What happens in the first six months
Nothing you can see. Coverage accumulates, entity signals settle, and a few early citations appear. Branded search barely moves. Most brands quit here.
The useful measure in this phase is output consistency rather than outcome.
Months six to twelve
Branded search starts rising. Non-brand rankings improve without you having done much new SEO. AI assistants begin naming you occasionally.
This is when the compounding becomes visible and it is also when brands wrongly conclude the earlier work was wasted.
Beyond twelve months
Authority starts doing work for free. New pages rank faster, journalists come to you, and your name appears in category answers without prompting. The cost per unit of visibility falls sharply.