What Factors Influence The Speed With Which You Rank?

Writing by Nick Stamoulis Tweet

Aaron Wall had another great post yesterday. He’s right. It is a frequently asked question and he does bring up some interesting points.

Some types of success are deliberate, but for most independent webmasters, I think they accidentally step into success by working hard, being ignored, and then watching something blossom that they did not realize the importance of when they first launched it.

This is a brilliant observation. When setting out on the web, many people think they can plan a success path and hit it on the first or second try. A few people are capable of that, but that is not how it is typically done. Most Webpreneurs spend years tinkering and learning before they hit upon their major success. Tinker long enough and you can make it happen.

The real brilliance in Aaron’s post, however, comes when he starts talking about the competitive landscape. Remember, online everything is relative to the competition. How long it takes to rank depends largely on certain competitive factors and Aaron Wall nails most of them:

• How hard are your competitors working? If you are unsure track their current link count and their link growth. Also look for signs of public relation and the quality level of their inbound links.
  How big is their head start?
• How much are they investing?
• Are there ideas they forgot to focus on?
• Is your brand more focused than their brand?
• How much risk are you willing to take?
• Are competitors weighed down by bureaucracy?
• Are you more passionate about your topic than the leading websites? Eventually people will discover that, especially if you are not afraid to market yourself.

What Aaron Wall leaves out of the equation is the authority of the webmaster himself when building a new site. I am convinced that if you own several domains and they are registered under your name then you have a better chance of ranking quickly than if you don’t – that’s IF your other sites are doing well.

Another thing that helps is if your sites are related to each other then you can link them to get the relative links. Don’t try this if your websites are unrelated because you’ll be penalized. But if they are related but cover slightly different niches then you can get away with it.

I’ve actually seen blog posts reach No. 1 in Google for key phrases in four hours. If you are new at blogging and building websites then you will likely not see that happen. It will be more difficult. But experience goes a long way and established authority beside it goes even further. If you are new to performing search engine optimization tasks and are looking for the best ways to rank your website or blog, don’t get wrapped up in what you don’t have. Be patient and keep doing all the right things. Eventually it will happen.