What is a reasonable time frame to get to the 1st page

[ribandhull]

If my site is not in the first 50 results and the keywords are medium to highly competitive?

I have just started adding to directories, planning out a blog, fixing seo mistakes, updating sitemaps etc.

The 1st ranking competitor has external links in the tens of thousands whereas I have maybe a few hundred. I see a light at the end of the tunnel as competing sites in between me and the 1st place ranking competitor have external links only in the 1000-2000 level.

We are an ecommerce site and want to be ready for our high season which is Nov-Jan.

[mrdavidingram]

This should work in your favour. Your site will have built up some natural trust and authority over the years without any SEO focus, so if you're making the effort to make the right changes now you should have a smoother ride than a brand new site.

Best of luck

David

[Maximise]

Adding on to what has been said already, you can't assume that your competitors are going to be standing still while you work on your SEO. To move up you have to be throwing more at it then they are, which is very difficult to measure.

[ribandhull]

Thank you for the responses... just wanted to add that our site has been up for 2 years but has not been seo optimized.

[Highland]

Google doesn't really sandbox sites anymore. It's quite possible (if unlikely) that a new site can rank well right out of the gate and stay there. More than likely, however, is that your site will fall to other well ranked and established sites.

As to a time frame, it typically takes a couple of months for Google to spider new links and even longer for them to give you rank. I tell people not to expect real results for at least 6 months. SEO is a long ball game, not a game of checkers.

[mrdavidingram]

Hi,

It's not the answer you were looking for, but there really is no specific timescale to achieving rankings.

It depends on so many factors, such as competitiveness of your industry and the existing trust your website has established (is it a brand new site or a refresh of an existing domain?)

Google infamous 'sandbox' tends to prevent new sites achieving major rankings for 2-6 months, but again this can be very industry dependant.

It's entirely possible to achieve front page rankings in the timescale you are talking about, but there is in no way a fixed formula and there are so many contributing factors outside of the number of links you have.

Speaking of which, pumping your site into directories isn't going to be the answer to getting you the rankings you want. Directories tend to give you a minimal SEO value at best, however the majority are totally ineffective. Remember if earning rankings was as simple as submitting your site to 1000's of directories then everyone would be doing it and the playing field would be void.

The time you are spending submitting to directories should be spent earning yourself a few editorial links from genuine industry sources. These will be of much more value to your business.

Good luck with your new site!

David