How long does it take SEO improvements to show in search engines?

[handcrafteduk]

Hi,

I've recently been doing some SEO improvements on my website and was wondering how long it would take for pages to be updated in Google?

Does Google change the ranking of a page based upon how it appeared when it was last visited (cached)? Or is there a mass update that happens where ALL sites are re-indexed at once?

Hope that made sense!

Thanks

Gary
Pagan Supplies from Paganbound, Wiccan supplies and Gothic Gifts. Pagan interest supplies.

[mjtaylor]

I find that changes to the site affect the SERPs as soon as the page where the changes are made is indexed.

[bobitza]

Interesting topic. I also think the onsite SEO improvements are "recognized" when the page gets reindexed

How about the offsite SEO? Namely links (number, power, anchor text)? Do they add up web page power as soon as they are discovered (and indexed on their web sites)?

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by bobitza

Interesting topic. I also think the onsite SEO improvements are "recognized" when the page gets reindexed

How about the offsite SEO? Namely links (number, power, anchor text)? Do they add up web page power as soon as they are discovered (and indexed on their web sites)?

I believe that takes a little longer. I do believe an incoming link from a relevant, quality site has an immediate impact (though the incremental impact may not be readily evident, depending on how high the quality of the page linking to you) but SEOs believe (dare I say know?) that as a link "ages", its value increases (all other things being equal ... that is, assuming the linking page remains at the same PR value and has about the same number of links).

[bobitza]

I read in many places that the age of a link influences how much juice is transmitted. If let's say it starts from 50%, in 3 months is 90% and in 6 months is fully 100%. So, assuming that the web page's strength stays the same, you'll have in 6 months double the link juice coming from that page. Please note that all the numbers are random. But anyway, we're going offtopic.

So, are links attributes updated in bulk? Are in fact the famous Google dances and PR updates in fact bulk updates of the links?

[josh08]

Is your site new? For me it took 3 months after listing my site in a few quality directories, join trade organizations, and get other clean links.

[Zishan]

I think it is an never ending process as long as want to be in top slot for google... you have to carry on with the seo as your competitor will also try to get better and best.

[incrediblehelp]

Really depends on the change but you want to give it a few months so Google can fully index the changes.

[kristy7]

My site has been live for three months, has been indexed and received page rank 2. I made some title and metadata changes on Monday, will it take another three months for the search engines to index my site again and pick up these changes?

[SemAdvance]

Google will typically score the full results of SEO work once every quarter or 90 days.

If you make changes in the middle of the quarter, then you may need two full turns ( 135 days 90+45) to see optimal results.

Peace!

[incrediblehelp]

No one is saying that. It really depends on how often those pages get crawled. I have seen websites take 2-3 days fro the changes to take place and some a month or so.

[mjtaylor]

Originally Posted by incrediblehelp

No one is saying that. It really depends on how often those pages get crawled. I have seen websites take 2-3 days fro the changes to take place and some a month or so.

So, do you and I agree, Jaan, that the effect on the SERPs is pretty much immediate once all changed pages have been indexed?

That's been my experience, and when I see changes further out than that, I assume it has more to do with off site changes such as new links, link aging and changes to the Google (or other SE) algo.

[Orion]

If there's a dramatic change it may make dramatic changes to rank, subtle change may move the site a bit, ideally you have regular updates to the site happening so that the site climbs bit by bit.

I find using the google site map ensures my site is regularly checked for updates, and they tend to be reflected in the rankings within a week of the last scan, often much sooner.

[craigmn3]

SEO is such a big topic that it's hard to classify with one brush stroke.

A lot depends on the condition of the site before optimized. Was it awful horrible rotten and now magically wonderful? (The cinderella effect) Changes could be seen almost immediatly depending on your stated (if any) revisit cycle.

Was the site a spam ridden slop site and now fixed... those changes could take longer as your pages may have been sent to supplemental or otherwise penalized.

Was the site semi okay? if so the on page seo may not make all that a startling effect. Alot of SEO benefits come with Age......more indexing, broader indexing, (read IBL). Doman Age and other factors apply too.

Finally On page SEO will have little to no results if the content is not apetizing to the spiders. Links pages, virtually empty pages, pages off topic can all be a problem.

So the answer to your question is a definate.....it depends.

pPace your site on the review my site page and gets lots of free advice. Just remember free advice is only worth what you pay for it.....sometimes

[DannyS]

I think it depends a lot on the keyword phrases you are targeting. From my own recent experiences I have seen a couple of months on a website targeting fairly competitive keywords and about a week on a site for a not very competitive keywords.

For the first of these this was how the timing looked like. At the end of October a major rework of an older site to make it more search engine friendly including rewrite of dynamic URLs to .html. See the position results on our keyword below. (We did sit back and wait and didn't do much else in the time these results were taken.)

29th. October at position 109
27th. November at position 145
27th. December at position 105
10th. January at position 101
7th. February at position 21

Today it's 37 so I had better get cracking again

For the second site we changed the keyword phrase we were targeting and had results very quickly.

Danny

[Webnauts]

DannyS is totally right. It has absolutely nothing to do with how fast the pages/site will be crawled. The time-frame depends on how competitive the keywords/keyphrases are.

[joncase]

We have to remember that we don't work on our sites in an SEO vacuum. While I am trying to improve my site's ranking, others who are after my same search terms are also working. If they do a better job in the same time frame, my SEO work may not move my site up in the SERPs. If they are working harder and doing a better job, my site may even lose rank.

[torpengkute]

Originally Posted by josh08

Is your site new? For me it took 3 months after listing my site in a few quality directories, join trade organizations, and get other clean links.

after reindex your pages, you can now check your site SERP...

otherwise your keypharse is very competitive.

[handcrafteduk]

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Well, I've changed the copy of my site to include more keywords (without being spammy!) and have a number of new links coming into the site so I guess I'll give it a month or so to see how things progress.

Thanks again.