How Quickly Will I See Results Once I Start My SEO Campaigns?
Be warry of people claiming they could achieve quick SEO results. We already talked about how long to it takes to see results with Google ads, so now lets talk about how long it will take to see results from you search engine optimization efforts.
Every business wants to become the brand loved by all. With a strong digital marketing campaign and online presence, this is made even more possible. High search engine rankings, especially when ranking on the first page on google, can translate into loads of traffic, ready to turn into click-happy customers. After all, more people means more sales, right? SEO is a huge part of making this happen. The right strategy will help you to climb up the SEO rankings and outshine the competition. That’s crucial because even moving one rank up can have a dramatic impact on your traffic.
Are Quick SEO Results Possible?
Figure 1 – https://www.smartinsights.com/search-engine-optimisation-seo/seo-analytics/comparison-of-google-clickthrough-rates-by-position/
More traffic means more leads. As a result, high Google ranks ultimately result in more conversions.
However, like all good things, achieving those rankings takes time.
We’re going to look at what you can realistically achieve with SEO within three time frames:
- Three Months
- Six Months
- One Year
Before that though, let’s look at some of the key factors that affect your website ranking.
Are Quick SEO Results Possible? What to Expect
Many businesses wonder if quick SEO results are achievable, but the reality is that SEO is a long-term strategy that requires patience. While some changes can improve SEO performance in the short term, major ranking improvements typically take time.
Certain factors, such as optimising site speed, improving content, and enhancing user experience, can start showing results within weeks. However, key SEO metrics like organic traffic, keyword rankings, and domain authority often take months to show significant improvements.
One important SEO metric to monitor is bounce rate, which indicates how engaged visitors are with your site. A high bounce rate may suggest that your content isn’t relevant or your site isn’t user-friendly, both of which can impact rankings.
While instant SEO success is rare, consistent efforts in optimising content, technical SEO, and link building will lead to sustainable growth and long-term results.
Why does SEO take time?
While certain SEO tactics can lead to short-term improvements, achieving long-lasting, high-quality results requires ongoing effort, such as refining content, building quality backlinks, and ensuring strong technical SEO. SEO is a gradual process that depends on a combination of strategies and continuous optimization. Quick wins are valuable but should be part of a broader, long-term SEO strategy for lasting success.
Long-lasting SEO results take time due to several factors. Search engines like Google need to assess the quality and relevance of your website over time, which requires consistent updates and optimization. Building authoritative backlinks, improving user experience, and creating high-quality content all contribute to long-term ranking success. Additionally, SEO is highly competitive, and it often takes several months for changes to have a noticeable impact and to solidify your position. Results are gradual, requiring ongoing effort and refinement.
Key ranking factors: Why does SEO take so long are quick SEO results even possible?
The first thing you need to be aware of is that nobody knows every factor that Google takes into account to rank your page.
Google isn’t telling anybody.
That makes sense too. If Google told you every ranking factor, you’d use the information to manipulate search results.
We know that there are hundreds of factors in place. These includes things like:
- Mobile Readiness. Does your website display properly on mobile devices.
- Load Speeds. The slower the load speed, the more people bounce away.
However, there are three that will form the backbone of your strategy.
Competition
This is a really straightforward concept. The more competitive the keyword you’re aiming for, the longer it will take you to rank.
Figure 1 – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/how-long-seo-takes/
For example, let’s say that you’re operating a small store selling smartphones in Sydney. You’ll face a decent level of competition for your main keywords. However, that pales in comparison to the competition you’d face on a national level.
The above graph shows how that would map out. An increase in competition means an increase in difficulty. This usually results in more time needed to achieve good rankings.
You’ll generally find yourself shooting past all of the websites that don’t use SEO. Then, you’ll hit a brick wall where every site above you does have an SEO strategy.
That’s where the hard work comes in. Your SEO strategy must focus on getting past those websites, which means you need to do what they’re doing better.
Then there’s the second level of competition – the quality of the SEO professionals working on the campaign. You can tie this into the budget that a company invests into its SEO as well.
