on the 1st page of google for this keyword look poorly optimized with hardly any content. I figure they are only there due to their age and possibly backlinks. The highest ranked site is only a PR3.

I was wondering if anyone had any sort of idea about how long it would take for a site 4 weeks old to get on the 1st page amongst competition like this..

I would very much gratefully apprecitate any thoughts on this.

Thanks very much

[Quadrille]

How long is a piece of string?

It depends on your site, and the competition. There's no 'one answer'.

If your site is as good as those on the first page, and you do everything right (and nothing wrong), then likely you'll end up there.

Keep reading about the specifics, including 'sandbox' and 'aging delay', and ask specific questions as you go along.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Welcome to Webmaster world.

At least you got the first bit right by recognising and studying the requirement for SEO. When I started out six years ago I hadn't even heard of it. ;)

It was a lot easier then and my site did well despite my ignorance. It was only when it eventually dropped out of the ranking that I realised what I did not know.

As Quadrille says, new sites generally suffer from the sandbox effect, which means that they are held in a kind of quarantine for an indefinite period (possibly three to nine months). Another effect that has been acknowledged is that new site may rank quite highly for a week or two just after they are launched before dropping out again.

Really all you can do is wait and hope but if your site has good content and it is optimised adequately then it will eventually be fine. The one thing you must try to do is to get inbound links using keywords as anchor text.

This recent thread [webmasterworld.com...] provides a quick SEO reference.

[spinmasterspin]

Hi, thanks for the replies.. I looked into sandbox and aging delay and it looks like a 6-8 month wait atleast..

I have another idea for a website but the keyword i'll be aiming at is up against 188,000,000 results! Do you think this would be a complete non-starter with such competition?

Also do you think off-line popularity could get you ranked higher in google? Does having high traffic help with ranking?

Theres a guy who has a site made completely with Flash Media, and he is on the 2nd page for <keyword1 keyword2> with 88,000,000 results. I heard that search engines hate Flash but this guy has appeared in the news and on various TV shows, so i was wondering whether his popularity and/or his traffic count are the reason that his site is sitting so high up in google...

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks very much (again)

[edited by: encyclo at 10:36 pm (utc) on May 19, 2007]
[edit reason] no specifics please, see terms of service [/edit]

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

In www terms 188,000,000 is not impossible if your site has good content and something interesting to offer.

Also do you think off-line popularity could get you ranked higher in google?

Absolutely. The site you mention probably has lots of inbound links that use KW anchor text. If you use the Google "link:" command you can check this.
Unoptimised, popular websites often feature at the top of the results based almost entirely on their inbound links.

[Anat]

That flash site shows you how a good SE really works. Genuine links, preferably from authority sites. Links that come in naturally, in the right natural place. In short, let the SE's follow what people actually want, not the other way around.

[Beagle]

This would seem to be a no-brainer, but it often gets overlooked: Good, incoming links from authority (or at least reputable) sites not only help in the SE rankings - they bring actual traffic to your site on their own, and the traffic's likely to be better targeted than what you'll get from search engines. This is especially important for new sites that find themselves playing a waiting game for higher SE rankings. When people find your site without having to use a SE, you're not competing with those 188,000,000 sites listed for the same keyword. And if you put effort into getting those "organic" links, you'll find that as your site matures, or gets moved out of the sandbox, or however you want to describe the benefits of sticking around awhile - surprise! - you've also been doing something very important for SE ranking. And it'll be SE ranking that you won't have to rebuild every time an algorithm gets tweaked.

[spinmasterspin]

So a good off-line campaign is importatant then....

I have an idea for a new site and part of the advertising could involve making a series of really funny videos.. I was thinking of posting them on you-tube or something like that... Do you think a high generation of traffic alone could improve rankings, or does it have to be accompanied by many inbound links?

Any advice on promoting a series of funny videos on the net?

Thanks very much...