After reviewing 200+ SEO accounts, SEO National found long-running partnerships come from patient teams that trust the process and avoid constant changes.

(PRUnderground) February 23rd, 2026

SEO National, a Utah-based search engine optimization agency founded by SEO marketing expert Damon Burton, is sharing new insights from an internal analysis of average retention trends across more than 200 SEO accounts. The review compared average retention lengths (in months) across industries to better understand where long-term partnerships most often occur and what those partnerships have in common.

The retention review surfaced a wide spread in average campaign longevity. Based on the national SEO service’s collected data, the automotive industry showed the longest average retention at 82.2 months. Following that were the Sports (68), Local (65), and Food & Beverage (62.5) industries. Several other categories clustered in the mid-range, including Industrial (49) and Professional Services (48.1), while Legal services averaged 35 months and Real Estate 22.2 months. At the lower end of the dataset, industry categories such as Community (15) and Coaching (17.2) reflected shorter average retention windows.

According to SEO National, the takeaway was not that particular industries are “better” or “worse” fits for SEO. Instead, the firm observed that the strongest retention outcomes often trace back to a common point-of-contact mindset more prevalent in certain verticals: staying patient long enough for compounding gains to materialize, while remaining responsive when the SEO team needs input to remove friction.

Burton has long emphasized that SEO timelines are frequently misunderstood because early progress does not always look like immediate revenue. Rankings tend to move in stages, climbing gradually before reaching the visibility threshold where meaningful traffic and conversions become consistent. This is especially true in enterprise SEO services, where larger sites, more stakeholders, and broader keyword sets often require more time to build durable momentum. As a result, campaigns with the best outcomes tend to fit organizations that can separate early performance indicators (technical improvements, indexing stability, ranking movement) from later-stage monetization outcomes.

“That retention analysis reinforced something that shows up in nearly every successful campaign,” said Burton. “The best-performing partners stay patient through the runway period, trust the plan, and avoid pivoting the strategy in a new direction every time a competitor publishes a new blog post or an algorithm update hits the news.”

SEO National noted that “getting out of the way” does not mean being hands-off. The most stable partnerships typically involve a clear decision-maker who trusts the SEO process, approves needed changes on time, and responds quickly when information is required.

The firm plans to use the retention insights to better set expectations during early discovery conversations and to help organizations self-select into SEO engagements with realistic runway planning. For more information about SEO National and its search engine optimization services, visit SEONational.com.

About SEO National

SEO National is a search engine optimization company north of Salt Lake City, Utah. This SEO company offers affordable, effective search engine optimization with a refreshingly personal approach to communicating with their online marketing customers.

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Original Press Release.