It’s this second level that’s the main reason why you usually see the top brands dominating search results for major keywords.
Your goal is to find the keywords that strike the right balance between competition and profitability.
Chasing the big keywords isn’t always a sensible strategy, especially if you don’t have the budget to compete with the sites that already rank.
Content
The days of creating 50 similar pages for 50 locations have long gone. Google aims to deliver quality content to its users. These spammy pages deliver a poor experience that doesn’t add any value. The user hits the page, takes a quick look, and bounces straight away.
In fact, Google implemented its Panda algorithm update to tackle this very problem.
Today, your content needs to have relevance and solve problems.
Quality is the key and search engines have a lot of ways of determining how useful content is to the searcher.
There’s also a lot of confusion surrounding content. Some people believe that they should stagger their publishing schedule. This allows them to introduce new content slowly so it doesn’t look like they’re manipulating search engines.
That’s the theory.
The truth is that you should publish whenever you have good content ready to go.
Ask yourself this key question: “Would I find this content useful?”
If the answer is “no”, that content isn’t good enough to make it to your website.
Try to maintain a regular publishing schedule. This encourages search engines to keep checking your website for fresh content, which means faster page indexing. Plus, it encourages people to keep coming back to check what’s new. Search engines take notice of this positive user signal, which usually leads to higher rankings.
Inbound Links
Inbound links are an important authority signal for Google. They show that people trust your content enough to encourage other people to check it out. Unfortunately, that basic concept has left linking open to abuse.
In search of fast results, some marketers chase links wherever they can find them. That results in an inbound link profile that looks like this:
Figure 2 – https://www.searchenginejournal.com/seo-101/how-long-seo-takes/
Which can eventually result in this:
Figure 3 – https://moz.com/blog/ultimate-guide-to-google-penalty-removal
That’s an unnatural link penalty. It’s Google’s way of telling you that it thinks you’ve bought or otherwise solicited links to achieve a high ranking.
That’s a bad thing.
Getting this penalty means spending days, week, or even months on cleaning up your link profile. If you don’t, Google may penalise you in a number of ways. Minor offences see your rankings plummet. Major offenders may see their websites removed from the index entirely until they clean up their link profiles.
And therein lies the problem. The faster you earn high-quality links, the faster you’ll rise in rankings. However, trying to speed up the process too much leads to an unnatural profile, which could get you punished.
Quality is the key. A ton of links from awful websites won’t serve you at all. You may get a short-term boost in rankings. However, you’ll drop right back down as soon as search engines realise what you’re doing.
Quick SEO Results are usually short-lived and may end up hurting you in the long run. The end goal is a simple one. You want your website to be so good that people link to it of their own accord. Great content, cool marketing campaigns, and a strong social media presence can all help with this.
Just keep it natural and you shouldn’t run into any problems.
Looking at your SEO results: Time frames to consider
That covers the main ranking factors that your SEO campaign will usually revolve around.
Now you need to know the time frames. What can you achieve at the 3, 6, and 12 month marks?
Performance at Three Months
You can consider this the foundational stage of your SEO efforts.
At this stage, you should rank highly for your URL and your branded keywords. You may also rank well for a few long-tail keywords. Long-tail keywords serve particular niches and generally face less competition. If you’ve created content focusing on those keywords, you may see a top 10 ranking or two appear.
It’s very unlikely that you’ll rank at this stage for your most competitive keywords. Again, this all depends on your industry and your business. Established websites have more of a chance of ranking new content at this stage than brand new sites. They already have a reputation that they can build on.
Of course, less competition also means you have a better chance of ranking.
That’s understandable too. You’ll have spent the first few months of your SEO campaign doing the housework.
You may have carried out a site audit to see what you need to improve. You’ll have spent time researching your competitors and your desired keywords. Furthermore, you’ll have probably spent a lot of time overhauling the technical aspects of the site.
All of this work takes time. As importantly, it takes time for search engines to see what you’ve done.
