Search engines like Google and Bing to name the two most popular, determine website rankings based on a variety of factors and algorithms. While no none of us know the exact algorithms as they are not publicly disclosed, search engines like Google consider factors such as relevance, quality, and authority to determine rankings. Some key factors include:

• Relevance of the website’s content to the search query
• Quality and uniqueness of the content
• User experience and website performance, including page load speed and mobile-friendliness
• Backlinks from trusted websites
• Social signals and user engagement metrics
• Website structure and metadata optimization
• Historical website data and domain age

 SEO is not a one-time activity; it requires ongoing effort and maintenance. Search engines constantly update their algorithms, and competition in search rankings is fierce. To maintain and improve your website’s visibility, you need to continually work on optimizing your content, improving user experience, building quality backlinks, and staying updated with industry trends.

 SEO (Search Engine Optimization) helps your website rank higher in search engines by optimizing various elements on your website to make it more relevant and valuable to users and search engines. This involves optimizing your website’s structure, content, keywords, meta tags, and other factors that influence search engine rankings. By implementing SEO best practices, search engines can better understand your website’s relevance and value, leading to higher rankings in search results.

 The time it takes to see results from SEO efforts can vary depending on several factors, such as the competitiveness of your industry, the quality of your website, the extent of the optimizations made, and the consistency of your efforts. Generally, it takes time for search engines to crawl and index your optimized content and for those changes to reflect in search rankings. It’s common to start seeing noticeable improvements in rankings and organic traffic within a few months, but significant results may take six months to a year or more of consistent SEO work.

 Organic search results are the listings displayed in search engine results pages (SERPs) that are not influenced by advertising or paid placements. They are determined by the search engine’s algorithm and are based on the relevance and quality of the website’s content in relation to the user’s search query.  Paid search, such as Googles Pay Per Click, are the sponsored ads you see in the SERPs.  Google is now increasily modifying these ads to to an untrained eye they might look the exact same as the rest of the results. Organic can generate sustainable long-term results where as PPC can provide immediate visibility. While SEO requires initial investment and ongoing effort, the cost per click is typically lower compared to paid advertising. This can result in a higher ROI over time.

Think of backlinks like an endorsement.  The internet is one big web of links.  When one website links to another that is like a vote of confidence for that site. Think of it like a word of mouth referral. That site is endoring the website they are linking to.  Backlinks are extremely important and make up a huge part of Googles algorith. The more quality links and signals you have back to your site the higher you tend to rank. 

SEO is an ongoing commitment.  If you are in a niche market then you could perhaps do enough to you were in a position where you were happy with your placement for your keyphrases but it comes down to the factor of how much competition is in your market and also ensuring that if any competition does come into play you have ensured you are kept ahead of them.  

Fluctations in the rankings are normal.  As we rank a site it is usually to see a zig zag pattern.  The goal is to see the trend of that zig zag pattern moving upwards and eventually the goal is to keep it nice and steady and hold the positions gained.