Quick Summary: What to Expect
Before Starting: Detailed discovery call to understand your goals, current situation, and customize services based on your existing team and needs.
Month 1: Complete website audit (manual + tools like SEMrush), fix technical SEO issues, optimize site speed and UI/UX. All changes require your approval first.
Month 1-2: In-depth keyword research with a strategic mix of long-tail keywords (faster results) and short-tail keywords (6-8 months timeline). Deep competitor analysis to identify what’s working in your industry and find gaps to exploit.
Month 2-3: On-page SEO optimization—meta tags, content, images, competitor analysis. Timeline varies: 1 month for small sites, up to 3 months for larger websites.
Month 2-3: Content strategy development, blog topic finalization, and beginning weekly blog posting (or more based on budget).
Month 3: Link building begins—profile creation, competitor link analysis, and guest posting.
Reality Check: After 3 months, your site will be fully optimized, but guaranteed rankings? Anyone promising that is either lying or has a magic wand. Real SEO results take time.
I’ve been in the SEO game for more than 8 years now. I’ve seen agencies come and go, watched Google algorithms shake entire industries overnight, and helped hundreds of businesses navigate the murky waters of digital marketing. If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: the first three months of working with an SEO agency will either build the foundation for lasting success or leave you frustrated and confused.
So let me walk you through exactly what those first 90 days should look like-the honest version, not the sales pitch.
Before We Even Start: The Discovery Call
Here’s something most agencies won’t tell you: the work begins before the contract is signed. When we onboard a new client, we don’t just jump into keyword research or start tweaking meta tags. We sit down-virtually or in person-and have a real conversation.
We discuss your current website situation in detail. Where’s the traffic coming from now? What’s converting and what isn’t? What are your actual business goals-not just “more traffic” but real, measurable outcomes? We talk about expectations, and I’ll be honest, this is where I sometimes have to deliver news clients don’t want to hear.
We also figure out the logistics. Many brands already have content writers or developers on their team. That’s great! We’re not here to replace your people. We customize our services based on what you actually need. Maybe you need end-to-end SEO management, or maybe you just need strategic guidance while your team handles execution. Either way, the pricing structure reflects exactly what we’re bringing to the table.
Takeaway: If an agency doesn’t ask detailed questions about your business before quoting you, that’s a red flag. Good SEO is customized SEO.
Month 1: The Deep Dive (Website Audit & Technical Foundation)
The first month is about understanding what we’re working with. Think of it like a doctor’s examination before prescribing treatment.
The Complete Website Audit
We don’t just run your site through some automated tool and call it a day. Yes, we use professional tools like SEMrush-they’re invaluable for data analysis. But we also conduct manual audits. Automated tools miss context. They can’t tell if your homepage messaging is confusing to humans, or if your navigation makes sense for your actual customers.
During this phase, we’re looking at everything: site speed (a ranking factor that most businesses ignore until it costs them), UI/UX issues that might be driving visitors away, technical SEO problems like broken links, duplicate content, crawl errors, and indexing issues. If something’s broken, we find it.
Nothing Happens Without Your Approval
Here’s something I feel strongly about: we don’t make changes to your website without your explicit approval. Ever. This isn’t just professional courtesy-it’s practical. You know your business better than we do. Sometimes what looks like a simple change to us could have implications we’re not aware of.
More importantly, keeping you in the loop means no surprises. You’ll always know what’s happening on your website and why. If you have concerns about any recommended change, we want to hear them before implementation, not after.
Month 1-2: Keyword Research, Competitor Analysis & Strategy Development
Once we understand your website’s technical health, we move into the strategic phase. This is where we figure out exactly how to position you for success in your market.
Deep Dive Competitor Analysis
Here’s the thing about SEO: you’re not operating in a vacuum. Your competitors are already out there, ranking for keywords you want, attracting customers you need. Understanding what they’re doing-and more importantly, what they’re doing well-is critical to building a winning strategy.
We conduct thorough competitor analysis to answer key questions: Who’s currently dominating the search results in your industry? What keywords are they ranking for that you’re missing? What content strategies are driving their organic traffic? Where are they getting their backlinks from? And perhaps most importantly-where are the gaps they’ve left open that we can exploit?
This isn’t about copying your competitors. It’s about learning from the market, understanding what Google is already rewarding in your industry, and then doing it better. We look at their content depth, their site structure, their link profiles, and their overall digital presence. Every competitor’s weakness is an opportunity for you.
We also identify strategies that are working well for them-things we can adapt and improve upon for your brand. Why reinvent the wheel when you can learn from what’s already proven to work, then add your own unique value on top?
