SEO Timeline: How Long Does SEO Take to Work?

In a society where search results can be generated in a fraction of a second, it can be easy to expect everything online to have an equally fast turnaround time. Indeed, companies often expect immediate results when investing in SEO strategies. While you may want to see results immediately, the reality is optimizing your website for search engines takes some time. You may still be wondering though, why does it take so long? In this article, we will cover how long SEO takes to work, why it takes so long, as well as what factors might impact your overall SEO timeline.

How Long Does SEO Take To Work?

To begin understanding SEO timelines, it is crucial to first establish how long SEO takes to work. While timelines can vary depending on the scope of the SEO project or website specifics, in general, SEO takes anywhere from three to six months to begin showing concrete results. It is important to note that SEO is not and can not be a fix all strategy solution. The ability of an SEO strategy to be effective hinges on a multitude of factors such as content quality or Google algorithm updates. All of these factors, along with many others, can either speed up or slow down when you see changes in your website’s rankings. In some cases, rankings can, therefore, take anywhere from three to six months or even as much as a year, depending on your website and market specifics.

Why Does SEO Take So Long To Work?

The question still remains though, why does SEO take so long to work? Well, to put it simply, search engines such as Google reward consistent effort. In a sense, you must consistently prove to search engines that your site is a valid source of information that is worth offering as a top search result. This, of course, takes time. SEO, unlike other digital tactics, involves continually improving your website and website content to align with updated search engine algorithms. As search engines change, so must your SEO strategy. Some of the more practical reasons your SEO strategy may be taking longer include your budget, your past website track record with Google, or if your SEO or KPI goals are too broad or too specific.

Creating a Reasonable SEO Timeline

One of the easiest ways to create a reasonable SEO strategy is to break up your goals into a five-month timeline. The first month of your SEO campaign should focus primarily on setting a stable base for the rest of your campaign. During this time you should direct your efforts towards performing an on-page SEO audit to reveal any major issues as well as set up KPIs based on what is revealed in the audit. In addition, you should research effective keywords and create content surrounding them.

In month two, your attention should be devoted to strengthening your SEO efforts by enhancing your user experience, developing user friendly content, fixing on-page issues, and focusing on enhancing some more technical elements of your SEO strategy. By the third month, you should begin to see some changes in your rankings, which means you will be able to refine your keyword selection, create more specific content based on those keywords, and publish the new content. In month four, you should aim to continue adjusting technical optimizations and link-building, while beginning to implement A/B testing.

Once you reach month five, your focus will primarily be on reassessing your KPIs and evaluating your results. With those results in hand, you can begin to gauge your next SEO campaign, again recognizing that an effective SEO approach is not only consistent, but ongoing.

Take the guesswork out of how long it will take SEO to begin working for your website and partner with digital marketing professionals like those at MedShark Digital who can create a customized plan for your needs. Reach out today to learn more.