In a nutshell, SEO is time-consuming because search engine algorithms have become very sophisticated. You can no longer end up on the first page of a SERP simply by filling your page with keywords. A strong SEO strategy now has many more aspects and factors that influence the results and ranking of a page. Don't be discouraged by the competition, especially if you're new to the game.
Even some of the best analysts take a long time to figure out what competitors are doing. Since people spend a lot of time creating both their website and their business, it will also take time for you to do the same. Understanding what the competition is doing and why they are successful requires time and patience. It also requires a lot of observation and data collection.
Due to competition, SEO takes a while to climb the rankings. It can also be difficult to catch up with the competition due to the fact that they have been around longer. If a website continues to work in SEO, it's still a lot of steps ahead. 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. The average time it takes for SEO to take effect is 4 to 12 months.
By then, you should see if your SEO efforts are working. In addition, good SEO takes time to show all the effects. The results you get at 4 months will be lower than what you get at 12 months. In my article on on-page vs off-page SEO, I explain how the most influential type of off-page SEO is the number and quality of backlinks to your website.
According to Mangools, “Keyword difficulty (also known as keyword competition or SEO difficulty) is an SEO metric that estimates how difficult it is to rank for a keyword. One thing that this estimate also includes is the time it takes an SEO to audit your website to come up with an actionable search engine optimization plan. Before we analyze exactly how long it takes SEO to have an impact on your business, let's first look at why SEO takes to show results. That's why you should only hire SEO companies or SEO professionals who focus on results, rather than results.
