Search engine optimization (SEO) is crucial for increasing awareness and generating leads to establish sales for one’s business. Once you’ve created the best SEO strategy possible based on your business’s mission and the individuals you are trying to reach, it’s time to put it to work.

So, once you’ve implemented your digital marketing strategy, how long does SEO take to generate the best results for your company? The easy way to answer this question is by saying that it depends on multiple factors, but at Social Eyes Marketing, we don’t like taking the easy way out.

SEO Results Time Frame

It’s accurate to say there is no set answer on the exact time frame for SEO results. However, many experts believe companies start to see organic improvements through their SEO within 4 to 6 months.

A word cloud with the term "SEO" in the middle surrounded by other words such as "Google," "Meta," "Title Tags," "Ranking," and more.

This time frame is not exact. Since search engines are constantly changing and updating their algorithms, we emphasize keyword targeting and the creation of valuable content to create the most optimal and sustainable SEO results.

Why Does it Take So Long to See Results From SEO?

Due to the complicated and organic nature of SEO, it is very difficult to see results within the first few weeks. SEO takes time to produce results because the algorithms of Google and similar search engines take time to determine specific features such as:

  • The amount of backlinks on your website
  • The relevance of your page based on keyword content
  • The intended audience for your page
  • The images that are posted on your site
  • The viewing optimization of your website
  • How reliable and honest your information is

The Key to Success

Successful search results within Google are established through the four components of SEO: technical SEO, off-page SEO, on-page SEO, and content. Before we dive into the components of SEO success, it is essential to understand the general idea of search engines and what they do.

In short, search engines are integrated programs that identify items in databases that correspond to keywords researched by a specific user. So, the better your SEO, the more visible you become, which increases your direct traffic and organic traffic. As simple as this sounds, this process requires strategic planning along with experience and knowledge of SEO efforts.

Technical-SEO Efforts

Even though your company may have the best site in terms of the creation of quality content, if your technical SEO is all out of order, you’re not going to rank well within the search engine.

Without putting in the effort for technical SEO efforts, you’re just not going to see results. But the big question here is how does this SEO strategy improve a business’s search ranking?

Technical SEO enables search engines to identify keywords and phrases that users have entered into the search bar as well as find, crawl, index, and render pages on your website. You should make sure that your site content and definitions are clearly established and consistent. Technical SEO also relies on your page being adapted to both mobile and desktop platforms, as well as its speed being optimized.

Even if you already have an amazing website and have some technical SEO skills, it can still be something of a challenge to see the results. But don’t worry! Implementing technical SEO is not all too difficult.

Establishing and maintaining a good SEO strategy means having all of the items that allow Google to index your content and determine the authority on your web pages and landing pages.

Off-Page SEO Efforts

Also referred to as link building, off-page SEO is a strategy that focuses on increasing website traffic outside of your website. This is oftentimes done through the use of backlinks, a web reference that comes from another website.

Backlinks created through link-building efforts are very important in the aspect of producing effective SEO strategies. Google’s ranking factors are based on numerous efforts, one of the most significant being backlinks. Having just a few links is not enough to increase your search engine ranking, so you should strive to accumulate as many as possible.

The number of backlinks that your company has directly correlates to an increase in your chance of a higher search engine ranking.

Creating content through social media is another way to generate organic traffic. The specific components of this SEO process are centralized around the idea of building backlinks, increasing awareness on social media through content creation, and guest-created blog posts.

On-Page SEO Efforts

With your technical SEO established and your off-page SEO bringing in clients it’s time to look into the importance of on-page SEO. Any digital marketing manager would understand the importance of a well-built and well-written website in generating potential client traffic.

Companies can create effective elements on their website that increase organic traffic and their overall search engine ranking. However, the important question is whether or not they optimize them correctly.

On-Page SEO refers to the practice of optimizing web pages to improve a website’s search engine ranking. Additionally, it focuses on conversion rate optimization through regularly creating engaging content, creative headlines, HTML tags (title, metadata, header), and images.

This type of SEO effort is centralized around the idea that it helps search engines understand your domain authority by relating it to the relevancy of the users.

Content Marketing Strategy

In the digital marketing world, the creation of high-quality content is a crucial step in increasing your search rankings. Without high-quality content, you cannot fully grasp the full benefit of SEO. The creation of relevant and useful content ensures that your potential clients arrive at the place they have been searching for.

