{"id":2927,"date":"2025-05-15T13:21:29","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:21:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google-and-how-old-are-top-ranking-pages\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T13:21:29","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:21:29","slug":"how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google-and-how-old-are-top-ranking-pages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google-and-how-old-are-top-ranking-pages\/","title":{"rendered":"How Long Does It Take to Rank in Google? And How Old Are Top Ranking Pages?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div class=\"intro-txt\">Back in 2017, we conducted a <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank\/\">study<\/a> to answer a simple yet important question: How old are the top-ranking pages in Google? The results were eye-opening and became one of our most-referenced data studies.<\/div>\n<p>Clients and stakeholders often ask, \u201cHow long till my website (page) ranks <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-to-get-on-top-of-google-search\/\">on top of Google<\/a>?\u201d You could say \u201cit depends\u201d and give a lecture on all the variables like quality of the content, website strength, resources, competition\u2026 or you can use the data\u00a0below.<\/p>\n<p>I want to give a huge thanks to our data scientist <a href=\"https:\/\/sg.linkedin.com\/in\/xibeijia-guan\">Xibeijia Guan<\/a> for doing all the hard data parts of this study, and to our CMO <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/author\/tim-soulo\/\">Tim Soulo<\/a> for his input. Let\u2019s dig\u00a0in.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Only <strong>1.74% of newly published pages<\/strong> rank in the top 10 within a year (down from <a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank\/\">5.7% in 2017<\/a>).<\/li>\n<li>40.82% of pages that ranked in the top 10 did so <strong>within 1 month<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It can take <strong>less time to rank for high-volume keywords<\/strong> now compared to\u00a02017.<\/li>\n<li>It takes longer to rank for <strong>high-volume keywords<\/strong> than low-volume ones.<\/li>\n<li>72.9% of pages in Google\u2019s top 10 are <strong>more than 3 years old<\/strong> (up from 59% in\u00a02017).<\/li>\n<li>The average #1 ranking page is <strong>5 years old<\/strong> (up from 2 years old in\u00a02017).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How long does it take to rank in Google?\" data-section=\"how-long-to-rank\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-187759-_1fob9te\"\/>How long does it take to rank in Google?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>We took 1M random URLs seen by our crawler in September 2023 and looked if any of them made it to the top 10 within a\u00a0year.<\/p>\n<p>Only 1.74% of them did. 98.26% of them did not. That\u2019s way down from 5.7% in\u00a02017.<\/p>\n<p>Filtering a different way and looking at 2M random URLs created in October 2023 and only non-empty English content, 6.11% of them made it to the top 10 within 1 year. This might be a more fair number to\u00a0use.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1567\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-many-pages-rank-in-the-top-10-within-1-year-1.png\" alt=\"How many pages rank in the top 10 within 1 year\" class=\"wp-image-187760\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-many-pages-rank-in-the-top-10-within-1-year-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-many-pages-rank-in-the-top-10-within-1-year-1-434x425.png 434w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-many-pages-rank-in-the-top-10-within-1-year-1-768x752.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-many-pages-rank-in-the-top-10-within-1-year-1-1536x1504.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>If a page was going to rank for a higher search volume term, it was more likely to do it in the 1st month. Lower search volume terms were more evenly distributed.\u00a0<noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1700\" height=\"1733\" class=\"wp-image-187761\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1.png\" alt=\"ranking distribution of high vs low search volume groups by age\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1.png 1700w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1-417x425.png 417w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1-768x783.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1-1507x1536.png 1507w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1700px) 100vw, 1700px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1700\" height=\"1733\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-187761\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1.png\" alt=\"ranking distribution of high vs low search volume groups by age\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1.png 1700w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1-417x425.png 417w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1-768x783.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/ranking-distribution-of-high-vs-low-search-volume-1-1507x1536.png 1507w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1700px) 100vw, 1700px\"\/><\/p>\n<p>After ~6 months, you may want to look at updating your content if you\u2019re still not in the top 10. Your chances are pretty low after that unless you make some changes.<\/p>\n<p>If we look at the shortest amount of time it took for these pages to rank in the top 10, the data shows it takes longer to rank for high-volume keywords compared to low-volume keywords.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1583\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1.png\" alt=\"boxplot of time to rank by high and low search volumes\" class=\"wp-image-187762\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-430x425.png 430w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-768x760.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-1536x1520.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-120x120.