How long should SEO take for an accountancy practice?

Ask how long SEO takes for an accountancy practice and the first page of UK results answers with a range. Whitehat SEO says ranking improvements within 90 to 120 days. Loop Digital says three to six months. Both sell SEO to accountants, and neither cites a source.

For years the range had a respectable backstop. Google's own guide to hiring an SEO said results typically took four months to a year from the first changes. That sentence is on the Internet Archive copy of 1 March 2026. It is not on the current page, last updated 5 June 2026. In its place is a question Google tells the owner to put to the SEO: what results do you expect, and in what timeframe? The timeline is no longer an industry figure an agency can point to. It is a promise about your site, and a promise can be dated.

What does Google still say about timing?

Google's remaining guidance dates individual changes, not a campaign. Its SEO starter guide says some changes take effect in a few hours and others could take several months, and suggests waiting a few weeks before assessing whether a change helped. Its core updates page warns it could take several months for its systems to learn and confirm that a page is helpful over the long term.

Our verdict on the six-to-twelve-month answer UK suppliers give: it is not wrong, it is unaccountable. A range with no dates on the practice's site leaves no point at which the partners can say the work is late.

What should a practice be able to check, and by when?

The first three stages have a Google document that bounds the wait; the fourth has only the agency's word. The dates below are what a proposal should commit to. The right column shows who stands behind each one.

The ladder only works if the practice has pages worth indexing. A site with one services page gives the agency nothing to date, which is why a page for each service line usually comes first. Start with the work the partners want more of, the same priority our accountancy practices page begins from.

Why does the January deadline move the start date?

A page meant to be found before 31 January has to be live months earlier, because every revision restarts Google's wait. HMRC's online self-assessment deadline is 31 January. If the practice wants to be found by people looking for help with a return, add the waits: weeks to be crawled and assessed, repeated after each fix.

Two rounds of that before Christmas means publishing by October. A campaign signed in November is being bought for the following January.

What should the proposal put in writing?

Four dates and one number: the stages on the ladder, and the monthly enquiries the agency expects once they are met. Wording along these lines turns a range into something the partners can check.

The months before enquiries arrive still cost money. Count them against the practice's marketing ceiling, so a slow first half-year is priced in rather than discovered.

Which timeline answers are warning signs?

Google's hiring guide says no one can guarantee a first-place ranking, and to find someone else if an SEO promises one. Treat these as reasons to look harder:

• a guaranteed position by a date
• a range with no milestone on the practice's own site
• progress reported only as rankings from the agency's own tool
• reluctance to work from the practice's Search Console property

Most of these sit in the pitch rather than the contract, which is why they belong with the other red flags worth walking away from.

When should a practice not start SEO yet?

If the practice needs new clients this quarter, SEO is the wrong tool for that need. Referrals and paid search can produce enquiries within weeks. Search work may still be worth starting, but not as the answer to a short-term gap.

Wait, too, if a rebrand or domain change is coming. Moving the site restarts much of the ladder, so do the move first. And if the team has no capacity for new clients, a timeline for enquiries is a timeline for turning them away.