I often get this question, or some variation on it, from prospective clients. One of the more popular ones is “When will I be on the first page on Google?”. They want a hard, as exact as possible, number of days plus a set cost that will take them to this promised land of search engine dominance.
It’s understandable that they would want something they can count on. Unfortunately, it’s not possible to give an honest answer.
I wish I could tell them when the site is “ready”. There’s no point where an optimizer can truthfully say that their site has been optimized enough and will now rise to the top.
There is no formula for search engine rankings. You must keep working, because once you do make gains, you still need to maintain them.
Do not be fooled by any SEO who tells you that once they get x number of links, your site is ready. There’s no number, outside of ‘more than you have now’, that can be recommended.
At least with any integrity. Your goal for getting your site set up should be to get as much done as possible. No one, not even the best of us, can say what/how much exactly produces top rank positions.
An SEO can only say that they will get you so many links and do so many hours on the site. Or something to that effect.
If you’re getting promises of a package that guarantees being #1 on Google, turn it down and look elsewhere.