Is it true that SEO takes more than 6 months?

For the vast majority of brands or companies, having a website positioned at the top of Google would be an absolute success. It is normal to be impatient when starting to implement SEO strategies. Therefore, setting a time frame to guarantee certain results is a way to work without so much pressure. In most cases, it has been said that SEO can take 6 months to show concrete results. However, this could be different depending on the segment you belong to. In this article, we will learn a bit more about it. Read on. 

Table of Contents:

• SEO Strategies: How long should it take to see results
• Factors that influence SEO strategy

SEO Strategies: How long should it take to see results

When hiring an SEO agency, a professional or doing it on your own, it is normal to wonder how long it will take to see results. To summarize, there is no specific time period, but you can manage certain time periods to determine if a strategy is having some kind of effect. 

Let’s remember that each website, brand or business has different characteristics, as well as its market, these aspects are very important when establishing the parameters of both the return on investment and the rest of the proposed objectives. 

In general, an SEO strategy can take between 3 and 12 months to show results. However, a table of objectives per time period could be established.

• Initial changes may take up to 3 months to become visible.
• Major changes may take 6 months.
• It should take no more than 12 months to achieve the goals.

However, the frequency with which the actions are applied, either to technical changes on the web or to content creation, is fundamental. If you feel that the work is not paying off, it is very important not to get discouraged. 

The most common mistake is to stop creating content at the same pace as you have been working for months once the goals have been met. Remember, just like your website, there are thousands of others out there trying to beat you to the punch. Competition is the main incentive to continue developing SEO strategies today.

Factors that influence SEO strategy

It is very subjective to set a time period to determine the success of an SEO strategy. In short, there are hundreds of factors that influence this process and each of them plays a fundamental role. 

Of course, in the best case they all complement each other efficiently, but it is a trial and error process that must be taken into account. Here are some of them:

• The competition: Just as our brand is competing to get to the top of Google, so are other brands and companies. Some with more resources than others. 
• The market: Some industries are particularly complicated because of the number of sites vying for a privileged spot. For example, an online course academy (global market) is much more complicated to position than a dentist’s office in a small town (local market).
• Content: The amount of content produced is important, some sites may publish dozens of articles a day depending on the viability of their segment. Others may publish only a few articles per week. The performance in this case is significantly different. 
• Use professional tools: There are tools that allow for better content optimization. For example, YoastSEO for WordPress or SurferSEO for writing articles give a much more efficient plus at the time of publishing.
• Google has no magic formula: There is only room for a few on the first search page, it is impossible for the algorithm to allow everyone to rank equally efficiently. Despite all the factors that should be applied, Google’s algorithm may have other plans. 

Without a doubt, the Internet is a vast place where competition is fierce. Staying on top of all the trends and producing quality content on a regular basis seems to be the formula that has worked best for those who occupy the top positions in Google today. 

There is no time limit for an SEO strategy to produce results, but it is important to monitor progress. For example, if the bounce rate is very high over a 6-month period, it means that the content you are creating is not attractive to the user. Then you need to make the necessary changes to reverse this.