Insights Case study
The First 90 Days of SEO: What Early Results Look Like
Keywords in Google’s top 100 went from 9 to 208 in 90 days for one medical client. Here is what early SEO results look like and how to read them.
The short version: SEO is a long game, but the first 90 days should still show measurable movement. For one national medical client, the number of keywords ranking in Google’s top 100 went from 9 to 208 in the first three months, and keywords on page one went from 1 to 24.
Client A: national medical practice
This client came to COUR Digital with very little search visibility. Here is how its keyword rankings changed during the first quarter of SEO and content work (source: Semrush).
| Ranking range | Before | After 90 days |
|---|---|---|
| Top 100 (pages 1 to 10) | 9 keywords | 208 keywords |
| Top 30 (pages 1 to 3) | 2 keywords | 64 keywords |
| Top 10 (page 1) | 1 keyword | 24 keywords |
Client B: medical practice, first quarter vs. the quarter before
For a second medical client, we compared the three months before SEO began with the first three months of the engagement in Google Analytics.
| Metric | Change |
|---|---|
| Organic users | +12.7% |
| New organic users | +21.6% |
| Organic sessions | +28.3% |
How to read early SEO results
Rankings move before traffic does. A keyword that climbs from position 80 to position 25 sends almost no visitors yet, but it shows Google is beginning to trust the page, and the bigger traffic gains usually arrive once a cluster of those keywords reaches page one. That is why we report on three layers in the first quarter:
- Visibility, meaning keyword counts by ranking range and search impressions
- Traffic, meaning organic users, new users, and sessions compared with the period before
- Conversions, meaning calls, forms, and booked consultations attributed to organic search
Expect the first layer to move within weeks, the second within a few months, and the third to build steadily from there. For a picture of where that leads over several years, see our six-year case study, in which one practice grew to 650,845 organic visitors a year.
Client names withheld for confidentiality.
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If your practice serves families during some of the most important decisions of their lives, Samantha would love to hear what you are building and where your marketing could serve them better.