All things considered, implementing a strong SEO plan that is centered around the creation of high-quality content benefits your company from many different perspectives. Businesses that implement a solid SEO strategy that focuses on the creation of relevant and useful content will see a marked increase in backlinks and, in turn, increase their search rankings.

In addition, the creation of informational and authoritative content will help your company reach out to the right audience. Establishing your company as the expert will help you generate leads and create a healthy and profitable business.

Typical Timeline of SEO Strategy (Months 1-6)

With all this in mind, SEO takes time and consistent effort between the business and its marketers.
So, how long does SEO take on average?

All things considered, it’s very difficult to pinpoint an exact time; however, the length of time to see organic results is measured based on your competition, the keywords you are trying to rank for, and how easily and efficiently Google can index your website.

Keep in mind, that your SEO timeline will be unique based on your specific company and website. The following is a generalization of what your SEO timeline may look like.

Month 1

The key objectives for the first month will be centralized around research, keyword planning, and a website audit.

The idea behind the research is to understand your brand and figure out what keywords and patterns you have compared to your competitors. This helps put together keyword strategies as well as link-building strategies.

Secondly, a website audit should be conducted to ensure there are no technical errors. More importantly, take a look at the structure of your website and the content you have.

Lastly, keyword planning is going to help increase your search engine ranking. We have all heard that ‘content is king’ and producing content is what allows you to rank within the search engine, but if you are unable to target generic keywords that your audience is searching for then your content is pointless.

It is important to note that the items listed above do not necessarily take a whole month to finish. Depending on your website’s quality of content, your company could move forward with implementing these strategies sooner.

Month 2

The primary objectives that are considered in month 2 are website modification and responsive design.

Website modification is where the technical SEO work begins to ensure that your website is responsive and offers a great experience for users with a range of devices. This means your SEO will enter the back end of your site to start making the necessary changes to increase your search engine ranking.

The responsive design engages the search engines with a website that is optimization friendly, meaning it can take to a large variety of device screens and ensure that the experience is responsive and mobile-friendly.

When beginning this process, many companies will start with creating a few test pages where they can implement the strategies above. This will ensure that you understand the time it takes for your site to get results. Unfortunately, it will not yet be able to tell you how this affects your rankings or the traffic coming in from the search engines.

Month 3

The third month is where the magic starts to happen and the actual creation of content occurs. The primary objective in the third month is keyword selection and content creation.

Keyword selection is very important when creating and implementing content. Before SEO can be implemented into the content, you must first take a look at the long list of keywords discovered during the first month. You will use this to establish the keywords you would like to target.

As explained earlier, ‘content is king,’ which suggests creating relevant and useful content will increase the number of visitors and the time spent on your website. Throughout the third month, the new SEO strategy will be based around pairing keywords with content that would work best with each topic addressed on your site.

The quicker your content appears on your website, the better. Once the content appears on the site Google can start indexing it and ranking it in the search engine.

Month 4

The period of month four is typically when you start to see success in your SEO campaign. Your newly published pages should have increased site traffic along with improved your overall search rankings. Every month is a new challenge, which is why SEO companies will often shift their focus on more technical issues as well as the improvement of content creation.

As you continually add new content, improve upon the technical optimization of your website, and continue to practice good technical SEO you should expect to see increasingly positive results.

Month 5

At this point in the SEO campaign, you should start to see real results such as significantly more traffic and lead generation coming. From this point, the SEO company will focus its efforts on social media implementation and analysis of your content.

If you haven’t yet, it’s time to get social media accounts that align with your target audience.
At this point in the optimization process, your marketing manager will start to see increased leads along with some extra sales rolling in through your various social media channels.

Month 6

During month 6 you will be seeing the full benefit of SEO results. Your SEO manager should now begin to focus on A/B testing to test different elements on your website. This test will show you how new elements you are trying on your website perform as compared to existing elements. They will be researching what your preferred SEO method is and how they could implement a different version to see which performs better for specific subject areas or audiences.

At Social Eyes Marketing, we take our digital marketing to the next level. Our SEO strategists focus on creating the best possible campaign for your company to give you the opportunities you deserve in the business world. To learn more about our SEO services, check out our website or give us a call!

208-955-6679