It takes 1 to 3 months to learn the basics of SEO. The basics of search engine optimization can be understood and learned in 3 months, however, more advanced concepts can take between 6 and 18 months. This is provided as long as you consume knowledge on a daily basis and learn from experts. Many SEO firms will tell you that it takes 4 to 6 months to start seeing results.
In general, that's accurate, but keep in mind that's when you start to see results and SEO results grow over time. The results you get at 6 months should be significantly lower than what you get at 12 months. At some point, you may see your results decline, and then it may be a matter of maintaining results rather than increasing them. SEO isn't something you can learn in one night.
And while it can take several years to become an expert, there's a lot of room between knowing nothing and knowing everything. So how long does it take to learn SEO? Or, more specifically, how long does it take to learn enough SEO to increase the audience of your own blog? The SEO should show the results in a period of 6 to 12 months. By results, we mean a measurable increase in traffic and associated leads or conversions. This doesn't necessarily mean that you've achieved your goal by now, but any company investing in SEO should expect to see progress within this timeframe.
If the scope of your SEO needs is small enough for you to work on your own, then it may make sense to take that path, rather than hiring an agency. All courses come with an SEO certification that can be very useful if you plan to pursue a career in SEO. Your best bet is to weigh what type of SEO services you think you need and budget what you can afford to decide if hiring an agency is the best option for you. You can also gather new knowledge about SEO or reinforce what you've learned so far by using some fun tools or being present in some fun SEO places.
The amount of time you can spend learning SEO is probably the most important factor influencing how quickly you'll master the art of SEO. I started SEO 18 years ago and it took me a couple of years to understand what SEO is and how it works. Learning the theory behind SEO is crucial to understanding how SEO works and understanding its basic concepts. Of course, it's amazing if you have a lot of money to spend on SEO courses, books, or tutoring, but money alone won't make you a great SEO.
That's why you should only hire SEO companies or SEO professionals who focus on results, rather than results. Instead of a constant guessing game that wonders if you're wasting your time on old-fashioned SEO tactics, the DIY SEO tool lets you keep up to date. I literally needed to build (and destroy) dozens of different websites before I really learned how SEO works and understand what a job like SEO actually entails. Fortunately, my 8-year experience has taught me to distinguish between high-quality SEO resources and low-quality SEO scams.
The reason I gave 6 months as a minimum period is that it takes time for SEO to work and you may have to wait a couple of months (or longer) to see the impact of SEO-related changes on a website. Once the technical phase of SEO, which has to do with infrastructure-related configuration, has been passed, the other phases of SEO are strongly related to keywords.