Search engine optimization, or SEO, can be an extremely effective marketing strategy when it comes to driving traffic to your website and attracting customers who are interested in what you have to offer. 

However, not all SEO strategies are created equal; some work faster than others, and some may never work at all. It’s important to know how long SEO takes to work so that you can set the expectations and calculate the ROI of the SEO strategy.

More specifically, business owners usually ask how long it takes to rank onto Google’s first page. On average, it takes 3-6 months to rank keywords on Google’s first page, which is based on our experience working with 100+ websites for SEO in the last 10 years. For certain industries, such as Dental SEO, Medical SEO, Insurance and Finance Industries, the competition is even higher, it can take even longer to get onto Google’s first page.

Organic Search Takes Time

SEO is a medium to long term game. It can take months to see results from organic search. And that’s if you’re doing it right. If you’re not seeing results after six months, it might be time to reassess your strategy. Keep in mind that SEO is an ongoing process, so even if you don’t see immediate results, that doesn’t mean your efforts are wasted.

Keyword Research Is Crucial 

When you’re first starting out with SEO, it’s important to take the time to do keyword research thoroughly. This will help you determine which keywords are most relevant to your business and which ones have the potential to drive traffic to your website. I.e. which keywords have decent monthly search volumes on the search engine. 

Once you’ve identified a few keywords and ideas, an SEO professional would help you figure out the keyword difficulty of the keywords. Keyword difficulty should be reasonably low to tackle especially if a business is starting brand new on SEO.

We usually want to help businesses find keywords that have search volume and not too many other competitors are working on, so that we can rank the website on Google’s first page in 3-4 months time.

Creating Great Content Takes Time

Quality content is the king in SEO. You need to create great content that appeals to your target audience and provides value. This takes time and effort, but it’s worth it if you want your site to be successful on SEO. 

Once you have a solid foundation of content, you can start working on other SEO factors like link building and technical optimization. These quality pieces such as blog articles and landing pages can take a few weeks or even months to build, so be patient and don’t give up.

Link Building Takes Time

Link building is another important aspect of SEO, and it can take  3 – 6 months or even longer to build the links. The more backlinks that are pointed to your website, the higher the ranking will go. 

That’s why it’s important to be patient and consistent with your SEO efforts. Over time, your hard work will pay off and you’ll start to see your website rise in the search engine rankings.

Measurements and Analytics – Do the Math

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. That’s why, before you start any SEO campaign, it’s important to set up some baseline measurements and analytics. This way, you can track your progress and see how long it takes for SEO to work. 

To do this, you’ll need to install Google Analytics or any other analytics tool on your website. Once you’ve done that, set up some goals so you can track conversions (sales, leads, etc.). Then, create a custom report that shows you how many organic visitors you’re getting each month, as well as your conversion rate. 

Finally, take a look at your average position in Google for the keywords you’re targeting before you start on a new SEO campaign.