The Long-Tail and Short-Tail Balance
With competitor insights in hand, we move into keyword research. This is the compass that guides everything else, and experience really matters here. We don’t just go after the biggest, most competitive keywords in your industry. That’s a recipe for frustration. Instead, we create a strategic mix of long-tail and short-tail keywords.
Long-tail keywords, more specific phrases-typically deliver results faster. Someone searching “best ergonomic office chair for back pain under $500” knows exactly what they want. That’s a buying intent search, and it’s usually less competitive.
Short-tail keywords like “office chairs” are higher volume but brutally competitive. These are marathon targets, not sprint goals. Depending on your industry’s competitiveness, ranking for these can take six to eight months-sometimes longer. Anyone who promises otherwise is either lying or planning to use tactics that will eventually hurt your site.
Keywords also inform our entire optimization strategy-they tell us where to focus, what content to create, and how to structure your site for maximum impact.
Month 2-3: On-Page SEO & Content Optimization
With our keyword strategy in place, we start the hands-on optimization work.
What On-Page SEO Actually Involves
On-page SEO is more than just sprinkling keywords around. We’re optimizing meta titles and descriptions-these are your first impression in search results. We’re improving existing content to better answer user queries and adding new content where gaps exist. Images get optimized too: proper file names, alt text, compression for faster loading.
We’re also running competitive analysis throughout this phase. What are your competitors doing well? What can we learn from their strategies? What are they missing that we can capitalize on?
Timeline Reality Check
The time required for on-page optimization varies dramatically based on your website’s size. A small business website with 20 pages? We might complete this in a month. An e-commerce site with thousands of product pages? That could take three months or more of sustained work.
This is why transparency about timelines matters. We’ll give you realistic estimates based on your specific situation, not generic promises.
Month 2-3: Content Strategy & Blog Development
Content is the fuel that keeps your SEO engine running long-term.
How We Approach Blog Topics
We finalize blog topics together. This is a collaborative process. We look at what competitors are publishing, we analyze trending topics in your industry, and yes-we use AI to help refine and enhance our topic ideas.
Now, I know some people are skeptical about AI. I get it. But here’s my perspective after 20+ years in this industry: AI has become incredibly sophisticated. Those who refuse to leverage it are already falling behind. We’re not using AI to write your content-that would be a disservice. We use it as a tool to make our topic research more thorough and our content structures more effective.
Once we have solid topics, we develop SEO-friendly and user-friendly blog structures. Then our human writers get to work, bringing expertise, personality, and genuine insight that AI simply can’t replicate.
Publishing Frequency
We typically recommend one blog post per week. Consistency matters more than volume. However, if you want to be more aggressive with content production, that’s absolutely possible-it just requires a larger budget allocation for the additional writing and optimization work.
Month 3: Link Building Begins
Backlinks remain one of Google’s most important ranking factors. By month three, once your on-page foundation is solid, we begin building your site’s authority through strategic link acquisition.
Our Link Building Approach
We start with profile creation on relevant, authoritative platforms. We analyze competitor backlink profiles to find opportunities they’ve discovered. And we pursue guest posting opportunities on quality sites in your industry.
Link building is an ongoing process, not a one-time task. It requires consistent effort and relationship building over time.
What You Should NOT Expect at 3 Months
Let me be brutally honest here: if anyone guarantees you specific results after three months of SEO work, they’re either lying or they have some kind of magic wand I haven’t encountered in my two decades of doing this.
After three months, what we can confidently say is this: your website has been fully optimized. The technical issues have been resolved. The content strategy is in motion. The foundation is built.
But SEO results-real, sustainable results-take time. Google needs to crawl your site, index your changes, and observe how users interact with your improved content. Rankings don’t shift overnight. The seeds we plant in months one through three take time to grow.
What you might see after three months: improvements in crawlability and indexing, some movement in rankings for less competitive keywords, better user engagement metrics if we’ve improved UX, and a clear roadmap for the months ahead.
What you probably won’t see: first-page rankings for your most competitive keywords. That’s months four through twelve territory, and sometimes longer.
The Bottom Line
Working with an SEO agency is a partnership, not a transaction. The first three months are about laying groundwork: understanding your business, fixing technical issues, developing strategy, optimizing content, and beginning the long-term work of building authority.
If you go into this expecting overnight miracles, you’ll be disappointed. If you understand that SEO is a marathon requiring patience, consistent effort, and strategic thinking, you’ll be positioned for success.
The agencies worth working with will be honest about timelines, transparent about their processes, and focused on building real, lasting value for your business. That’s what the first three months should feel like-not a black box of mystery work, but a collaborative effort where you’re informed and involved every step of the way.
About the Author: Darmaan Singh Rawat
With over 8 years in digital marketing and SEO, I’ve helped businesses of all sizes build their online presence the right way-with honesty, strategy, and a focus on sustainable growth.
