I’ve invested in SEO, how long will it take me to see results?

In most instances, we believe it can take around 6-12 months until your SEO campaign is gaining a measurable increase in rankings and traffic.

In order to accurately measure the success of your SEO campaign, you need to iron out what success really means to you and your business…

• Does your SEO team or agency know how they’re being measured?
• Do you have KPIs in place?
• Are you measuring success on the movement of your rankings or is the main goal for organic traffic to increase?
• Who is responsible for each KPI?
• Do you have a CRO team who are responsible for converting traffic once it lands on site?

What impacts SEO success?

Although there’s no definitive answer as to how long it will take you to see results from your SEO campaign, there are hundreds of factors which can impact your results. Some of which are within our control, but the vast majority which are not.

We can’t control competitor activity.

We can’t control natural backlink activity.

We can’t control if and when Google releases algorithm updates.

However, we can influence many factors, which is the core for generating SEO success. 

Investing in SEO is a significant, important factor of your business and its success. Therefore, it’s pertinent to understand the entire market and have an indication of how long you can expect to wait to see results within your industry.

Some competitors may have remained fairly dormant in their online presence for a number of years, so if we predict this will continue, we expect to see success for your business much quicker.

Just as, if you invest heavily into your organic campaign, we can help accelerate your results to see greater ROI, sooner.

Investing sooner can also help your site grow and sustain rankings which are far more difficult to shift later down the line, putting your business strides ahead of your competitors for when they decide to invest too.

White Hat SEO vs Black Hat SEO

The “method of SEO” can also greatly impact time frames for seeing your “results” or KPIs being met.

Many old-school SEOs still apply a range of black hat techniques to websites, thinking they may see results faster.

They may buy thousands of spammy backlinks.

They may stuff keywords into text, with no relevancy or use to the reader.

They may hide content on page to try and fool Google.

And whilst they may see a significant increase in KPIs, this will only be very, very short term. If any at all.

As Google continues to roll out updates, such as the recent helpful content update and the October 2022 spam update, the adaptations to the algorithm continue to uncover and penalise more sites than ever before.

So whilst black hat techniques can work for some industries, short term, we can almost guarantee that this won’t have any positive impact in a short number of weeks (or months) to come.

Real-life Examples

Having worked across a multitude of websites across various industries, we know that SERPs can drastically vary. And therefore, results of your campaign can too.

However, we’ve randomly selected a range of various websites on the web, which are both local and national. The top level snapshots below show their estimated organic traffic, giving an indication of how long it’s taken them to achieve their success…

None of the sites below have worked with Embryo, in order to show the vast range of results which could be granted with an unknown investment into organic.

All data below are averages taken from ahrefs as an estimate of monthly organic traffic and keywords ranking. Comparing November 2022 to November 2020. 

Large Comparison Site, Pet Sector

~715% increase in estimated organic sessions, compared to 2017, with an additional 50% growth in the last two years alone.

• Estimated Traffic : 4M to 6M sessions per month
• # of Keywords Ranking : 1.1M to 1.6M keywords since November 2020

Large Home eCommerce Store

Although seeing an average ~229% increase in estimated organic sessions compared to 2017, when looking at visibility using Sistrix, the store has seen a very turbulent last few years. Showing the importance of not only measuring the ‘number of ranking keywords’, but also your overall search presence.

Overall, this large e-commerce store has seen a -18.5% decline in estimated traffic since November 2020.

• Estimated Traffic : 329K sessions to 269K sessions per month
• Keywords Ranking : 23K to 55K keywords

Local Franchise, Sport Sector

15% growth in average monthly organic traffic, with now over 28,000 keywords ranking, from ~4,500 in November 2020.

• Estimated Traffic :  16K sessions to 18.4K sessions per month
• Keywords Ranking : 4K to 28K keywords

Local Recruitment Agency

Estimated 183% increase in all organic sessions on site, when compared to November 2020. The increasing overall estimated traffic here demonstrates a positive SEO strategy is currently in place, with gradual growth and positive results in both rankings and traffic.

• Estimated Traffic : 5.3K sessions to 15K sessions per month
• Keywords Ranking : 10K to 16.5K keywords

eCommerce, Fashion Brand

Primarily a US brand entering the UK market, this site has seen positive growth since launching in December 2018. There has been a clear emphasis on organic performance since launching, with this site seeing a 53% increase in all organic traffic in the last 12 months alone.

• Estimated Traffic : 6.5K sessions to 83K sessions per month
• Keywords Ranking : 1.5K to 16.7K keywords

All of the examples above show just how varied results can be, based on industry, competitiveness within the SERPs, history of the domain, backlink acquisition and many other factors.

If you’re interested in seeing some of our recent organic case studies, looking to drive results or just want to work with an award-winning agency, get in touch with our team today!