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If you’ve been burned by marketing companies before, we get why you’d roll your eyes when you hear “just give it 4 to 6 months.” You’ve heard that before, right? And sure enough, 6 months later, you’re still waiting for the phone to ring while that vendor blames the last vendor.

That’s why we’re not just giving you another “trust the process” speech. What we’re laying out here is a reference point. If you’re working with a marketing team, these are the benchmarks and timelines you should expect.

If you’re seeing progress like this, you’re probably on the right track. But if you’re hearing promises or excuses that sound way outside of this, whether it’s “we can do it in 30 days” or “you’ll need a year before anything happens,” that’s your signal to ask tougher questions.

We’re sharing this based on years of running campaigns for many, many businesses. This is how the math typically works, and it’s why we’re putting it all out here as a timeline cheat sheet. Keep it handy the next time you’re sizing up a vendor.

What Success Should Look Like

Good SEO isn’t just a black box where you sit around in silence for six months. There should be clear activity and visible progress along the way.

• Website Launch: Your website should be completed and launched within the first month. If it’s dragging past that, something’s wrong.
  • How to monitor progress: You should be able to view the site on a staging (temporary) URL. That way you can see the work being done and how the site is coming together.
• Directory Listings: Your business information should start appearing in directories within the first 1 to 2 months. If there’s zero activity here, that’s a red flag.
  
  • How to monitor progress: Before hiring the agency, Google your business phone number. This shows where your number is already listed. Then, keep searching it weekly to see if new listings pop up.
• Solicitation Calls from Directories: When directories like Yelp start calling you nonstop, that’s actually a good sign. It means your business is showing up in the places where marketers (now) and customers (soon) are paying attention. It’s the canary in the coal mine.
  • How to monitor progress: Sadly, these are annoying, but that also makes them memorable. No need to specifically track them.
• Traffic Trends: After a couple of months, you should see a steady month-over-month increase in website traffic. Don’t get hung up on the raw numbers. What matters is the trend. Is it growing, even slowly? That’s progress.
  
  • How to monitor progress: Most sites use Google Analytics. You should either have access to your GA account or request monthly reports from your marketer. This lets you see traffic trends early on.
• Leads: Leads should start trickling in after a few months. Early on, they’ll be minimal, but they should increase gradually as your rankings improve.
  
  • How to monitor progress: You should be using a tracking number (like our CallTrax) for your online marketing. Without it, you’re severely limiting your ability to track results. Check your call logs to see if your call volume is increasing. Over time, focus not just on the number of calls, but on the quality of those calls.

Reasonable Timelines for Specific SEO Milestones

Here’s a realistic timeline for key parts of your SEO campaign so you know what to expect and when.

• Getting Your Website Indexed: Once live, Google can index your site in 3 days to 2 weeks if set up correctly. For a brand-new domain, it might take 3 to 4 weeks.
• Directory Listings: Submitting listings takes 1 to 3 days. Approvals take 1 to 4 weeks, followed by 2 to 4 weeks for Google to index them. Give it another 1 to 2 months to impact rankings.
• Google Business Profile: Setup and optimization should take 1 to 3 days, with 3 to 7 days for verification. You might start seeing activity within a few weeks.
• Location-Specific Pages: These help target neighboring areas. They can be created in 1 to 3 days, indexed in 3 days to 2 weeks, and typically improve rankings in 1 to 3 months.

Why Switching Vendors Too Soon Fails

Switching SEO vendors every couple of months is a guaranteed way to fail. Not only does it kill momentum, but every new provider has to start by cleaning up the mess left by the last guy. This includes inconsistent NAP data, bad backlinks, and half-finished directories. Most companies skip this step, which just piles onto the mess and makes things worse.

When you jump campaigns, the SEO clock doesn’t just pause. It resets. And if you’ve changed your domain name, expect a 4 to 6 month recovery period just to get back to where you were.

Pro Tip: Always ask your marketer if they’ve cleaned up (or plan to in the near-future) your old, outdated listings to fix your NAP match. We offer a service called CleanSlate for exactly this reason, but a lot of marketers skip this step. If they aren’t doing it, your campaign is never going to get off the ground. Make sure to ask directly.

TLDR;

Here’s a summary of all the timelines that you can use as a reference.

• Website Completion & Launch:
  Within 1 month

• Website Indexed by Google:
  3 days to 2 weeks (up to 4 weeks for brand new domains)

• Directory Listings Submission:
  1 to 3 days

• Directory Approvals:
  1 to 4 weeks

• Directory Listings Indexed:
  2 to 4 weeks after approval

• Impact on Rankings from Directories:
  1 to 2 months post-indexing

• Google Business Profile Setup & Verification:
  1 to 3 days for setup, plus 3 to 7 days for verification

• Location-Specific Pages Created:
  1 to 3 days

• Location Pages Indexed:
  3 days to 2 weeks

• Ranking Improvement for Location Pages:
  1 to 3 months

• PPC Campaign Visibility:
  Immediate upon launch

• Recovery After Domain Name Change:
  4 to 6 months to recover momentum

The Bottom Line

SEO isn’t magic, but it is methodical. If you’re serious about growth, give it at least 4 to 6 months to produce real, measurable progress. Along the way, expect to see outputs like a completed website, published listings, and growing traffic.

Above all, look for the trend. Steady upward movement is the key, not just big numbers right out of the gate.

If you want help mapping out the right strategy, without having to start over every few months, let’s chat.