How long does it usually take for SEO to be effective? In what ways can you tell that it's working

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) optimization is a method of improving a website's ranking and visibility in search engine results pages by optimizing factors such as website content, structure and links. Typically, SEO takes some time to see results, but this depends on a variety of factors, such as the level of competition on the site, the type of industry, the keywords being targeted, and so on.

Generally, SEO takes months or even longer to see results. This is because it takes time for search engines to discover and index your site's content and adjust your rankings based on your optimization. At the same time, your competitors may be optimizing for SEO as well, which can affect your rankings.

So what can you tell if SEO optimization is working?

1. Ranking Changes: You can use SEO tools to monitor changes in your rankings in search engines for your target keywords. If your rankings start to climb upwards, your SEO optimization strategy is working.
2. Traffic changes: the main purpose of SEO is to increase traffic to your website. You can use analytics tools such as Google Analytics to monitor whether there is an increase in the number of visitors to your website.
3. Conversion Rate Changes: SEO is not just about ranking for keywords, it's about attracting interested customers to your website and converting them into actual customers. If your SEO optimization strategy is working, then you should be able to see an increase in your website's conversion rate.
4. Website quality and user experience: SEO is not just about rankings, it is also about improving the quality of your website and user experience. If your SEO optimization strategy is effective, then your website quality and user experience should improve as well.

To summarize, SEO takes some time to see results, usually a few months or even longer, and requires a certain degree of patience, and stable content output. At the same time, you can monitor the ranking changes, traffic changes, conversion rate changes, as well as the quality of the site and user experience to determine whether your SEO optimization is effective. Of course, the effect of SEO is not permanent, you need to continue to optimize and improve your website.