By the three-month mark, you’ve likely only just begun to put your content marketing strategy in place. It’s these efforts that will usually lead to whatever ranking improvements you see during this stage.
For context, we can take a look at ahrefs study of 2 million pages.
That study revealed that less than 2% of the top-ranking pages it checked were less than a year old.
Are Quick SEO Results Possible?
Figure 4 – https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank/
Digging deeper, the study identified 5.7% of the pages had achieved top ten rankings in three months. Even then, those rankings were primarily for low-competition and low search volume keywords:
Figure 5 – https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank/
Only 0.2% of that 5.7% of pages achieved top 10 rankings for high-volume keywords in the three month time period.
So, at the three month mark you can expect the following:
- Completion of much of the foundational SEO work your website needs.
- Ranking boosts that take you above websites that don’t do SEO.
- Possible top 10 rankings for low-volume keywords.
Performance at Six Months
At this point, your SEO strategy should be in full swing.
You should have:
- The beginnings of a good backlink profile (perhaps having cleaned up bad backlinks from the past).
- A regular content publishing schedule.
- A social media strategy.
You should also notice that you’re progressing up the rankings slowly. You replace the quick rise past the websites that don’t do SEO with a gradual climb past those that do.
This obviously assumes that you have a good strategy in place.
It’s at this point that you may start to get a little impatient. That’s because you still may not see a lot of top ten or Page 1 results for anything other than your low-volume keywords.
Most of your new ranked pages still come from that low-volume sector. However, you will see a marked, though not huge, increases in your medium-volume keywords.
Refer back to the 5.7% of lucky pages that ahrefs examined:
Figure 6 – https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank/
Note that past the six month mark, there’s a definite shift towards medium-volume keywords.
At this stage, your biggest obstacle is the thought that SEO isn’t working or that you made mistakes in your SEO. You may feel like giving up on your strategy because it hasn’t produced the results you’re looking for yet.
Don’t do it.
You’re closer to achieving your goals even if it feels like your progress has slowed.
Performance at 12 Months
We’re not going to tell you that you’ll have every Page 1 result you ever hoped for at the twelve month mark.
In fact, 95% of new pages don’t get to the top page of search engines within 12 months.
However, those that do have a defined SEO strategy in place. They’ve put in the foundational work and they’re publishing useful content.
At this stage, you should have a healthy link profile thanks to your content and efforts on social media. You’re seen as something of an authority in your industry.
You’ll also notice a marked increase in positioning for your medium and high-volume terms. Again, you can see the trend in the lucky 5.7% graph that ahrefs created. The sites that managed to rank within a year started the first six months getting rankings for low-volume terms. By the end of the first year, that switches so that most of their new rankings come from medium and high-volume terms.
That doesn’t mean they’ve lost the low-volume stuff either.
After a year, you’re established and have a solid based to build on.
The Final Word on Quick SEO Results
Here’s the most important stat of all:
The average age of the pages that have achieved the top ranking is just shy of 950 days – that is why quick SEO results are never something a reputable company will guarantee.
Figure 7 – https://ahrefs.com/blog/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank/
That’s a little over two and a half years old.
In your first year of doing SEO, you’ll build a foundation and start ranking for some of your keywords. You may even achieve Page 1 positioning for many of them.
However, the top ranking requires more time and a lot of effort.
You’re just at the beginning. The SEO work you do in your first year generates some revenue. More importantly, it’s preparing your website for long-term success.
With limited knowledge, what can most people do to rank faster in SEO?
For those with limited knowledge of Search Engine Optimisation / SEO, improving your website’s ranking can feel like a daunting task. However, there are some simple and effective strategies that can help you get started and see quicker results.
Some basic actions most people can take to improve SEO and boost their rankings faster:
Optimise Your Website’s Content for Keywords
Keywords are the terms and phrases people use when searching online. To rank better, focus on identifying the most relevant and high-traffic keywords for your business. Use tools like Google’s Keyword Planner or even free tools like Ubersuggest to find keywords that are relevant to your products or services.
