Evaluate AEO in stages rather than expecting a fixed date for citations or revenue. Technical corrections and published content can be checked immediately, but discovery, indexing, and changes in answer selection may take longer. Established pages and new websites have different starting points. Competitor agencies publish timelines ranging from weeks to months, but those estimates do not establish a guaranteed schedule for your business.
A practical approach is to use an initial 90-day period as a management checkpoint, not a promised results window. Review whether agreed changes shipped, whether important pages are accessible, and whether repeated observations show movement on relevant questions. Then examine leads and conversions over a period appropriate to your sales cycle. Extend, revise, or stop the program based on evidence and implementation quality rather than waiting indefinitely for a vague promise.