How long does SEO take to work?
Local results usually start moving in one to three months. Competitive keywords take six or more. Anyone promising page one in two weeks is selling something.
Why it takes time
Google has to crawl the changes, decide it trusts them, and then compare you against businesses that have been at it for years. New pages on a small site can sit unnoticed for weeks until they are submitted and requested. Reviews come in one at a time. None of it is instant.
What moves first
The map listing. Fixing the category, filling in services, and getting a few new reviews can change where you show up on the map within weeks, especially for searches close to home.
What moves slower
Ranking for a town you do not have an address in, or for a keyword where a competitor has a 20-year-old site and a hundred reviews. That is months of pages, reviews, and steady work, and it is honest to say so up front.
How I report it
You get the same map scan every month across a grid of points in your service area, so you can see the map turn from red to green over time. I report the numbers Google gives, calls and direction requests from your profile, and nothing invented. If something is not moving, the report says so and says what changes next.
Want this checked on your site?
Send me your website address and I will write up what is broken and what it would take to fix. Free, no pressure.
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