Once you’ve identified these keywords, naturally incorporate them into your content, including:
- Titles and meta descriptions
- Headings (H1, H2, etc.)
- Body content
- Image alt text
Improve Website Speed
Site speed is a critical ranking factor. Slow-loading pages can frustrate users and harm your rankings. Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to test your website’s speed and get suggestions on how to improve it.
Some common ways to speed up your site include:
- Compressing images
- Minimising code (CSS, JavaScript, HTML)
- Using a content delivery network (CDN)
Ensure Your Site Is Mobile-Friendly
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it predominantly uses the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, you could be missing out on valuable rankings. Check how your site performs on mobile devices using Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test, and make sure it’s responsive, with text that’s easy to read and navigation that works smoothly.
Create Quality Content
Content is king when it comes to SEO. High-quality, engaging content that answers users’ questions can naturally lead to better rankings. Aim to provide valuable and informative content that meets the needs of your audience. Consider creating blog posts, guides, FAQ pages, or even videos that are informative and optimised for the keywords you want to rank for. Google loves content that adds value and relevance.
Focus on On-Page SEO
On-page SEO refers to optimising elements within your website.
These include:
- Title Tags: Ensure each page on your site has a unique, descriptive title that includes your primary keyword.
- Meta Descriptions: These brief descriptions appear in search results below the title. Include a relevant call to action and keywords to increase click-through rates.
- Headings: Use heading tags (H1, H2, etc.) to structure your content and make it easier for both users and search engines to read.
- URL Structure: Use clear, readable URLs that include your target keywords (e.g., www.example.com/seo-tips).
Build High-Quality Backlinks
Backlinks (links from other websites to your site) are one of the most important ranking factors.
While it’s not something you can control directly, you can still work to get quality backlinks by:
- Creating valuable content that others want to link to
- Guest blogging or writing articles for other websites
- Reaching out to industry influencers or publications
- Using local directories or business listings
Use Local SEO Tactics
If you’re a local business, local SEO is crucial for attracting customers in your area.
Here’s what you can do:
- Claim and optimise your Google My Business profile: This will help your business show up in local near me searches and Google Maps.
- Use local keywords: Include the name of your city or region in your website’s content.
- Get local reviews: Encourage satisfied customers to leave reviews on Google and other relevant platforms.
Make Your Website Easy to Navigate
User experience (UX) is an important SEO ranking factor. Websites that are easy to navigate and offer a smooth user experience are likely to rank higher.
Ensure your website:
- Has a clear, simple navigation structure
- Provides easy access to key information
- Is well-organised with a clean, attractive design
- Loads quickly and functions well on all devices
Use Schema Markup
Schema markup is a type of code that you can add to your website to help search engines understand your content better. It allows search engines to display rich snippets in search results, such as reviews, product details, or event information. While it may sound complicated, there are many plugins and tools (like Google’s Structured Data Markup Helper) to make the process easier.
Track Your Progress and Adjust Accordingly
SEO is an ongoing process. Use tools like Google Analytics and Google Search Console to monitor your traffic, keyword rankings, and site performance. These tools will help you see what’s working and where you need to make adjustments. Continuously improving your website’s SEO will help you stay competitive in search rankings.
Now, you just need to know how to get started.
While there’s no magic trick to ranking at the top of Google overnight, by implementing these basic SEO practices, you can make significant improvements to your website’s search engine performance. Focusing on keyword optimisation, improving site speed, creating quality content, and building backlinks will help you rank faster and more effectively over time. And remember, SEO is an ongoing process—stay patient and keep working on refining your strategy
If you’re looking for a helping hand and a team to rally around your business goals, then you’re in the right place. Our experienced Australian SEO services agency Gurus have figured out what works and what doesn’t in the world of digital — and have partnered with businesses across Australia and the world. In fact, 1,000+ happy businesses have chosen OMG.
Best of all, starting the conversation is easy and with no strings attached. Simply get in touch to claim your free $2,000 digital audit.
