How hard is it to rank on Google?

How hard is it to rank on Google?

With the costs of advertising going through the roof, many businesses consider SEO their primary online lead generation option. However, we wanted to get an expert opinion, so we sat down with Sasha Matviienko – director of digital at growth360 – an internet marketing agency in Toronto.

Sasha, how long does it take to rank on Google?

The honest answer is – it depends. Imagine a scenario where you compete against a major bank or news website. These are old, well-known websites with thousands of daily visitors and backlinks. If you have never done SEO for your site, it will be hard to rank for an area like Toronto. 
Ranking for an area like this may take years.

Are there any exceptions?

Of course. There are several workarounds you can benefit from!
Imagine you are an advertising agency. You offer several services – you design websites, provide SEO services, and perhaps do online advertising.
Most companies on the market go after the most competitive opportunities, for example, “Toronto SEO” keyword. However, with millions of people living in the city, the competition is too high for you to rank fast for a keyword like this. 
You may want to go after more specific opportunities – these will be easier to rank for and may be more beneficial for your business.
Here are a couple of examples:

  • Going after smaller local towns – instead of ranking for a multi-million city, consider ranking for a town nearby, for example, areas close by the major city – Mississauga, Richmond Hill, Vaughan, or Barrie. 
  • Or perhaps, consider being more specific with the service – for example, maybe your business services particular categories of clients, such as – eCommerce, Construction companies, or Small Businesses?

This approach can be repeated for almost any business you run. Instead of services, your company offers products, for example, Security Cameras. While targeting by location and by business type will work here, another good opportunity is to go after specific brands that your business works with.

How about the main pages on the website?

As for the main service pages, we recommend going after the significant city opportunities. This makes sense because prospects will assume that you also service smaller towns close by. Plus, the pages you list in the website header attract more attention and links. Going back to our security camera and network cabling business, this is a perfect example of a page targeting a primary area – Network Cabling Toronto.
Building pages is hard, and building good pages is even more challenging. So the chances are that many of your competitors don’t even have a page for something niche – be it a town or a particular service. 
The trick is to identify the right pages and approach them in the right way. 
You need to know if there is enough volume of searches to make your time investment effective and can you compete for this page?
That’s what we call – prioritising pages on impact vs. effort.

So if you build the correct page, will it rank #1 right away?

In some cases, it will rank on positions one through five or on the first page relatively quickly.
In others, it may take a little bit longer to get to the very first position. However, if you choose the correct page, it will start generating ROI relatively quickly. This will accelerate over time to have more traffic, leads, and revenue coming in from that page.

Not bad for a relatively small investment!

Not bad indeed; now multiply this by five, ten, or a hundred, and you’ll have a solid lead flow for your business. 
SEO is one of the best ROI channels long-term, and now you know why. 

About Sasha Matviienko

Sasha is a recognised Digital Marketing expert. For the past ten years, he’s been helping businesses generate revenue online. His background in SEO, Online Advertising & Web Development allows him to design comprehensive strategies that accomplish one objective – generating more revenue. 

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