Well the time has come again to stress the importance of timing your SEO (search engine optimisation) strategy.  It’s already July, and Christmas will be here in no time!  With that comes the importance of timing, unlike traditional advertising and pay per click, SEO takes time.  There is no point of waiting until November or I would say even October to begin you SEO campaign, and expect results for the Christmas rush, it is practically impossible and anyone who tells you different isn’t being completely honest.

If you are an online retailer and want to see results for Christmas, start now!  SEO can take up to 6 – 12 months before you start seeing results, and I guess it is that long timeframe that can put some people off from starting an SEO campaign, but believe me it’s worth it.

Clicks from an organic or natural listing convert at around a 25% higher rate than those clicks being obtained through pay per click or the sponsored listings.  This conversion rate is where you will really see the impressive return on investment that can be achieved through search engine optimisation.  But again, timing is crucial. 

Results differ for different websites; a lot of aspects need to be considered.  What keywords do you want to target?  Are those keywords hot (highly competitive)?  What keywords are going to deliver targeted traffic to your site?  What are your competitors doing?  How popular is your site already?  All these different elements, plus many more, are going to decide how quickly you can expect to see good rankings.

With that being said, all search engines are different.  What works in Yahoo may not be the right strategy for Google.  You may see great results in a search engine like MSN, yet see nothing happening in Google.  Again this is when timing is crucial.  You need to give your campaign time to find out what is working and what strategies needs to be reconsidered.

If you want to target some extremely competitive keywords, I would recommend allowing up to 6 -8 months before you can even think about results.  If you are a niche company selling products that are not that competitive, you may see results a lot quicker.  But again it is all about timing, and allowing your SEO firm enough time to look at all the variables of your campaign.  From there they should be able to give you a realistic timeframe.

This also brings up another point that unfortunately happens frequently within the SEO industry; unrealistic timeframe quotes.  Some SEO firms will promise the world and deliver you a grain of sand.  These snatch and grab firms are there for the short term, knowing quite well that you will not see results within their giving timeframe.  So beware of SEO timeframe quotes, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

So keep SEO timeframes in mind, don’t go to an SEO firm expecting instant results, and be careful of firms that promise them.  Have a realistic approach and remember that search engine optimisation is long term strategy.  Choose a respected and truthful SEO firm and you will see the results.