{"id":1738,"date":"2022-08-23T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-23T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/index.php\/2022\/08\/23\/how-long-does-seo-take-to-show-results\/"},"modified":"2022-08-23T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-08-23T06:00:00","slug":"how-long-does-seo-take-to-show-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/how-long-does-seo-take-to-show-results\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Does SEO Take to Show Results?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p>It typically takes between 3\u20136 months for SEO to show results.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s according to the ~4,300 people who responded to our polls on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/feed\/update\/urn:li:activity:6963392775660744704\">LinkedIn<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ahrefs\/status\/1557789735061520385\">Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes.png\" alt=\"Pie chart showing how long SEO takes to show results\" class=\"wp-image-145875\" width=\"540\" height=\"669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes.png 1800w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-343x425.png 343w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-768x951.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-1240x1536.png 1240w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-1653x2048.png 1653w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes.png\" alt=\"Pie chart showing how long SEO takes to show results\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145875\" width=\"540\" height=\"669\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes.png 1800w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-343x425.png 343w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-768x951.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-1240x1536.png 1240w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/1-how-long-seo-takes-1653x2048.png 1653w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 540px) 100vw, 540px\"\/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"sidenote\">\n<p>Sidenote.<\/p>\n<p> We also polled our customers-only Facebook group, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/ahrefsinsider\">Ahrefs Insider<\/a>. Only 82 people responded there, and 6-12 months was the most popular answer.<\/div>\n<p>But the reality is that there\u2019s no definitive time frame. <em>It depends.<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Why does SEO take so\u00a0long?<\/h2>\n<p>SEO isn\u2019t advertising. You can\u2019t pay your way there. So if you want to rank #1 for a keyword, you need to demonstrate to Google that you\u2019re the best result.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google.png\" alt=\"Google has two types of results: organic and paid&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-145878\" width=\"560\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google-455x425.png 455w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google-768x718.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google-1536x1436.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google.png\" alt=\"Google has two types of results: organic and paid&#10;\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145878\" width=\"560\" height=\"524\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google-455x425.png 455w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google-768x718.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/3-two-types-of-search-results-google-1536x1436.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>That means that how long SEO takes to \u201cwork\u201d depends on many factors. Here are some factors to consider:<\/p>\n<h3>1. New vs. old website<\/h3>\n<p>Generally speaking, since they\u2019ve been around for longer, older websites tend to have more backlinks (and, thus, more <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo\/glossary\/website-authority\">website authority<\/a>), more pages, more content, as well as rank for more keywords.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>On the other hand, newer websites need more effort and resources to get off the ground. In fact, some SEOs even believe that Google has a \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/google-sandbox\/\">sandbox<\/a>\u201d that prevents new websites from ranking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So if you\u2019re working on a new website, it may take longer for SEO to show results.\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>2. The competition<\/h3>\n<p>SEO doesn\u2019t exist in a bubble. Your competitors are probably doing SEO too. If the keywords you\u2019re targeting are highly competitive, then it\u2019s going to take you a longer time to\u00a0rank.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For example, we would love to rank for the keyword \u201cseo.\u201d But the pages ranking for this keyword have tens of thousands of backlinks:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1906\" height=\"1060\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview.png\" alt=\"The SERP overview for the query &quot;seo,&quot; via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-145879\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview.png 1906w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview-680x378.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview-768x427.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview-1536x854.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1906px) 100vw, 1906px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1906\" height=\"1060\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview.png\" alt=\"The SERP overview for the query &quot;seo,&quot; via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer&#10;\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145879\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview.png 1906w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview-680x378.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview-768x427.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/4-seo-serp-overview-1536x854.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1906px) 100vw, 1906px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>In fact, the <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/keyword-difficulty\">Keyword Difficulty (KD)<\/a> score for this keyword is a whopping 97:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/5-seo-kd.png\" alt=\"The Keyword Difficulty score for the query &quot;seo&quot;&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-145881\" width=\"299\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/5-seo-kd.png 598w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/5-seo-kd-357x425.png 357w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/5-seo-kd.png\" alt=\"The Keyword Difficulty score for the query &quot;seo&quot;&#10;\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145881\" width=\"299\" height=\"356\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/5-seo-kd.png 598w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/5-seo-kd-357x425.png 357w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 299px) 100vw, 299px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>If we want to compete, it\u2019ll take us tons of time and effort. On the other hand, it\u2019s much easier to compete for \u201cseo for startups.