“Are we there yet?”

This phrase isn’t only well known to parents; those of us who work with search engine optimization hear different versions of it quite a bit. That’s because SEO is like physical exercise – everybody wants to see results today, but few of us have the discipline to work out consistently for months on end.

So, like technological personal trainers, web designers constantly strive to motivate clients to keep up their crunches and push-ups, usually in the form of fresh content and site updates. All the while, though, the question keeps coming at us: why does this have to take so long?

The short answer has to do with software. Simply put, Google and the other search engines use millions of tiny, automated programs that scour the Internet day and night looking for words and phrases that match what searchers type in. So, not only do you have to add new material to your website, but you also have to wait for one of these “spiders” to find and index the new pages before they can have any effect. On top of that, most engines place more weight on older sites and those that regularly update, meaning that there’s always a bit of a lag and that consistency – not just volume – figure in overtime.

For a longer and more complete answer, though, we have to think a bit about what matters to searchers in the first place. What people are looking for isn’t keywords – it’s answers and information that help them solve life’s problems. To build up stock of that information takes time and attention; you can’t simply throw together a few words and expect that readers are going to respond.

Additionally, the specific phrases and ideas that people care about (or that you want to offer) change pretty frequently. What was hot last month isn’t such a big deal today. In order to stay at the front of the search listings, business owners need to anticipate these trends, or at least keep up with them. Otherwise, you can quickly find that traffic to your site falls off a cliff once a new product, idea, or innovation takes hold. It takes a steady stream of fresh content to stay ahead of the pack, and you’d better believe that there are always a handful of new businesses chasing you.

Remember, search engine optimization is a bit like starting a spin class – it’s going to take a little bit of time to get the results you want, but not nearly as long as you’d think. As long as you can stick to a routine of adding fresh, quality content and updates at regular intervals, you’ll stop wondering why SEO takes so long, and start marveling at how it works so well.