How Long Does it Take for SEO to Work?
Look, this is a tricky question and anyone in this business will tell you that. But, here is the short and quick answer: 3-6 months…ish.
Answering that question is like answering this question from a homeowner, “How much will this water damage restoration job cost?” It’s hard to answer that until you assess all of the damage. There a lot of variables there to look at, walls to open up, etc. What we do is similar. Most of our clients have used 4-5 SEO companies prior to us, some of which have done some very damaging things to their website and online reputation that need to be repaired. This of course adds time to what you’ll need to get your water damage SEO program working.
Again, there are many variables to understand why the estimates for time it takes for SEO to work are so varied, but here a few things we look at when assessing the time it takes to get something done right:
- Damage done to your website
- Damage done to your online reputation
- Bad SEO techniques that needs to be corrected on and off of your website
- Fast change seo where you don’t know what worked or didn’t work.
- Regional differences such as weather conditions. Etc.
- Local populations
- Local Competition
- Is your website new? Old?
That’s just a handlful. But even answering just those can get us some sort of reasonable estimate of time to get an SEO program working.
We had a client once that took us 9 months to even get him up and making money. That’s a pretty long leap of faith for a new client with no previous relationship to trust in. He’d had a lot of bad SEO in his history. But, once we got it all corrected for the long haul, we nailed it. We are now one of his top sources of income for the last 6 years.
And as some friendly advice, don’t do shortcuts. If you do, you’ll make less money at some point, I promise.
Remember this, it’s important: It is a long term marketing strategy for you. SEO is NOT something you turn off and on whenever your finances get tough. This is huge mistake. This is where people who aren’t calling their insurance companies are going to find you, so it is 100% worth your time and investment. This adds value to your company whereas other short-term marketing programs do not. SEO is a vital part of your marketing strategy today, do not underestimate it or under-invest in it.
You’ve all been in the homeowner’s house where the last restoration guy did a terrible job that you now have to fix. Our business is similar. We see those “half-assed” jobs all the time. We’ve fixed hundreds of them.
So in closing, you can see why there are so many variables as to how long it takes to get an SEO program working, every case is and should be viewed and assessed individually, not lumped into every other project someone has priced out.
But again, you can expect reasonable results anywhere from 3-6 months if done well and no serious damage control is needed.
Sincerely,
Dan York, Founder
www.water-damage-marketing.com
