On-page optimizations and time?

[monkeylytics]

We're futzing around with our on-page optimizations (eg, title tags, phrase selection, h1, etc.) to see the effect (if any) on our indexed pages. There's a debate as to how long we should wait before deciding when to make a decision on what we want to go with.

For things like conversion or clickthroughs, this is relatively straightforward. But in terms of any impact on rank, how long do you usually wait for on-page optimizations to see if there's an impact? Some of our on-page optimizations worked surprisingly fast. Others were slower. So, it's tricky for us to decide when to pull the plug on the test.

Any rules of thumb that the folks here use to decide how long to wait to see the effects of on-page optimizations (particularly for a home page that is considered by Google to be something of an authority site for its niche?)

TIA

[inbound]

We had a similar task to perform recently.

Put up the changes, a week later there was a dramatic change to the positions (and traffic) for the site, in a good way.

It's been surprisingly stable since then (6 weeks) and it's only the last few weeks that we have been thinking it has 'bedded in'.

My advice would be to wait up to 4 weeks for the page to go through the mill, a sudden surge in traffic can often happen in week 1 only for it to fall away. Having said that it may be more than a week before anything happens!

It's different every time so, to some extent, you have to go with your gut feeling on when it's right to measure the effects.