A numerical analysis for the mass loading sensitivity of shear horizontal surface acoustic wave (SH-SAW) immunoassay biosensors on quartz has already been studied. However, the mass loading analysis is insufficient to explain the actual biosensor performance. To understand the SH-SAW biosensor performance, we analyze the effect of a viscoelastic film on SH-SAW biosensors. In this paper, a numerical analysis using a simple viscoelastic model for the SH-SAW biosensors is presented. In the theoretical model, the bioreaction layer on the SH-SAW biosensors can be treated as a viscoelastic film. The velocity changes of the 250 MHz SH-SAWs on quartz substrates, which are covered with bovine serum albumin (BSA) layers of different thicknesses, were measured and compared with the theoretical results obtained using the proposed viscoelastic model. Good agreement of the velocity changes of SH-SAWs versus changes in the viscoelastic film thickness between theoretical and experimental results was obtained.