How long does AEO take?
The technical work, fixing structure, adding schema, rewriting content, can often happen within days to a few weeks. Seeing it actually move the needle, more visibility in AI answers and search, usually takes two to four months, sometimes longer.
That gap exists because search engines and AI systems need time to re-crawl your site, reprocess the changes, and build enough confidence in them to change what they say about your business. That part isn't something anyone can speed up by working harder.
Why the delay isn't really about you
Once a page changes, it doesn't update everywhere that reads it instantly. Search engines re-crawl on their own schedule, not yours. AI tools that rely partly on training data won't reflect a change until their next update cycle, whenever that happens to be. Directory listings and other sources that mention your business update on their own timelines too.
None of that is a reflection of how good the actual fix was. It's just how long it takes information to propagate through systems you don't control.
What speeds things up
Doing the real work properly the first time, rather than a half-fix that needs revisiting. Getting the structure and content changes right together instead of piecemeal. And consistency: the same accurate information across your site, your Google Business Profile and the directories that matter, so there's nothing contradictory for a system to hesitate over.
None of that guarantees a faster result. It just removes the reasons it would be slower than it needs to be.
What to actually expect, roughly
In the first couple of weeks: the structural and content work itself, the part that's actually within anyone's control.
Around one to two months in: search engines and AI tools have generally had a chance to re-crawl the changes, though you may not see much visible difference yet.
From two to four months: this is where real, visible movement usually starts showing up, if it's going to.
Past four months, with Diagnostics running: ongoing tightening rather than a single big fix, because AEO isn't a one-off project any more than SEO ever was.
Why "we guarantee results in a week" is a red flag
Nobody controls how fast Google, ChatGPT or any other AI tool updates what they know about your business. A guarantee on that timeline is a guarantee about someone else's system. Treat it the way you'd treat any promise about something outside the person's actual control.
Found a few things worth fixing?
SORTED is the six-step engagement that fixes what's holding your site back, done in order, with a straight answer at each one.