Immediate and instantaneous are common themes of today’s digital climate; however, when it comes to SEO, the timeline to results is more long-term. Search engines consider such a high quantity of variables when ranking websites, and search behavior is constantly changing, which makes it nearly impossible to determine exactly when a website should start seeing results. SEO takes an incredible amount of work, so the hope to see positive changes quickly is understandable. It might be hard to digest that a realistic timeframe to begin seeing results is between 4-12 months, but the good news is that such a journey will lead to sustainable growth.

As noted above, an exact timeframe of when a website should start seeing results cannot accurately be determined, but we can make an educated guess by looking at a typical SEO campaign month-by-month.

A Year of SEO

The beginning of an SEO strategy consists of planning and research. To get a sense of what components are currently working and what needs improvement, an SEO audit of your website is the first step. A review of the following areas provides useful insights as to what elements of your site need the most attention, such as:

● Content
● Site Structure
● Site Speed
● Code
● User Experience

In addition to the audit, the initial stages of SEO are used to fully understand your industry and how you can create a strategy that considers trends, competitors, and search behavior. This information will ultimately influence your keyword research and planning because your website will need supporting content for any keywords you would like the site to show for during a search query.

The next step is to prioritize action items that will help progress the necessary work needed to accomplish your SEO goals. Using this list, create a project schedule which will help to organize work. Not sure where to start? The SEO team at Anvil can perform a wide range of extensive audits that are tailored to your needs.

3-5 Months
Around the third month, work on the website should begin and proceed according to the predetermined schedule. One of the larger tasks of an SEO campaign is content development based upon the list of target keywords. Writing compelling, unique, and valuable content for each page on a website can take time, and because content is such a crucial element of SEO performance, this should be started as soon as possible.

Around the 4-5 month mark is when subtle improvements should start to be noticed. Rankings might start to improve, organic traffic shows consistent positive-growth, or perhaps conversions start to increase. It is also likely that you may not see results yet. Again, there are not only a substantial number of factors that play into SEO, but the competitiveness of your industry could also be delaying progress.

6+ Months
This is typically about the time results should be seen. Yes, first-page rankings are the ultimate goal, but SEO focuses on other achievements that accompany larger business goals such as:

● Increasing the amount of organic, unpaid traffic that visits your website.
● Improving the quality of leads.
● Driving more conversions, such as phone calls or downloads.
● Expanding the overall visibility of your website across search engines.
● Creating a positive user experience.

While there are a number of KPIs that demonstrate success, there are several metrics involving SEO used to measure the Return on Investment (ROI) of your SEO work. There are four metrics to consider: Sales, Leads, Rank, and Traffic. According to DataBox, sales and leads are the primary metrics to record when measuring the ROI of your SEO campaigns. 47.2% consider Sales to be the number one with leads coming in second with 34%.

Remember, SEO is not a short-term endeavor, and the work is never finished. Search engine algorithms are always evolving to best align with consumer behavior, which means that securing a timeframe to experience results will never be possible. However, the result of dedicated, ongoing SEO work is an abundance of benefits with minimal marketing cost. Are you looking to harness the power of SEO with the guidance and support of experts? Contact Anvil today!