⚡ TL;DR
SEO timeline: fixes in month 1, early movement 60-90 days, compounding by month 6. Track impressions and calls, not just ranks.
Month one is detective work: crawl errors, slow templates, missing titles, and a keyword map. Months two and three are fixes plus one or two strong pages. Most sites see first meaningful movement around day 60–90 — not floods, but direction.
Months four to six compound: internal links settle, supporting posts get indexed, and a few terms stick on page one. Competitive cities and niches (legal, dental, roofing) take longer because everyone is investing.
Ask your agency for leading indicators, not just rankings: pages indexed, impressions for target terms, calls from organic. If those climb, rankings usually follow.
Want this done for you?
Get a free audit of your site + rankings.
A 5-minute video: what slows you down, what confuses Google, and the 3 fixes with the biggest payoff. Reply within 24 hours.
Keep reading
More practical guides, zero jargon.