One of the most common questions we hear from clients embarking on an SEO journey is, how long will it take? Several factors influence the SEO timeline. If you’re imagining adding a few keywords, updating your linking strategy, and seeing your page suddenly skyrocket to the top of the search engine results page (SERP), you’re going to be disappointed. Like the age-old adage from the fable of the tortoise and the hare, when it comes to SEO, slow and steady wins the race. It can take several months or even more than a year to see results, but for those who put in the work—and are willing to wait—search engine optimization can make a profound impact on your business.
What Constitutes SEO Success?
Before we get into the topic of how long SEO takes to show results, let’s make sure we’re on the same page on the meaning of “results.” In other words, what constitutes SEO success? More conversions and increased revenue are both admirable objectives, and SEO can certainly contribute to these metrics, albeit indirectly. And Conversion Rate Optimization is a service we excel at.
But the point of search engine optimization is really to drive more qualified visitors to your page. When we talk about how to know whether SEO is working, we’re talking specifically about an uptick in organic traffic (not paid search traffic, which is separate but still valuable). Indicators of SEO success include a higher position on the SERP for target keywords and appearance in any of the additional features on the results page, both of which can help drive traffic and increase brand recognition. These visit-related metrics are clear signals that your SEO efforts have begun to pay off.
In theory, your higher rankings for the keywords important to your brand should also drive more qualified traffic (searchers who are likely to buy) to your site. Most of the time, this is the case, but there are some exceptions that make tracking keywords and clicks from search engines a more accurate indicator of SEO performance. Because they are so closely related, we report on both SEO performance and organic revenue to track the correlation between the two. We then implement changes to SEO to help improve organic revenue generation.
So, How Long Does It Take To See SEO Results?
Most industry experts agree that seeing consistent SEO results can take anywhere from a few months to a full year or longer. While we all wish we could simply add a few keywords here, a handful of links there, and suddenly see the results of that work, that’s not the case. SEO is gradual. You may start to see small changes in performance sooner than that, but generally it takes several months to see consistent improvement.
It’s important to note that the timeline for how long SEO takes does not start when you contact us for an initial meeting, after an SEO audit is complete, or once you’ve created an actionable strategy for optimization. The stopwatch doesn’t start ticking until you actually implement those changes on your website—only then you can start the countdown to see results.
SEO Timeline: Contributing Factors
If you’ve invested time and money into optimizing your site, you may find yourself wondering “why does SEO take so long to work?” You’re not the only one. As search engine algorithms have become increasingly complex, the time to see SEO results has also grown.
(It’s worth noting that this wait benefits both companies and customers: The existing algorithm rewards quality over quantity, discouraging SEO shortcuts (which rarely work) and penalizing black-hat strategies, which can deliver results that disappoint the end user.)
Many factors influence the timeline for SEO results, including:
- Competition: If you’re up against big-name brands with high domain authority and years’ worth of performance history, it may take longer for you to climb the SERP or claim that top spot.
- Your Website: Brand-new websites are slower to show SEO success than existing websites with established domain authority, backlink profiles, and a history of quality content.
- Your SEO Strategy: A comprehensive SEO strategy—one that covers on-page, off-site, and technical SEO—will be more effective, more quickly, than a website that prioritizes only one or two of these pillars.
- Keywords: Simply put, it will take longer to rank for popular, high-competition keywords than it will to rank for longtail terms or keywords with a low competition. You should always aim to select strategic keywords that capture the crux of your page and target your customers’ intent.
Eight Oh Two is a proven leader in search engine and performance marketing focused on driving superior results by leveraging best-in-class technology with the very best in human intelligence. Don’t stop your efforts if you don’t see results right away: Contact us today to learn how we can help you optimize your site, understand when to start looking for success, and adjust your approach to accommodate an evolving SEO landscape.