If you’re thinking about engaging with an SEO company, you want to know how long it’s going to take to see results. When you put money into a service, you expect to see the results of that service quickly. With SEO, though, results aren’t often instantaneous.
Let’s go over what you can expect when kicking off SEO services with an SEO company like Thrive.
When will I start to see my website ranking for more keyword searches?
The short answer to this question: it depends on multiple factors, but expect to wait at least a couple of months before seeing results.
Some markets are more competitive and more saturated than others in the online space. Law and insurance, for example, are two really competitive industries. Some home services can also get really competitive, especially if you’re in a city where many other service providers are located. If you’re in a more competitive market, it’s quite possible that it’ll take more time to get big results, just because of how many tough competitors there are.
Something that’s a little more niche, though, would be easier to rank for because of less stiff competition. Still, don’t expect it to happen right away.
Another factor that influences how quickly you can see ranking improvements is whether you’re targeting a local market or a national one. A local market (or a couple local markets) is a more focused campaign, which usually makes it easier to see improvements quickly. When targeting the entire national market, it takes longer to build up your presence to that level.
What can also affect the timing is how good your ranking are already. If you already have decent rankings and are looking to make them higher, inching them up definitely takes time and patience.
Check out this study that was done by ahrefs. They found that the average age of pages in Google’s top 10 results are 2 years old or older.
When will I start to see more leads or sales?
Naturally, seeing more leads goes hand-in-hand with seeing higher rankings for the keywords you’re targeting. However, more goes into getting more leads or sales than just higher rankings.
SEO/web marketing isn’t just about getting your site to rank higher in search engines. Once we begin to drive more traffic to your site, there are more pieces that go into getting more leads. Your website needs to facilitate that increased traffic you’re getting and turn it into leads. To do that, we need to work on conversion rate optimization.
Conversion rate optimization is the practice of making a higher percentage of the visits to your website turn into leads or sales. It takes into account the design of your website, the positioning of your calls to action, the speed of your site, and the overall usability.
What Google Says
In February of 2017, Google released a video called “How to hire an SEO“. In the video, they talk about how SEO is not magic, and how it can take some time to see results:
In most cases, SEOs need four months to a year to help your business first implement improvements and then see potential benefit.
Four months to a year is a great guideline. It takes patience and investment to see results, but once you get there, it’s so worth it.
A Real-World Example
At Thrive, we see all kinds of different client success rates. We put the same care and expertise into every campaign, but because there are so many different factors in SEO, success grows at a different rate for everyone. What’s ‘normal” across the board, though, is that it takes at least 3 months to see results, and closer to year to see the kinds of results you’re expecting from working with an agency.
For instance, let’s take a look at the website traffic of this security systems company:
Although we had a spike in the beginning, traffic leveled out and then took almost a year to really get to rise. See that half a green dot on the left axis for 2018 traffic in January? Wow!
Patience is an SEO Virtue
You know that movie quote, “If you build it, they will come”? Well, with SEO, it’s “if you keep doing it, they will come”. It takes an investment in time to see the amazing results you’re looking for through SEO.
Now, there is a way to get results faster: PPC (pay per click). If you’re starting out fresh and you really need results NOW, starting a paid campaign is the best way to ensure you start getting leads right away. Oftentimes, you can scale down your PPC ad budget as your SEO campaign begins driving more leads. You can lean on those ads less and less as your organic leads begin to rise.
Ready to start investing in your organic future with SEO? Let’s chat.
