How Long Does A New Blog Take To Rank? How To Rank Higher In Search Engines

These are questions many people new to blogging seem to ask. Just how long will my blog take to rank? The problem is that there are so many variables to consider that it is hard to say. But it is the one thing that really disheartens those new to learning how to make money blogging. And yes, it is a long title. Doesn’t always have to be short you know. You don’t know what works until YOU try it. Not what other people tell you works. Two great anchor texts for the price of one for you to give me a backlink with

Better than “Ten Tips To Rank Higher In Google” or one of those formulaic titles your favorite Top Blogger keeps telling you to write so your post will get “Tweeted”, oh and you can follow me on Twitter here………….just joking.

The Usual Tangent….(of sorts)

Let me give you a quick example of how tough this game is and how difficult it is to make money quickly with blogging. And we will get on to how to rank better in search engines as well.

This month I am involved in a little experiment to see just what happens in one month with new content and a few backlinks to a site.

Don’t be scared boys and girls, but this is just a little wake up call for all of you in a hurry.

I have a site for Amazon products that I began in late November 2009. I added 7 posts to it and then promptly forgot about it and moved on to other things. It has only ever got 2 or 3 visitors a day. I never backlinked the articles or returned to the site until the beginning of this month (May).  My goal is to add 100 posts to it this month, and with the tally so far being 36 live posts I have some way to go to achieve that goal. I bet straight away you are thinking “oh my God I can’t do that”. Time to probably return to the day job then, not being harsh but I have banged on enough here about how online content that you write is imperative and you need to basically have it flowing in some major numbers.

I wanted to see just how different the stats would be on a site that had a few months of age to it and began to get lots of content. Throughout this month I will also give a few backlinks to every post on the site.  This is a lot of work. And anyone who wonders how long it takes to make money with a new blog is in for a little bit of a wake up call. It takes time to rank and sites need to age, unless you have chosen such a small niche that there is little to no competition, and little financial reward either.

I always take a slightly more long term approach now, and know from experience that making much money with a site in the first six months is very hard. Anyway, back to my stats so far.

So, we have 36 live post, some with backlinks and some not. So far I have not got past 20 visitors in a day. I have put in countless hours of work. I have:

• Redesigned the whole site
• Changed the whole feel of the site
• Added 29 pages of content
• Added numerous Amazon links
• Got backlinks to some posts
• blah, blah, blah

And the result of all my hard work to date?

No bloody sales!

Not that I am discouraged. It is part of the game I am in now.

If you start a new site or go back to a site that is even 6 months old it still take time. With a six month old site I thought I would have seen better results this month but let’s face it a few weeks is not very long for the search engines to decide to give me some authority. That will take time. It always does.

I believe that over the next few months the traffic will improve dramatically and my aim is to dominate a very broad niche. I have by far the most success by aiming to totally take over larger markets with tough to beat keywords. What I have found in my year plus of trying to make money from the Internet is that we should not be afraid of the big boys. Go for broke tackling a large niche and you can get some very good rewards. Heck, yesterday we made more than I earnt for a weeks work in the past going out to some job or other. It does pay off but it can be frustrating.

If we get too bogged down in stats and results from new sites or newly resurrected sites we need to be patient and look at the bigger picture. How long does it take for a blog to show up in Google can depend on a number of factors, but for anything remotely competitive it will take a number of months. And to rank higher you need to gain trust in the search engines eyes. This is via backlinks. Use the free and paid tools on the side to make a start to rank higher. The more links you have the more trust and the better the position in the results.

Usually.

Yep, there is always a but. And we just have to deal with that and get on with our work.

Motivation Time

Cool

Stay focused.  A new blog has a massive uphill battle to win for its terms and keywords. It will take work and lots of it. You need to constantly plug away at adding more content to new sites. You need to keep your spirits up.

Here are a few tips to keep you going if you are new to blogging or have just started a new site and the results are far from inspiring:

1. Have a number of sites that you can work on. If you only have 1 or 2 you will be tempted to put too much time in to them and will probably give them too many backlinks and this is BAD
2. Just add to them regularly  in sequence and try to forget about them for a few weeks at a time while you start other projects or work on older sites
3. It will happen. Over time you will see that you get a little more traffic. You will see that you got traffic for a term. If it is not in your post title then write  a new post and link the two posts together for the term. It reinforces the authority of the site.
4. Be realistic with keyword research. These tools are flawed and personally I would not go about building a site based around only the domain name or the main keyword. Try to get a little broader and cover the topic comprehensively. This way the site is more likely to succeed.
5. Use all the buying keywords you can think of. I have covered that here before so take a look through the (rather) limited archives.

Be aware that it takes a lot of work and a lot of your time to make decent money online.

