How long before my site shows up in Google?
I see this question ALL THE TIME! The answer is simple. As soon as it’s added to the index. That doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll be listed for any specific keyword searches though. There isn’t a definitive answer to that and it may be never depending on the keyword and your site and your competition etc.
Competition
The web is a big place and although I’m sure your site idea is AWESOME, I’m sure there’s someone else who has had the same idea as you. A simple way to see who’s in your niche and who your competition is pretty simple: Google it!
Go ahead, take a look at who you’re competing against, view the source on their site, see how the SEO on their site is, see how usable or unusable their site is. That will help you figure out what you need to do to place among your competition. But even if you do all of that, it’s still going to take TIME. Domain age is a ranking factor, so don’t expect to top rank immediately, it may take weeks or months and sometimes years. Be patient, keep at it.
Natural Backlinks
Another piece that helps with authority on your site is how many other sites, blogs, etc link to you. This doesn’t mean you should be putting your links all over the internet, that is BAD and will get you penalized. However, when people actually like your site or service enough, they’ll tell other people about it, naturally. Don’t ask for links to your site, if your service or product is that great and site owners think it will legitimately help their users they’ll link to you or mention your brand. So keep making your product or services worth talking about.
Technical Issues
If your site is slow, throwing console errors or has any other technical issues, that will definitely affect it’s ranking. As you browse your site, open a console window and confirm your site isn’t choking on error messages. Run pagespeed insights to see what you can do to get your site optimized for speed. If a user has to wait for your site to load, they’ll bounce and if they came from a SERP google will know it and note it.
There’s always more you can do to get ranked better and faster. What have you done so far? What do you recommend to others? Let me know in the comments!
Web Developer
eCommerce Usability Optimization Expert
PNW Native, Outdoor Enthusiast and Overlander.