“How long does SEO take to work” is perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions in the SEO industry. Unfortunately, there is no one answer to this because how long it takes to start achieving results from your SEO efforts, depends predominantly on the level of competition for the keywords you are trying to rank for, as well as the level of investment of your own SEO efforts, however, it is possible to make an informed estimation based on these factors as discussed in-depth in this article.
How long SEO takes to work?
There is no definitive answer as to how long SEO will take for your individual website to start achieving results because how long SEO takes to work is dependent on the level of competition for the keywords you are trying to rank for, how much effort you are investing into SEO as you are more likely to see results quicker by writing 10 articles in a month as opposed to only writing 1 poor quality article a month and whether you are using a brand new registered domain or a website that already has existing content and backlinks as there is a theory amongst SEOs that Google places new websites in a sandbox period; though this is denied by Google.
Google themselves have stated:
“In most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.”
Important considerations
The estimated time to allow your SEO efforts to start achieving results is taking into consideration that you are implementing the right on-page, off-page and technical SEO strategies on your website, examples of these include ensuring that you are:
- Writing good quality content that involves unique and original research that is valuable to your users
- Making sure your site speed is fast
- Your site is discoverable to Google
- Attracting and building the right backlinks to your site
- Consistent with your SEO efforts
Why does SEO take so long to work?
The reason why SEO is a long-term process is because when you are just starting a new website, Google first needs some time to crawl and index all the pages on your website and it requires time to understand what your website is about and how your website will fit in with the rest of the websites that are also trying to rank for those similar keywords; this is where Google will use their algorithms to assess whether your website is the highest quality and best search result for the users search query using their ranking factors and this process takes time.
John Mueller, Webmaster Trends Analyst at Google stated the following in a Webmaster Hangout:
“These are essentially just algorithms trying to understand how this website fits in with the rest of the websites, trying to rank for those queries and sometimes what happens is our algorithms will kind of start at one place and see how that works out and try to get a confirmation through all of the other signals that this is actually working out”
This response John Mueller gave was relating to a question about the existence of the sandbox; what we can derive from this is that Google tries to understand how a new website or new pieces of content published by these sites should rank for the keywords they are targeting, against the existing websites to determine whether it will be the highest quality and best search result for the users searching for those keywords.
John Mueller also mentioned that sometimes a keyword will rank at a certain position within the search engine results pages and Googles algorithms will try to determine whether it should be in that position or whether it should be higher or lower and this is why SEO is a long-term process because Google requires time to assess this.
How long it takes to rank for competitive keywords
If you are trying to rank for competitive keywords such as ‘luxury watches’ or ‘best web hosting’ or ‘dentist in New York’ because these are very competitive and there are existing websites that have already been investing in SEO for many years, therefore, for a new website or a local business trying to rank for these type of competitive keywords it is advised to allow 6-12 months to notice improvements from their SEO efforts.
Google is not going to allow a website that has only recently started to invest in SEO, to start ranking above established websites that already have topical authority, established E-A-T, built a very strong backlink profile and have a numerous amount of quality articles published that provide value, because the objective of Google is to try and show users the highest quality and best search results based on their ranking factors, so it is even possible for a new website to potentially never see the results that they might intend to gain from their SEO efforts because the keywords they are trying to rank for are too competitive, though it is not impossible if you are ensuring that you are implementing the right SEO strategies consistently.
How long it takes to rank for keywords with a low level of competition
If you are trying to rank for keywords with a low level of competition, these can include long-tail keywords and industries with a low a level of competition such as ‘rubber watch strap’ or ‘chiropractor in Youngstown, Ohio’ though there may be a few sites or local businesses targeting these keywords, they are clearly not as popular of search query as ‘luxury watches’ or ‘dentist in New York’ therefore, there is a lower level of competition for these keywords so the SEO effort and investment that is required to rank for keywords with a low level of competition is considerably lower and because Google tries to show users the highest quality and best search results based on their ranking factors, if even a new website implements the right SEO strategies and targets these keywords then Google will potentially deem that site as being the best result for that user because there is no or a low level of competition for those keywords because the competitors have not put in any effort or investment into optimising their site for SEO or to optimise for those keywords; so you could expect to potentially see results from your SEO efforts within 1-6 months as opposed to 6-12 months.
How to determine your SEO efforts are working
You should first check that your pages and articles are being indexed (if you are writing articles), you can check this inside your Google search console or by typing in site:website (your website URL, site:solesk.com as an example).
Once you have made sure your pages and articles are being indexed you should check the average position they are ranked and how many impressions they are receiving inside your Google search console, you should expect to see an increase in the following metrics:
- Total clicks
- Total impressions
- Average impressions
- The amount of queries you are receiving impressions and clicks for
An increase in the metrics above are good indicators that the SEO strategies you are implementing are moving your website in the right direction, but ultimately you want to see an increase in sales, leads and customers contacting your business through organic search.
You can also use SEMrush and Ranktracker which are excellent SEO tools that will allow you to track improvements you are achieving from your SEO efforts including being able to track:
- Increase in organic traffic
- Increase in the number of keywords you are ranking for
- Movement of the position of your keywords
- Increase in backlinks pointing to your site
- Authority score of your website
- Top keywords that are bringing in the most amount of organic traffic to your site
Conclusion
How long it takes for your SEO efforts to start realising results is dependent on your own efforts, type and quality of the strategies you implement, level of competition for the keywords you are trying to rank for and whether you are consistent in your efforts, but as an estimation, you should allow 6-12 months to start achieving results if you are trying to rank for competitive keywords and 1-6 months if you are trying to rank for low competition keywords.