As long as it's a reasonably original and unique site, it is certainly possible to get on the first page of Google results in about a week.

I've been developing my techniques for ten years or more & I'm not going to lay everything out..

A couple of hints:

Use the w3c markup validators to make sure there are no errors in the pages; they may otherwise appear OK but have hidden syntax errors that make them difficult to decode by automated systems - like search engines.

Once the site is perfect, do a site map; google likes site maps...

http://validator.w3.org/

http://www.xml-sitemaps.com/

Edit - I'm assuming you are actually working in html / php not using some form of web site generator program or online editor etc..

If you use a site generator tool or something like wordpress, there is so much library junk common to every site that uses that tool, that any form of seo becomes seriously difficult.

Pure, original html - native or produces by your own php code - works infinitely better.

[Electronics designer & programmer for 40 years].

Summarising some of the answers here:

You can rank at the top of Google within a few days. It all depends on the keyword/phrase. So if your friends business is called 'gripplegrock carpentry workshop' he will probably rank for that within days.

This is how many dodgy SEO companies work. They say "we guarantee to rank you #1 within 2 weeks for $x". You say "OK" and two weeks later they announce that you are #1 for 'gripplegrock carpentry workshop' which is nice (and would have happened anyway) except that no one searches that phrase!

Other SEO companies will use black hat techniques which may work for a few days or weeks before the site gets banned.

So the question is what does your friend want to rank for? That will define how long it will take and how much time and resource will need to be applied. Generally speaking local search terms are easiest. So say he is located in Washington, Kansas and he wants to rank highly for 'carpenter, washington, kansas' then registering in directories such as Google Local, Yellow Pages, etc. may be enough.

If he is hoping to rank across the states for 'carpentry services' then he'll be looking to spend thousands of dollars.

There is no way to rank on Google first page within 1 or 2 weeks if you are doing SEO in the organic way. It takes around 2-3 months to create reputation of the website to rank on the any search engine. Google start showing your website pages when your website get some authority(backlinks).

This is a good question to answered. We www.v-xplore.com is one of the well known name in the field of web designing and online marketing. Having lots of experience we can tell that nothing is impossible. It will come to the rank very quickly only if we do the SEO work according to the proper Google guideline for search engine optimization.

It actually depends. If you have business with very less competition then the chances are more that you will be on top soon and easily. But if you are having tough competitors then it is not possible to get on the top in one week.

You can be on top 5 but after doing several weeks of SEO hard work on that site. But if somebody is challenging that they will do it ask them to share their recommendation plan for the task they gonna do for your website. And after complete analysis only go into deal with them. If any help is needed you can ask me.

If you haven't got any challenging competitors in your category, SEO experts can get your website ranked on the first page of Google within the first few weeks.

I have seen a lot of examples of this situtation. The key point is "SEO of Your Competitors' WebSite".

For getting some reliable and professional services, you should hire a professional for SEO. I will recommend www.metamorphmedia.co.uk.

A lot of SEO experts who promise to get a site ranked X in X amount of time will use unethical black hat SEO techniques (pm me if you'd like to see the article I wrote on black hat vs white hat!) that can actually hurt the success of your site in the long term. GOOD, white hat SEO (creating useful, unique content, encouraging appropriate cross linking, using keywords effectively in content, titles, and meta tags, etc) really does take time and effort, but it will get you long-term results.

There is know way to bring your page on first page in Google. You at least need 2-3 months for doing this as it takes time in building backlinks to your site and ranking gets better only after having good backlinks.

You can vist here to get the Panda 4.0 release http://tinyurl.com/pmw9ta3

Hi

I am a web designer / developer in training.

A friend of mine has asked me to make him a site for his local carpentry business.

we have a greed on a cheap price, but the is also asking that i get him straight to top of google search results straight away.

Now i am aware how hard seo can be so it will be a learning process for me as i complete the work on his site.

The question i have is is it possible to get to first page on google within say a week?

From what i have read it can take a few months before google starts ranking your page well.

My friend has had other web development companies contact him saying they will do the web design and get him ranked on the first page of google within the first few weeks, is this even possible?? or are they blowing smoke up his ***??

thanks alot