How long does an SEO company take to create a strategy?
It depends on how much the strategy has to decide and how ready the inputs are, so no general figure applies. The strategy comes after the audit and research and before the work begins, and it turns what the company has found into decisions: what to do first, what to leave, and how progress will be measured. A small site with one service and clear goals needs fewer decisions than a large site with several product lines, locations, or markets. Ask for a written estimate that names the decisions the strategy will contain, and for the work it depends on, such as the completion of the audit and research.
What the strategy has to decide
Google’s guide to hiring an SEO lists the services an SEO can provide, including “Review of your site content or structure”; “Technical advice on website development”; “Content development”; “Keyword research”; “SEO training”; “Expertise in specific markets and geographies”; and “Optimizing for generative AI”. A strategy decides which of these your engagement needs, in what order, and at what depth.
In practice that means choosing which searches and topics to target and which page will answer each, which technical fixes come first, what content to create or rewrite, how the site’s structure and internal links should change, and what will be measured to show progress. Each decision takes longer as the number of pages, services, and markets grows.
What it depends on
The strategy rests on work that comes before it. If the audit, keyword research, and competitor review are complete, the strategy is mostly a matter of judgment and ordering. If any of them are still in progress, the strategy waits for them.
It also depends on your input. Clear answers about which services matter most, which areas you serve, what you can and cannot offer, and what counts as success shorten the process. Unclear or changing goals lengthen it, because each change can reorder the plan.
Each review round adds time: a draft reviewed by the company, presented to you, and revised after feedback takes longer than a single pass, and approval on your side by several people adds more. This time can be worth spending, because a strategy you have questioned is one you can hold the company to.
Getting the contents and the date in writing
Ask the company to state in writing what the strategy document will contain, what it needs from you and by when, how many review rounds are included, and the date it expects to deliver. Ask whether the strategy will include a measurement plan, because a strategy without one cannot be checked later. A short timeline with a thin document is not a saving; a strategy that names its priorities, its reasons, and its measures is the one worth waiting for.