There really is no magic formula. Over the year or so I have been blogging for money I have learnt a few things. Sometimes I make a new site and it storms ahead in weeks and begins to make some money, but often it is not the case. You need to work steadily on a site and it is not for six months or more until you begin to see just where it can go. Not that it should take that long to earn from it if you have been working on it for that amount of time.

To stay motivated you need to think ahead. Believe that the work you are doing now will pay off in the future. Diversify what you do, write about different topics, never only use one system for monetizing the site and don’t give up hope,

Why Most People Fail

The reality is that most people give up on trying to make money with blogs or websites as they simply do not put in the work. We need to get so much content online it is not even funny. We need to write content like our lives depended on it.

We need to keep going until it pays of. That is why most people fail to make a good living online. They can’t stay the race. They give up as it takes so much dedication.

How To Get A Blog To Rank Highly

There is no magical time-line for getting your blog and its keywords to rank highly in the search engines but there is a rough guide to how to approach this. Many people try to do to much to a site too quickly and this will severely lower their chances of success. Here is the blueprint that is not a blueprint at all to how to deal with your new blogs.

After you buy your domain put a few posts on it. Maybe 3 or 4. Don’t bother with any backlinks at all. Just leaver it there. It will be found. Don’t worry about getting indexed straight away. I have lost count of the times I have seen “How to get your site indexed in 10 minutes” and the like. What is the point? You won’t get traffic anyway. Let it get found over a week or so. If it doesn’t then use Onlywire or some some social bookmarker to give it a nudge in the right direction.

Then after a few weeks begin to put content on it. Go at whatever pace you feel comfortable with but always work on a number of sites so you do not get too caught up in one site.

Use the tools on the sidebar here to gradually give your blog posts some links. Be conservative. For the first few months simply give a link here and there. One or two a day is enough to get you going. This won’t get your posts ranking highly in the search engines but neither will it get you slapped hard for weird behaviour. New sites should not get too many links. (Normally)

After a few months it seems good to have a blast on a site to get the content on there. You can do it sooner if you wish but don’t go backlink crazy. The more content you have online the better as this is how to make money using blogs, by getting all your content ranking highly in the search engines, but backlinking them to rank well takes time. After a few months begin to give every single post on your blog backlinks. You will find some begin to climb in the search engine results. And I do mean every single blog post you have. With lots of good keyword specific backlinks, the odd “here” backlink, and also varied links to the home page. Don’t get hung up on all those percentages you read about though. Personally I get best results with most links going to posts not the homepage but I am still a “noob” so don’t listen to me.

This is where our hard work begins to pay off. If you see that you are beginning to rank better for posts then give it more backlinks.

How many backlinks do I need to rank?

6.5 to 9

As many as it take. That is the bottom line. I keep getting asked how many backklinks do I send to a blog post to get it to rank well. Some it is two backlinks, some it is none, some of my blogs posts have hundreds of backlinks pointing at them.

There is no magic number. Are all of your blogs posts number one in the search engines?

No? You surprise me. Then you need more backlinks and more content on your site. This is not going to stop. Even when you get to number one for your keywords there will be competition chasing your heels. And from time to time you need to re-enforce your position. Just keep plugging away at your sites.

Have a number of sites that you work on. When one of them begins to show real promise after a  few months then work harder on it. Over time you should find that a few sites really shine and this is where you should spend your time. Working on them and improving them.

You will have a lot of content online that really did not work out but lots will.

My example of the site I am resurrecting should be a good example of not getting discouraged. I may not be getting traffic now but in a few weeks it will be that little bit more. Then, as the posts age and climb in the search engines I will get more traffic. The site will make money, I know it will. And in a years time I will be approaching the top for a large and very broad niche.

I will put in the hours.

I will write the content.

I will provide what people are looking for.

I will write keyword specific post titles

I will get thoroughly fed up with it all and my fingers will lock

I will dominate my chosen field and take on the big sites we are told to stay away from

I will win for hundreds of keywords if not thousands

I will make lots of money to add to may growing daily earnings

I will then do it all over again until I make $30, 000 a month.

I will have a Thai Island

I won’t give up.

I won’t forget I had $3 in the bank this time last year and thousands in debt (all gone now, the debt)

I won’t forget that it does work if I work, even if it seems like nothing is happening

I won’t forget that thinking big and going for a broad niche can offer bigger returns

I won’t forget that hardly anyone really makes it writing blogs for money

I won’t forget that it takes bloody ages to make any money

I won’t forget magic starts to happen on a six month to a year old blog that gets backlinks

And I hope that you now know how long does it takes to rank a new blog.

Quite a while in case you are a skim reader. Bloody cheek.

Oh, and the next post here, probably in  a few weeks is going to be all about how to make money with Amazon and how to make money with affiliate programs in general. 5000 words and rapidly rising it is gonna be a whopper.

Happy typing guys and gals.

Oh, and all this is just my opinion, I don’t claim to have answers. I just type ’til my fingers are numb.