When to build links
Google and other search engines use links as a ranking factor for its search results. At the same time, top Google employees like Matt Cutts and John Mueller have made the claim that you shouldn’t actively build links, and instead focus on content as a means of gathering attention, which will translate to links.
Nice platitudes, Google
This, while great in theory, is generally impractical. Unless you have a truly revolutionary product, you’re unlikely to gather a groundswell that leads to thousands of links. Apple probably doesn’t need to actively build links for its iPhone page. You, as a local shoe shop, probably do.
This is particularly the case if you have a completely new website and are entering a competitive market. If your main competitors have been in business for over a decade and have accumulated over 14,000 links each, you are going to have a hard time convincing Google that your new website with no links deserves to outrank your competitor.
Subsequently, you have to put a link strategy in place. I’ve covered how to find links here. The problem many people in your position have is that they want a lot of links quickly in order to rank on page 1 of Google search results. This not only requires a considerable amount of man hours, but even if you could get all the links required within a few days or weeks, it’s unlikely to have the overnight effect that you or your SEO agency envision.
Quick SEO results are rarely sustainable
The sad fact is that organic search engine rankings are a slow burn, and, depending on the competitiveness of your market place, it could take months, probably years, to achieve high search rankings for the biggest terms in your industry. This is not something that you may want to hear, but is something you will need to accept.
The best way to get a gauge of how long it will take to get page 1 rankings is to do a review of your competitors, using a tool like SEM Rush. Using this tool, you will be able to see the search engine rankings and traffic of your competitors over time and credibly say how long it can take you to reach page 1 yourself. Of course, this page 1 ranking will only happen with the concerted effort of your business behind it, you can’t idly sit by and expect rankings to increase on their own.
Don’t just worry about rankings
A final note – until the rankings improve, don’t neglect the rest of your website! Make sure you stay on top of your analytics and see how people are interacting with the site and make iterations based on that. Make sure you are visible on social media and interacting with the customers you already have.