How Long Does SEO Take?

Asking ‘how long does SEO take’ is just like asking ‘how long is a piece of string?’. In this article, we are going to look at some of the factors that influence how long SEO takes. Let’s dive right in, shall we?

How long does SEO take?

Anywhere from a few weeks to several years. We really can’t be much more specific than that. It is all dependent on what you want to get from your SEO campaign.

If your goal is to dominate the search results for some of the most competitive keywords in your niche, then it is going to take a minimum of a few years…and even then you may not have any success with your campaign.

If you want to rank highly on less-competitive keywords then you could, in theory, be there within a few weeks. You won’t get any sales, but you will be there.

Your keyword choice

As we said before; your keyword choice will have a major impact on how long your campaign takes. The more competitive the keywords, the harder it can be to rank.

When you work with an SEO expert, they will often come up with a few keywords. These keywords will be ones that can be targeted in the immediate future, and ones that will be more of a long-term goal. This ensures that money can start to come in quickly.

What your competition is doing

If your competition is actively working on their SEO campaign, and it is likely that they will for some of the more competitive keywords, then it is going to take a lot, a lot longer for your site to rank.

How your SEO expert works

Each SEO expert will have their own way of working. They will have strategies that they will have come up with over many, many years. How they work will dictate how fast your results are.

However, if they promise incredibly fast results, then you may want to investigate their techniques a little bit. At this point, they may actually be using underhand techniques to deliver results. This could undo all of that hard work when the next Google algorithm update is released.

SEO never ends

It is worth noting that your SEO campaign will never end. Just because you are ranked at the top of the searches for your chosen keywords, you can’t guarantee that you will remain there forever.

You need to do a bit of hard work when it comes to SEO to ensure that the sales continue to roll in. Plus, you should always target new keywords to bring in even more business.

Basically, if you are starting up a new SEO campaign, then you can pretty much guarantee that this is something that you are going to be working on for many, many years. While you may see some results in a few weeks of launching your campaign, you still wouldn’t have hit your full potential.