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1583\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1.png\" alt=\"boxplot of time to rank by high and low search volumes\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-187762\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-430x425.png 430w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-768x760.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-1536x1520.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/boxplot-of-time-to-rank-by-high-and-low-search-vol-1-120x120.png 120w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Interestingly, it\u2019s faster now to rank for high volume keywords than it was in 2017, but keep in mind that 94% of the pages never actually ranked for high volume keywords at\u00a0all.<\/p>\n<div class=\"post-nav-link clearfix\" id=\"section1\"><a class=\"subhead-anchor\" data-tip=\"tooltip__copielink\" rel=\"#section1\"><svg width=\"19\" height=\"19\" viewbox=\"0 0 14 14\" style=\"\"><g fill=\"none\" fill-rule=\"evenodd\"><path d=\"M0 0h14v14H0z\"\/><path d=\"M7.45 9.887l-1.62 1.621c-.92.92-2.418.92-3.338 0a2.364 2.364 0 0 1 0-3.339l1.62-1.62-1.273-1.272-1.62 1.62a4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.885 5.884l1.62-1.62L7.45 9.886zM5.527 5.135L7.17 3.492c.92-.92 2.418-.92 3.339 0 .92.92.92 2.418 0 3.339L8.866 8.473l1.272 1.273 1.644-1.643A4.161 4.161 0 1 0 5.897 2.22L4.254 3.863l1.272 1.272zm-.66 3.998a.749.749 0 0 1 0-1.06l2.208-2.206a.749.749 0 1 1 1.06 1.06L5.928 9.133a.75.75 0 0 1-1.061 0z\" style=\"\"\/><\/g><\/svg><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"link-text\" data-anchor=\"How old are the top-ranking pages?\" data-section=\"how-old-top-pages\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-187759-_3znysh7\"\/>How old are the top-ranking pages?<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>To answer this question we took 1.3 million random keywords (in the US) and looked at the top 10 ranking URLs. We looked up each of those URLs in Ahrefs, to find the date when this URL was first seen by Ahrefs crawler.<\/p>\n<p>The SERPs are dominated by older pages. 72.9% of pages in the Top 10 are more than 3 years old vs 59% in\u00a02017.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1583\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1.png\" alt=\"age of pages ranking in Google's top 10 results\" class=\"wp-image-187763\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-430x425.png 430w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-768x760.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-1536x1520.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-120x120.png 120w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1600\" height=\"1583\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1.png\" alt=\"age of pages ranking in Google's top 10 results\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-187763\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1.png 1600w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-430x425.png 430w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-768x760.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-1536x1520.png 1536w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/age-of-pages-ranking-in-googles-top-10-results-1-120x120.png 120w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>13.7% of the pages seen in the top 10 were under 1 year old, which is down from 22% in the 2017 study. It seems it may be harder for new pages to break into the top 10, but some of the difference here could just be due to the sampled data.<\/p>\n<p>We also saw a clear correlation between the age of the page and how high it ranks in Google:<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1940\" height=\"1423\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1.png\" alt=\"how old are top ranking pages\" class=\"wp-image-187764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1.png 1940w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1-579x425.png 579w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1-768x563.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1-1536x1127.png 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1940px) 100vw, 1940px\"\/><\/noscript><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"1940\" height=\"1423\" src=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1.png\" alt=\"how old are top ranking pages\" class=\"lazyload wp-image-187764\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1.png 1940w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1-579x425.png 579w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1-768x563.png 768w, https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/how-old-are-top-ranking-pages-1-1536x1127.png 1536w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1940px) 100vw, 1940px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>On average, the #1 ranking page in Google is 5 years old. Back in 2017, this was just 2 years\u00a0old.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a id=\"post-187759-_2et92p0\"\/>Final thoughts<\/h2>\n<p>Older content dominates. If you want to rank in Google\u2019s top 10, focus on creating evergreen content that can stand the test of time and plan to update it. It likely took a lot of effort for the 1.74% of new pages ranking in the top 10 to get there. Don\u2019t expect to put out mediocre content and rank for competitive terms.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)\nif(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod?n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window,document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');fbq('init','1511271639109289');fbq('track','PageView');<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/ahrefs.com\/blog\/how-long-does-it-take-to-rank-in-google-and-how-old-are-top-ranking-pages\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Back in 2017, we conducted a study to answer a simple yet important question: How old are the top-ranking pages in Google? The results were eye-opening and became one of our most-referenced data studies. Clients and stakeholders often ask, \u201cHow long till my website (page) ranks on top of Google?\u201d You could say \u201cit depends\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2928,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-seo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewebtoolz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}