How Long Does It Take For SEO To Work?

How long does SEO take? Today’s post answers this common yet complicated question in detail. Read on or call 866-311-7189 for a personalized SEO turnover time estimate.

It’s also one of the most difficult questions we get, since there are so many variables involved, and because Google closely guards the secrets of their search algorithm. Not only do you have to manage your company’s internal variables with Nostradamus-level insight; you also have to understand all the external variables that your competitors’ campaigns throw into the mix.

While your clients deserve definitive answers, SEO timelines are largely incalculable, at least with the level of specificity most clients look for. Indeed, if a company promises you SEO results on a specific day, or their SEO turnaround time seems too good to be true, consider it a red flag—you may even be working with a blackhat provider (in which case, it’s time to look for help elsewhere, before it’s too late!).

Most SEO Takes 4 To 12 Months To Payoff

While definitive SEO turnover times aren’t pragmatic, we can speak confidently in general terms.

Most often, you’ll begin to see and experience the results of your SEO campaigning within 4 months to a year. For example, if you review the most recent Case Study on our website, you’ll see how we orchestrated a 58% increase in organic traffic for the Kitchen Solvers Franchise in approximately 12 months.

Some companies see results much sooner. The exact time it takes for your SEO campaign to pay off depends on three main factors:

1. Competition
2. Inbound links
3. Content

But again, it’s worth mentioning that there’s no known “formula” for calculating your SEO timeline. Nonetheless, there’s more to our 4-to-12-month estimate than sheer guesswork, and there are ways to rank up high on the SERP and boost website traffic.

The Role Of Competition In Calculating SEO Turnover Time

If you’re selling mint-flavoured mayonnaise or a cologne called eau de poisson, good news—you probably won’t be facing a whole lot of competition. That means your franchise SEO campaign will probably pay off sooner, with less work required, and it will be much easier to estimate turnover time since you’ve got one less variable complicating the equation.

However, for those of us selling products and services that consumers actually want to buy, competitive pressures will greatly affect our SEO campaign efforts and turnover time. When we refer to “competitive pressures,” we’re talking about:

1. The volume or quantity of competitors—e.g. How many other rival companies are implementing their own SEO campaigns and targeting your desired keywords? If you’re lucky enough to have few competitors, you’ll have a much easier time ranking high for target keywords.
2. The value of quality of competition—e.g. Are your competitors also partnering with experienced SEO professionals and skilled copywriters, or are they fumbling around in the dark with dated, keyword-stuffed blog posts and basic social media sharing?

As you probably guessed by now, the greater the competition, the longer it will take to climb the SERP ranks. Likewise, it follows that low competition requires relatively little effort. Accordingly, to make sure you only spend what’s absolutely necessary to get the job done, one of the first steps in creating your SEO strategy is to evaluate all aspects of the competitor’s SEO game. That means looking at what they’re doing today, as well as evaluating their activity over the last few months.

ClickTecs can help. Every SEO audit includes a detailed look at your competitors’ plans so that we can calculate exactly what’s required to beat them.

The Role Of Inbound Links In Calculating SEO Turnover Time

It’s no secret that links play a big part in your SEO performance, but there’s more to estimating their impact than simply tallying up the number of other pages pointing to your website.

Generally speaking, the fast you can earn relevant, high-quality links to your franchise website, the faster you’ll reap the rewards of your SEO campaigning.

The volume of inbound links will certainly speed up your SEO efforts, but optimal link-building is more than just a numbers game. Indeed, in 2020-2021, Google most often favors quality over quantity, so that even a few high-quality links from relevant websites will have a much greater effect than dozens of low-quality links from irrelevant blogs, forums, and social media pages. Quality links are also harder for competitors to replicate, since they’re harder to earn, which can help you establish a firm foothold on the SERP.

Quality links also take longer to build, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing—in fact, Google rewards the slow-and-steady approach to link-building. If your website receives too many links too quickly, which isn’t really possible without blackhat “link schemes” or spam strategies, Google interprets these signals as “attempts to manipulate PageRank,” and slams your site with ranking penalties.

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry too much about moderating your link velocity—that is, the speed at which you earn your links—because whitehat strategies naturally stimulate relatively stable growth. Even link spikes generated by a killer content marketing campaign, new product launch, or explosion of local media coverage tend to look much different than blackhat link schemes. Google will recognize and reward your whitehat approach.

Get in touch with our link-building team to learn more about how to factor inbound link quality and velocity into your SEO turnover time estimate.

The Role Of Content In Calculating SEO Turnover Time

As the old saying goes, content is king. But long gone are the days where you could simply churn out stilted, 300-word articles stuffed with keywords and wait for Google’s crawl-bots to catch wind. That’s not to say every post needs to be a novella—in fact, there’s no ideal length anymore—content simply needs to answer the question posed by the visitor.

Once again, quality beats quantity. The sooner you publish relevant, authoritative, and informative content that’s valued by your target audience, the faster you’ll rank up. It’s also a good idea to maintain a consistent content schedule, since regular posts encourage users and Google crawlers to visit your site more often.

You can learn more about our content strategy on our website, or by booking a free SEO consultation.

Book A Free Franchise SEO Consultation

Call 866-311-7189 for a personalized SEO turnover time estimate, and learn more about how our franchise marketing specialists can help you rank with competitive insights, quality links, and premium content.