How Long Does SEO Take

The honest answer is three to six months before the numbers move in a way you can trust, and closer to a year for a crowded search. Anyone who gives you an exact date is guessing, because the date depends on what your competitors do next.

A brand new site runs roughly like this. In the first month Google finds the pages and stores them, and almost nothing shows. In months two and three, long and very specific searches bring one or two visitors a day. Between months four and six the same pages climb from page four to page two. Enquiries that pay for the work usually start somewhere between month six and month nine.

An established site moves much faster, because Google already trusts the address. Fixing weak titles, joining thin pages together and answering a question properly can lift a page within weeks. We watched one clinic page go from position nineteen to position six in eleven days after a single rewrite. The site was eight years old, and that is the only reason it was possible.

Four things speed it up. Publishing often, writing about work you actually do, choosing a smaller market such as one city or one trade, and a site that loads quickly and is easy for Google to read. Three things slow it down. A new domain nobody has linked to, a crowded market like insurance or travel, and a rebuild that changes every address without sending the old ones to the new. That last mistake can cost half a year, which is why Linkysoft keeps the old addresses alive during a website design and development project.

A promise of number one is a warning sign. Nobody controls that page, not even the people who work on it every day, and the results change by country, by phone and by person. A serious supplier promises the work instead. So many pages, so many fixes, a report every month, and your own access to the numbers. Linkysoft writes the month by month plan into the contract for every digital marketing project, and the client keeps the accounts. If a proposal names a position and a date, ask what happens when the date passes.