How Long Does it Take to Show Results from SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) is a popular marketing strategy that focuses on improving the search result ranking of a particular website. Many expect their SEO efforts to start working immediately, once they have implemented it in their marketing strategy. The truth is, SEO takes a while to reveal it’s benefits and cause an increase in organic website traffic. But how long exactly does it take to show results from SEO?

What Impacts the Time Need to Show Results from SEO?

There are many variables that can affect the amount of time needed to see benefits from SEO. Below are some of the factors that can impact how long it will take for SEO to start working:

Budget

The budget you have to spend on SEO can affect how quickly you see results. SEO over time is usually less expensive than constantly running paid traffic campaigns, but it can still cost some money. Some areas you may need to spend on are SEO tools, like SEMRush, paying someone to create high quality backlinks to your website, or paying a company to do an SEO campaign for you. You can find free SEO tools like Yoast SEO (free version), Keyword Planner by Google AdWords, and other free tools; but you will find the SEO tools you have to pay for are even better resources.

Considering SEO can be very difficult to fully get a grasp on, many people seek out help from professionals when they’re getting started. This does raise the cost of implementing SEO in your marketing strategy, but you will see an increase in organic traffic much more quickly than you would if you did it without much knowledge. And please take this friendly advice… You should be extremely cautious of hiring anyone who promises they will get you on the first page of search results in a month. There are many  variables that go into your Google rankings, and it’s very hard to predict that you will get on the first page in as short as a month. You should steer clear of people who guarantee they can do this for you so quickly. Not so say it can’t be done. We’ve had some clients that were ranking very well on Google in as little as one month. But, that’s not always the case and we would never promise that to a client or potential client. 

Competition

Websites for popular business industries tend to experience the benefits of SEO more slowly than those in less saturated industries. If you have a blog page that discusses topics that many others discuss, you will find it’s more difficult to rank highly in search results for a few months. If you have a very unique niche with low competition, you may see results in a short amount of time.

Google Reindexing

Once you implement SEO tactics on your website, you have to wait for Google to reindex your site. It can take between four days and four weeks for Google to index your website and get it included in search results. Waiting on Google will affect the amount of time it takes for your website to be discoverable through search results. There are ways to speed up this process that can be found through this blog post by Leverage Marketing. If you’re doing off-site SEO, please keep in mind that it can take Google up to about a month to reindex each of the third-party websites that have new backlinks going to your website. 

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The Type of Website You Have

If you run a website that has very minimal content, then it can be tricky using on-site SEO tactics. Ideally, websites should be enhanced by both on-site and off-site SEO if you wish to see quick results. If you are only able to practice one type of SEO with your website, this will make it take longer to see results.

So, How Long Does SEO Take?

The short answer to this question is that it depends. Due to the many different tactics of SEO, the answer to this question can vary. It’s safe to say that, generally speaking, a website will begin to see an increase in organic traffic after three to six months. The amount of time it takes for one to see results from their SEO initiatives depends on which SEO tactics they are using, and the type of website they have. If you have the perfect website for the various SEO tactics, then you could see great results in as little as one month. If you have a website that has to deal with some of the above factors, it can take up to six months to see an increase in organic traffic. If you’re in an extremely competitive market and/or have a limited budget, it can take much longer than six months.

It may be a good idea to try SEO for a month, and see what kind of results you get. This will be a good indicator of how long it will take for SEO to benefit your website’s search result ranking, and how much of your marketing budget should go towards SEO initiatives.

If you are very inexperienced with SEO, it may be best to get some help from professionals to help you get started using SEO on your website. If you have any questions about SEO, please contact us by filling out the form below.