“SEO is like a savings account. Small, consistent efforts accrue over time to something substantial.”
“SEO is like growing a tree.”
“SEO is like watching paint dry.”
“SEO is like…”
Tired of drawing comparisons in hopes of figuring out how long does it take to see results from SEO? You’re in the right place. Rather than draw out more vague analogies, let’s cover some concrete answers. We’ll give you a realistic timeline for when SEO results start to become visible and how you can assess your overall SEO progress. Let’s get into it!
What we’ll cover in this guide
- How long does it take to see SEO results?
- What SEO results should you monitor?
- Not seeing competitive SEO results? Here’s what to do
How long does it take to see SEO results?
Let’s start with a simple answer. It can take around 4 to 6 months to start seeing some initial SEO progress, while significant SEO results can take up to 12 months. These results, of course, hinge on your strategy being based on sound SEO principles.
Even with the fundamentals in place, it’s important to understand that SEO takes time. Further, the exact time it takes to see SEO results can vary widely depending on numerous factors, like your industry, competition, the quality of your SEO efforts, and the starting point of your particular website.
Companies that sign up for SEO with the expectation that it will produce effects in days and weeks are often disappointed. This is in part due to confusing business goals with SEO goals. Business goals are often focused on revenue, while SEO goals have more specific destinations. They’re inextricably linked, no doubt, but it’s important to know what to expect at what stage of SEO.
Fine, we’ll do an analogy. Like fitness, SEO takes consistent effort over a long period of time. It’s only after months of going to the gym that you’re going to see any visible change, and the same is true for SEO. If you expect bigger muscles and better SERP rankings after a few weeks, you’re going to be disappointed.
Meeting your business goals, often revenue, is a culmination of SEO efforts, which takes time. This is why you need to assess SEO progress by other parameters.
Monitor these results to measure SEO progress
Whether you’re starting SEO yourself or working with experts, here’s what to look at to assess the success of your SEO efforts:
Organic traffic
Organic traffic is the visitors who come to your website through unpaid, natural search results on a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
This is the most important metric—even more critical than keyword rankings—because it’s possible to rank for a few keywords and still not get as much traffic as you expected. Getting organic traffic means that you’re on the SERPs and converting! Organic traffic is the holy grail of SEO and is often the reason why SEO is done in the first place.
The easiest way to check your incoming traffic metrics is through the Google Search Console (GSC). If you’ve invested in a tool like Ahrefs or Semrush, those will show you your traffic, too. As for when you can start seeing some organic traffic, there are a few things to consider.
If you have a brand new website, traffic can take upwards of 6 months. However, you can expect results sooner if you have an established website with some indexed content. Understanding the organic traffic timeline and factors at play is essential to comprehend this difference.
The quality of your strategy is a critical factor when it comes to seeing SEO traffic. Our clients see consistent, yet considerable, improvements in their organic traffic over time. At the 3-month mark, traffic generally starts trending up with visible growth over 6-12 months.
Here’s another example to help you visualize the kind of organic traffic growth you should expect between three and 12 months. The minor dip between 6 and 10 months was caused by domain migration-related issues, but it quickly returned to its upward trend.
These are the types of results in organic traffic growth that we’ve achieved for our clients—check out our portfolio if you want to see more!
Keyword ranking
Keyword ranking, or SERP ranking, refers to the position at which a specific web page appears on the search engine result page for a particular keyword or search query. Keyword rankings aren’t something you need to obsess over, but they are important.
Improving your SERP rankings from 10th position to 9th position will probably not significantly affect your traffic. Getting in the top 3 results will certainly have an impact because those positions receive around 75% of all clicks. However, ranking for particular keywords indicates whether or not you’re on the right track.
Consistently improving keyword rankings means your on-page SEO is working. Google bots are crawling, your content is vibing with your audience, and, as a result, your page is thriving. All this is easily checked in the GSC and tools like Ahrefs and Semrush.
