“Your SEO will take exactly 6 months!”

Apparently SEO now works like a microwave dinner – stick it in for exactly 6 months and ding! You’re ranking number one.

SEO “experts” are handing out identical timelines like they’re printing flyers, completely ignoring tiny details like competition, starting position, and oh yes – the actual website.

Really?

Have you seen the competition? The current state of the site? The industry?

Every SEO project is different. Some sites see improvements in weeks while others take months to gain traction. It depends on your starting point, competition, industry, and about a million other factors.

Anyone giving you an exact timeline is pulling numbers out of thin air.

There’s a reason that ‘it depends’ is an SEO joke.

Why “SEO takes x months” is bollocks

I could write a 101 reasons, but I’ll stick to these:

Your Starting Point

Are we talking complete wreck or just needs a fresh coat of paint? A site with major technical issues, thin content, and a dodgy backlink profile will take much longer than one that’s structurally sound but just needs some optimisation tweaks. Starting positions vary wildly – some websites are already accidentally ranking for valuable terms, while others are completely invisible to Google.

Your Competition

Are you up against Amazon or the local competitor with a one page website hosted on Yelp? The strength of your competitors makes an enormous difference. If your industry is dominated by companies who’ve been investing in SEO for a decade with multi-million pound budgets, don’t expect to overtake them in six weeks. On the other hand, if your competitors have neglected their websites, you might see results far more quickly.

Your Industry

Some industries are harder to crack than others. Try ranking for “payday loans” or “car insurance” and you’re in for a long, brutal fight. But “artisanal wooden spoon carving classes in Banbury”? You’ll probably rank by next Tuesday. Different industries have vastly different competitive landscapes and ranking difficulties.

Your Resources

Both time and money matter. SEO requires investment – whether that’s budget for an agency, tools, – content creation, or simply your own time. A company with dedicated SEO staff and budget will generally see faster results than someone working solo on weekends. Limited resources mean prioritising carefully and accepting a longer timeline.

Your Technical SEO and UX

Technical issues? Content gaps? The base you’re building on makes a massive difference. Sites with serious technical problems, poorly structured content, or UX issues that make visitors run screaming will take longer to improve. The technical foundation of your site can be the difference between a quick win and a lengthy rebuild.

Timelines for SEO results will vary wildly

What actually affects how quickly you’ll see results:

Technical Issues

If your site’s slower than a snail going backwards, that needs sorting first. Got a mess of duplicate content? Pages Google can’t even index? These aren’t overnight fixes.

Content Quality

Rubbish content won’t suddenly become brilliant overnight. Creating proper, helpful content takes time – and even longer for Google to recognise its value.

Competition Levels

Trying to rank for “insurance” or “holidays”? Settle in for the long haul. Looking to rank for “accountants for small creative businesses”? Might be quicker.

Historical Penalties

If your site’s been penalised for dodgy tactics in the past, recovery takes time. Google holds grudges like a disappointed parent (just my parents?).

Your Business Age

New sites typically take longer to establish trust. If you launched last Tuesday, you’re starting from scratch in Google’s eyes.

What SEO questions should you be asking?

Instead of “How long will SEO take?”, try these:

“What improvements might we see first?”
“Which metrics should we track to measure progress?”
“What factors might speed up or slow down our results?”
“What resources do we need to commit?”

Any SEO worth their salt will give you honest answers to these questions instead of plucking a timeline out of thin air.

What to do while “waiting”

Instead of obsessing over timelines, focus on actions that actually help your SEO:

Sort out your technical issues
Create genuinely helpful content
Build your brand presence
Engage with your community
Keep your site fresh and updated
Monitor and adjust your strategy based on results

Look for consistent improvement

What actually matters: consistent improvement. Rather than fixating on arbitrary deadlines, track your progress. Are you getting more relevant traffic? Are your target keywords improving? Are people staying longer on your site?

Success in SEO isn’t about hitting some magical month marker – it’s about building something that genuinely helps your users and proves your expertise to search engines. That’s what generates business.

Focus on building something worth ranking, and the results will come – whether that’s in 3 months or 12. Good SEO isn’t a race to be won, it’s a garden to be tended. Keep nurturing it, and it’ll keep growing.

And if someone guarantees you top rankings in exactly 6 months? Show them the door. They’re either lying or they’ve got a time machine – and if it’s the latter, they should be making much better use of it than doing SEO.

If you’re looking for someone to help with your website SEO, and tell you the truth from the beginning, including how long it could take, my SEO services might be worth a look.