Search engine optimization creates long-lasting organic traffic to your website over time. It’s a popular and vital form of digital marketing that focuses on building authority and trust with search engines such as Google, allowing the site to rank higher on the search engine results pages. But the age-old question is: How long does it take for SEO to work?
The First Three Months
During the first three months of a website making active changes to optimize for search engines, the site will likely experience movement in its position in the SERPs (search engine results pages), but it may not be the big results you are seeking right away. Unlike pay-per-click (PPC) ads on Google where one can experience immediate measurable results, SEO tends to accumulate short-term growth in the way of long-tail keywords and increased impressions.
Think of PPC as renting: it has immediate short-term benefits. SEO is more like buying a house; the upfront work is more, but you gain ownership in the long run. It takes time for Google to index any updates to a website. When a user types a query into a search engine, what comes up is not live results—it’s snapshots from a library of the last indexing.
Months Three to Six
Between the three- and the six-month marks of your SEO efforts, it’s normal to see some growth in the SERPs for your target keywords. SEO is best measured year over year, but the results will start to pour in during these key months. If you make it to month six of your active SEO efforts without results, it’s critical to reevaluate the keywords you targeted and how you targeted them.
Months Six and Beyond
After the six-month milestone of your SEO efforts, growth will continue to build steadily. SEO sets websites up for long-term reliable traffic. Another benefit of SEO is that the results are organic. These days, many online users are weary or mistrusting of paid advertisements, preferring to click on the first few organic results. Therefore, taking up the most real estate on the page as possible is ideal. PPC gets your name at the top of the page, and SEO gets it on the page again in a way users trust.
How Logical Position Can Help
Search engines continuously update their algorithms, and keeping up with the rapid changes of the online landscape is vital. There’s no set timeline of how long it takes for SEO to work, but the efforts will pay off in the long run. Contact Logical Position today to learn more about our search engine optimization packages.
At Logical Position, we know the importance of investing in the longevity of the traffic to your website. What sets us apart is our commitment to transparency with our clients—we provide each of our clients with a real-time dashboard so that they can monitor their SEO deliverables in real time. We also have a robust publishing partner network unique to our company. Contact us today.
