6-12 months for meaningful rankings on mid-competition queries, 12-24 months for revenue-grade organic traffic. Financial services is the slowest vertical due to YMYL scrutiny.
Realistic timeline
- Month 1-3: foundation (technical, content audit, E-E-A-T) - Month 4-6: first rankings on long-tail - Month 6-12: mid-competition keywords - Month 12-24: commercial terms (CPL-reducing traffic)
Why slower than other verticals
YMYL trust signals (authors, credentials, citations) take time to accumulate; Google is deliberately conservative here.