Whether you just launched a new website or updated an old one, you want the business to be found on the first page of Google search or other major search engines. SEO plays an important role to increase the business’ online presence.

It is natural that questions come to mind such as, what is SEO and how long does it take to start working?

For SEO campaigns to start ranking, it depends on a lot of factors like how competitive the industry is, budget for the campaign, if the website is optimised for search engines, good content, among other important factors.

SEO can take time to work its magic, but first let’s understand what is SEO.

What is SEO?

In a nutshell, SEO is a marketing technique which improves search engine visibility for websites and blogs. Search engines like Google and Bing rank websites by taking into account the relevance of the user’s search.

By saying this, websites with optimised content which contain relevant keywords correlated to the user’s search will rank higher in search engines.

SEO ensures that the website is only shown to users who are looking for the relevant content. As an organic form of advertising, SEO helps to improve the quality and quantity of traffic visiting a website.

How Long Does SEO Take to Work?

Organic SEO takes more time to show results than Google Ads.  The length of time depends on some variables such as website design, how long the website has been live, content quality, how much SEO has been done previously, competition, location, industry target and so on.

However, it is reasonable for most websites to see results after 4 to 6 months and keep increasing over time. If you wonder how SEO effort might look like during the initial months and the results you might expect, here is an example.

1stMonth:

It is the research and discovery phase which will involve a website audit, keyword strategy and planning. If the discovery and research can be done quickly, technical changes on the website may start in the first month. Otherwise this phase can take more than a month.

2ndMonth:

Based on the website audit results, technical SEO work begins. This involve website modifications via a revamp or update, which this of itself can take months. Modifications like creating fresh content and working on the link profile. The link profile is the kind of links that drive traffic back to your website from external sources. During this stage, SEO strategy will begin but no results will be seen yet since the changes will only have impact once finished.

3rdMonth:

You may already have started working on the content after the strategy and planning. This period will be focused on creating content like blogging, FAQs, expanded product, company information and so on. These are all a regular new source of keywords that will improve rankings.

4thMonth:

This month continues content creation, the latest adjustments to enhance your business through keywords, technical optimization of the website and development of a healthy profile which may include cleaning up low quality links. Google analyses how many links are pointing to a website and their quality. This is a primary part of Google’s method to determine how to rank websites. In this stage it can be expected to see traffic, lead generation and ranking conservatively increase.

5thMonth:

By this month or earlier in the process, utilise social media to amplify content and increase direct traffic to the website. The use of social media can lead to a healthy, natural link profile and generate leads. At this stage you should be seeing more traffic coming in from SEO efforts and, as a result, more prospective customers getting in contact.

6thMonth:

From this point on you should be consistent on content creation for a blog, social media or adding newest information to a website about the business. Google “works” continuously to verify if the website content is fresh and as relevant to users as possible. It is suggested to frequently monitor the site SEO performance to ensure it’s optimised for Google’s search algorithm changes.

SEO results continue to grow over time and results seen at month 6 will continue to increase by month 12.  Eventually, SEO results will stabilise or decrease and this is a natural trend.  At this point, SEO is about maintaining results rather than constantly growing. Continue to monitor the website’s performance and make tweaks to maximise optimisation for search engine algorithm changes.

Don’t quit too soon, rarely SEO success comes within the first 3 months. SEO is a long term technique and shouldn’t be used or seen as a way to generate sales or website traffic quickly. However, if you make the right plan and investment on you will get results in the long run.

Don’t you know where to start? Au Digital has more than 10 years of experience in the field of search engine optimisation and marketing to help position websites on the first pages of the major search engines. We offer a number of SEO packages for clients of all sizes.

Call us today on 02 9907 3136 and speak one of your team to get some advice in how to get a better rank in search engine.