Anyone who works in the SEO industry has probably heard questions like, “How long will SEO take for my website?” It’s normal to ask that question. After all, any customer would ideally want to know the exact, or at least approximate, completion time of a project.
The problem is that it can be difficult to find information on the topic. Many agencies manipulate marketing headlines by claiming that they can get you to Google’s top 10 in 30 days, 90 days, or whatever deadline they choose. In any case, these numbers can be tempting.
However, these promises are often inconsistent with reality. Website promotion and other SEO work are long processes. Perhaps the best analogy is business development. In short, very few people can build a successful company in just a few months.
SEO is like business development, but online. In many cases, you also have to start from scratch.
How long does it take to promote a website? Factors that influence the result
If we’re looking at our own average figures, we can say that, from when we start working until we achieve the first stable results, it usually takes 6 to 8 months, depending on website condition and the competition in your niche. That’s on average. However, this time could potentially increase to a year or more for some high-competition niches.
The final work duration and the time needed to achieve the desired results will often depend on several additional factors, as we will describe in more detail below.
Website Age
New websites that have only recently been included in the Google index are trickier to promote and require more time. Meanwhile, older (a year or more) websites with some influential standing already take less time for SEO promotion.
The thing to remember here is that a search engine has to collect specific data to estimate how relevant a website is to a specific group of search queries. Then, it has to compare your site with other competitors in the niche and start ranking it in the SERP accordingly.
Google considers your domain name as a kind of brand. So, similar to classical economics, the older the brand is, the more people trust it. Therefore, newly created websites can take significantly more time to get to the top page than older, more influential ones.
Level of Competition
The higher the level of competition in your niche, the more time it will take to get organic traffic from search. This applies not only to your industry but also depends on the target region.
For example, it takes less time to do SEO for a website selling accessories for book lovers in Ukraine than it does to promote a website for a car dealer in Austin, Texas.
If you specialize in a narrow niche that’s characterized by having relatively low competition, you can achieve results rather quickly. However, a more competitive environment drastically complicates this task, since significantly more players will be willing to invest good money in SEO.
Website’s Technical Health
A website technical audit is an indispensable prerequisite before starting an SEO campaign. After all, we have to be sure a website has no errors that could negatively impact its visibility in the search, and if revealed, they have to be fixed.
Errors on a website will constantly hinder its ranking, slow down the SEO effect, and thus demand higher budgets. Moreover, since search engines are regularly moving in terms of algorithm development, it’s not guaranteed that tricky projects will always receive traffic from organic search if not done in the right way.
SEO audits, error elimination, and expert recommendation implementation are all necessary for any project. Still, in the end, the length of time that it takes will depend on the technical health of your website, specifically.
On-Page SEO
Every website page needs to be optimized for a specific group of keywords. Critically, it’s important to choose the right type of keywords, create a Title/Description for each specific page, write unique texts (if there is no text already), optimize images, etc.
In some cases, we work with the currently available pages. In other cases, we may have to create content and pages from scratch. However, either option is a process that takes a significant amount of time.
Furthermore, a new page will not start ranking immediately. It can take anywhere from several weeks to several months from its creation until a page is fairly visible in the search results, at which point it should start generating organic traffic.
External factors
Links to a website or its pages from other web resources are among the most meaningful factors for increasing the website’s weight on Google.
The quality of backlinks, along with their quantity and age, can all play a part in accelerating project promotion due to increased trust from the search engines.
However, links alone are not decisive. The quality of a particular page and the website, on the whole, are more important. However, if we gradually multiply relevant links and increase their quality, we can achieve SEO results faster than if we neglect this area.
SEO Budget
Website promotion time and the desired achievement speed depend not only on the hired specialist’s skill but also on how much money and time you can afford to allocate to a project. After all, apart from hours of the SEO specialist’s work, you will also have to pay for content, the software engineers’ work, and link building, among other things.
Simply put, you will get what you pay for with SEO. If you want to work with a lower budget, you will likely have to wait longer for results, and vice versa.
Careful work on the project and a sufficient budget will allow you to start receiving returns from your SEO investments much faster – and this is all the more relevant if your website is in a niche with tight competition.
You may also want to consider additional resources as investments. For instance, you can create content in-house and hire software developers, designers, or other specialists to satisfy your marketing needs.
Be Patient. It’s Important!
SEO is a marathon, not a sprint. Consequently, you should be careful not to underestimate the requirements, and never stop too early.
Lots of website owners underestimate how much time and money it can take to promote websites in organic search successfully. A project will rarely show successful results within just 2 or 3 months after starting work.
SEO is a long-term marketing strategy for websites, and the return on investment (ROI) will only increase over time.
Successful SEO is possible only if you have enough effort and patience and a consistent approach to work. So, if you’ve already started, stick to your chosen strategy to systematically move towards the top.
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Are you looking for an experienced and reliable SEO expert? Since 2012, I have been providing professional SEO services, helping companies from various industries develop and grow their businesses through organic search.
Contact me to learn how I can help your brand reach its full potential!
Volodymyr Fedorychak
Search marketing consultant specializing in IT business and B2B SaaS. I help businesses and start-ups generate traffic, attract customers and build their brand online.