It’s difficult to say how long it takes to rank for keywords as many factors are involved, like keyword difficulty and competition. Generally speaking, though, a structured and well-thought-out content strategy should be able to show some traction with keywords after 3-4 months.
If there’s no change in the total number of ranked keywords or your SERP positions even after 6 months, that’s a red flag. You may want to consult experts and see where you might be going wrong.
Search engine visibility
Search engine visibility is a metric that measures the extent to which a website is accessible and prominent in the SERPs for relevant keywords. A higher search engine visibility score means your content is more accessible to potential visitors. It takes into account keyword ranking, click-through rates, and more factors.
Improved search engine visibility does indicate the overall health and synergy of your SEO efforts. However, it doesn’t tell you much else. It’s more like an at-a-glance view of your campaign results and should generally trend upwards.
Since it directly involves keyword rankings, when you go and specifically optimize search engine visibility, you’ll be directly monitoring and optimizing keyword ranking data. While there are many other factors that help search engine visibility, getting ranked for SERP features bears mention.
SERP features are unique results that provide immediate answers to specific user queries. They include featured snippets, knowledge graphs, carousels, and other rich snippets that enhance the search experience. Since they appear at the top of the SERP, bagging a special results spot can instantly boost visibility and traffic.
Bounce rate
Bounce rate refers to the percentage of visitors who land on a page of your website and then leave without interacting further or navigating to other pages. Understanding and monitoring bounce rates can provide valuable insights into your SEO and content efficacy.
It’s not a metric that’ll consistently trend up or down. Further, depending on your industry or niche, it can vary significantly for your website. What it can do is show you what’s working with your SEO and what needs work. It’s a refinement metric.
Suppose your website is starting to see some organic traffic and ranking for a few keywords, but your pages are showing a high bounce rate. That can be a sign that visitors are not finding what they expected or that your content fails to engage them.
On the other hand, a low bounce rate suggests visitors are exploring your site further, which is generally a positive signal. All else being equal, high bounce rates indicate that your content and on-page SEO need more work.
Read about other ways to improve your bounce rates.
Backlinks
Backlinks are a critical SEO currency. Backlinks are hyperlinks from other websites to your site. They serve as a vote of confidence, indicating that others find your content valuable and trustworthy. A growing and diversified backlink profile is a positive sign.
If you’ve been actively working on getting backlinks, an increase means that your efforts are paying off. Even if the increase is unintentional, that means you’re nailing it with content, that your audience and peers find it so valuable that they naturally link to it. Keep at it!
Whether you’re actively link-building or not, it’s still critical to regularly monitor your website’s backlink profile. If and when you decide to keep growing your backlinks, identify valuable sites linking to you, as the quality of a backlink is more important than the quantity.
Conversions
At the end of the day, conversion is what matters. This is the meeting point of your business goals and SEO goals.
Think about it. We do SEO to get organic traffic, but all the traffic in the world will not translate to revenue if your pages aren’t converting. The ultimate goal of SEO is to convert visitors into customers or leads.
Whether making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or requesting a quote, conversion metrics reveal how well your website persuades visitors to take the desired action. You can monitor conversion rates with Google Analytics.
Looking at organic traffic or keyword rankings will indicate if your SEO strategy is attracting the right audience successfully. However, analyzing conversion rates helps determine whether your website’s user experience and content align with visitor expectations when they arrive.
If conversion rates are improving, it indicates that your SEO efforts are not only driving traffic but also engaging and persuading users effectively. When you continually optimize your website based on conversion rate data, you fine-tune your SEO strategy to generate the most valuable actions from your visitors, ultimately boosting your business’s bottom line.
Not seeing competitive SEO results? Let the experts handle it
If your SEO results have stalled or are less than satisfactory, it’s time to work with experts. At Ranq, our seasoned SEO experts and content strategists work together to create a custom, cohesive SEO strategy for your website that seamlessly integrates all aspects of SEO.
Further, with invaluable quarterly reports on performance, we’ll always keep you in the know. We promise tailored and data-driven solutions that drive long-term growth. Ready for results that speak volumes? Contact Ranq now!