When searching for a new car, what is your top priority?

Is it speed and performance? Devilish good looks? Great gas mileage?

No. No. And no. 

Your top priority in a new car is the ability to get you where you need to go. 

It doesn’t matter how fast, how stylish, or how fuel efficient your car is if it can’t get you from one place to another.

SEO is a lot like that. Even if it takes time to get to its destination, isn’t the prettiest, or is a gas hog, it will pay off. And if you choose the right service, it may happen faster than you expect. 

How Long Does it Take SEO to Work?

So, how long should it take to get results from SEO? According to Google, it takes about four months before you start reaping major benefits. Does that mean progress can’t be made in the first three months? Of course not. But SEO is like compound interest. It builds upon itself over time.

Which Factors Affect How Long it Takes to See SEO Results?

Unless you’re one of the head honchos at Google, you don’t have control over Google’s algorithm. But there are three things that can have a positive effect on your SEO campaign – your time and resources, your company’s domain, and your competition’s websites.

Time and Resources

If your team can write one post per day, expect consistent growth a few months down the road. But with a bigger team, you can ratchet up your pace for creating content and see results within the first couple months. And before you start creating SEO-friendly content, decide on your primary goal so you can know when and if you hit it. There are a number of great SEO tools that can help track your key performance indicators (KPIs).

Your Company’s Domain

Obviously, your domain and its level of optimization has a major impact on your success with SEO. The longer your domain has been around, the sooner your SEO campaigns will yield results. You also need to make sure your domain has several pages indexed in Google because an indexed site is more appealing to Google’s almighty algorithm.

Your Competition’s Websites

Your competition is the main factor affecting when your SEO campaign will pay dividends. If they’ve done a lot more than you, there’s a lot of ground to make up. However, if you’re pounding out three blog posts a week and they’re lucky to put out one, you can surpass them in short order. But remember, quality trumps quantity. One great post will never be defeated by several sloppy posts. Also pay attention to which keywords your competitors are ranking for so you can find the best keywords for your business. 

The Bottom Line

Even though you now have an idea how quickly (or slowly) SEO works, it bears repeating: SEO is a long-term marketing strategy. You can get results within a few months, but the greatest rewards will be seen several months down the line.