This is a popular question, which is sort of a shame, because there’s no easy answer. Part of the problem comes from the fact that no two people are ever going to agree on what “working” means. To one, it might mean a double in traffic to their site; for another, it could mean an increase in sales, or a first page ranking on Google.
With that in mind, the best any search engine partner can do is offer a few guidelines and set some concrete targets. Keep in mind, however, that this is the ultimate case for pointing out that “your mileage may vary.” If you are working with a very tightly-defined list of keywords and phrases, and in an industry with little or no competition, you might be able to reach one of the first few positions on Google, Yahoo, and Bing very quickly.
On the other hand, if you’re trying to compete in high-traffic keyword, like “website” or “laptop computer,” for instance, expect that it’s going to take considerably longer.
To answer the original question, however, here are a few things to consider: for a brand new website, it might take 3-4 weeks to be indexed and appear in search engines at all. In fact, it might not even come up for keywords; the only way to know it’s been indexed will be to search for the URL in Google or one of the other major engines.
From there, it’s not uncommon for 3-6 months to pass before an SEO campaign shows substantial results, and even longer for competitive key phrases. Believe it or not, there’s actually some good news in there: since most marketers don’t have the patience to wait that long, you may find that the competition gives up easily – if you can hang in there, you can make up ground pretty quickly.