\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-for-startups\/\">We did<\/a> and now rank #1:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1752\" height=\"978\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview.png\" alt=\"The SERP overview for the query &quot;seo for startups,&quot; via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-145883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview.png 1752w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview-680x380.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview-1536x857.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1752px) 100vw, 1752px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1752\" height=\"978\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview.png\" alt=\"The SERP overview for the query &quot;seo for startups,&quot; via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer&#10;\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145883\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview.png 1752w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview-680x380.png 680w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview-768x429.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/6-seo-for-startups-serp-overview-1536x857.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1752px) 100vw, 1752px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>For reference, \u201cseo for startups\u201d has a medium difficulty of\u00a022:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/7-seo-for-startups-kd.png\" alt=\"The Keyword Difficulty score for the query &quot;seo for startups&quot;&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-145884\" width=\"304\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/7-seo-for-startups-kd.png 608w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/7-seo-for-startups-kd-370x425.png 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/7-seo-for-startups-kd.png\" alt=\"The Keyword Difficulty score for the query &quot;seo for startups&quot;&#10;\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145884\" width=\"304\" height=\"349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/7-seo-for-startups-kd.png 608w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/7-seo-for-startups-kd-370x425.png 370w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 304px) 100vw, 304px\"\/><\/figure>\n<div class=\"recommendation\">\n<p>Recommendation<\/p>\n<div class=\"recommendation-content\">\n<p>Here\u2019s how to find keywords that are less competitive:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Enter a relevant keyword into Ahrefs\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/keywords-explorer\">Keywords Explorer<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Go to the <strong>Matching terms <\/strong>report<\/li>\n<li>Set a <strong>KD filter<\/strong> to a maximum of 20 (or a number you\u2019re comfortable with)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report.png\" alt=\"The Matching terms report, with Keyword Difficulty filtered, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer&#10;\" class=\"wp-image-145886\" width=\"548\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report.png 1096w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report-484x425.png 484w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report-768x674.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report.png\" alt=\"The Matching terms report, with Keyword Difficulty filtered, via Ahrefs' Keywords Explorer&#10;\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-145886\" width=\"548\" height=\"481\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report.png 1096w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report-484x425.png 484w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/8-matching-terms-report-768x674.png 768w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 548px) 100vw, 548px\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h3>3. Your resources<\/h3>\n<p>The more resources you can dedicate and invest in SEO, the \u201cfaster\u201d your results will\u00a0be.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For example, you could hire more <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/content-writing\/\">content writers<\/a> to create high-quality content for you. Or you could invest in SEO tools and make your work easier, faster, and more efficient. You might even be able to create a link building team to actively build links for you. The possibilities are endless.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Your strategy<\/h3>\n<p>A good strategy is half the battle won.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>If you have a detailed plan on how you\u2019ll like to tackle your target keywords, you\u2019ll have a higher chance of achieving faster results.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For example, you may have a bunch of important keywords you\u2019ll like to rank for. However, they\u2019re all super competitive. So if you\u2019re investing all your resources into trying to rank for these keywords, it may take months or even years before you see any results.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Alternatively, you can build up slowly to your most important keywords by <em>first <\/em>targeting <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/low-competition-keywords\/\">low-competition topics<\/a> that have business value. That way, you can still generate some organic traffic to your site\u2014while accumulating links, <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/seo\/glossary\/website-authority\">website authority<\/a>, and more for the future.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended reading:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/orchard-seo-strategy\/\"><em>The Insanely Simple SEO Strategy for 2022 (The Orchard Strategy)<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h3>5. Your execution<\/h3>\n<p>To win the other half of the battle, you\u2019ll have to <em>actually <\/em>execute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s no point in dreaming up the greatest SEO strategy in the world if nothing gets done. Likewise, if you constantly have to justify to internal stakeholders whether <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/is-seo-worth-it\/\">SEO is worth the effort<\/a>, that may hinder your efforts to execute.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>So the more consistently you execute, the \u201cfaster\u201d you\u2019ll likely see results.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Recommended reading:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/seo-goals\/\"><em>How to Set the Right SEO Goals With 3 Examples<\/em><\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>Learn more<\/h2>\n<p>Want to learn more about SEO? Check out these resources:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-long-does-seo-take\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It typically takes between 3\u20136 months for SEO to show results. That\u2019s according to the ~4,300 people who responded to our polls on LinkedIn and Twitter. Sidenote. We also polled our customers-only Facebook group, Ahrefs Insider. Only 82 people responded there, and 6-12 months was the most popular answer. But the reality is that there\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}