{"id":2054,"slug":"content-seo-realistic-timelines","title":"Content/SEO realistic timelines — 3-6 months meaningful, 6-12+ months significant","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["content-seo-timelines"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Practitioner consensus (Search Engine Land; large expert surveys) converges on:\n\n- **3-6 months** for meaningful movement.\n- **6-12 months** for significant results.\n- **Compounding thereafter.**\n- Local content can move faster (1-3 months) because competition is thinner.\n\nCorroborated by Google's former spokesperson Maile Ohye (\"four months to a year\") and John Mueller.\n\n**Source:** Practitioner consensus; Google spokespeople.\n\n**Confidence:** Industry-consensus.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** When the widget recommends Tier 2 content work, bake the 6-12 month window into the output so owners interpret \"moderate difficulty\" as \"long climb\" rather than \"impossible.\"","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-difficulty-to-work-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget difficulty-to-work mapping — three tiers of work for three sizes of gap (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"tier-2-findability-and-trust","title":"Tier 2 — Findability + trust infrastructure (MODERATE GAP)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"},{"slug":"rule-honest-timelines-and-base-rates","title":"Rule — Attach honest timelines and base rates to every tier recommendation","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:02.704Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:02.704Z"}