For small businesses, one of the biggest problems with brand new web sites is that they have no credibility in the eyes of search engines. And that’s not good for SEO.

Sure, you can get a domain and make the web site and be live on the Internet.

Congratulations.

You know about the web site.  Your employees know about the web site.  Your best friend may even know about the web site.  But the world doesn’t.

You may as well be invisible.

You can’t exactly pay off Google or Bing and get them to take you seriously.  It’s just a matter of time.  Everyone wants to know how much time.  It really seems to vary.  It depends on the competition.  Your web site structure in content will have an effect as well.

More than anything, you need activity for SEO to really pay off.  You need to start generating visitors.  You need to start collecting links.  Your business model should not depend on your website ranking exceptionally well within three months.  It probably won’t.  Of course rankings, are relative.  You could probably rank for some type of keyword phrase, but would it be a phrase that people actually use?

Patience is the key for small businesses. Do as much as you can to generate interest in your web site and test out a range of keyword phrases – starting with the least competitive before targeting the tougher keyword phrases (only after you have demonstrated that you can achieve high rankings with the low-hanging fruit).