The short answer is that it takes between three and six months to rank on Google for keywords of moderate difficulty. It can also take significantly longer to rank on the first page of Google for competitive keywords or if your website is relatively young.
You should take this only as a very general ballpark, as there are many factors that will have a significant effect on how quickly you can get your pages to rank.
Why It’s Hard to Say How Long It Takes to Rank on Google?
To say that the Google algorithm is an understatement. It is so massive, in fact, that even Google engineers don’t know exactly what is in it.
The algorithm is so huge and considers so many different aspects of your website that there are at least 200 known ranking factors out there. That means that every single one of these factors will affect how quickly your page can rank for a specific keyword.
Some of the Top Factors are:
- Competition. The quality and quantity of the pages ranking on the first page will undoubtedly affect how fast you can break-in.
- Website Ttraffic. Websites that already have a lot of traffic have a much easier time cracking the first page.
- Domain Age. Old domains tend to rank quicker than newer domains.
- Referring Domains. Having an extensive portfolio of high-authority referring domains will improve your chances of ranking quickly.
- Keyword Relevance. How relevant a keyword is to the niche of your website will also play an important role. In other words, a tech website will have a hard time ranking for cooking keywords and vice-versa.
As you can see, there are many factors that affect how quickly you can rank a site. As you can see, some of these factors are entirely out of your hands. However, there are many things that you can do today to help your site rank faster.
Steps to Take To Make Your Pages Rank Faster
Most of these steps require incremental work to be effective. In other words, you can’t just do everything in one day and expect to see results overnight. The key part of SEO is being consistent, so if you follow these tips on a consistent basis, you should eventually start ranking faster.
Grow Your Content
Bigger sites have an easier time ranking, especially if the content revolves around a specific niche or category. By publishing a lot of content, you will establish your website as a subject matter authority.
Build High-Quality Links
When it comes to link building, quality always tops quantity. You should focus on building links from authoritative sources only in order to increase your backlink portfolio. Google will have an easier time trusting sites with solid backlinks.
Choose the Right Keywords to Target
You cannot launch a new site tomorrow and expect it to rank for hyper-competitive keywords. You need to be realistic about which keywords are within the realm of possibilities for your site.
Doing keyword research is essential for identifying which keywords you should go for first. Once you’re ranking for easier keywords and getting some organic traffic, you can move on to more competitive search terms.
Key Takeaways
If you’re looking for a very broad approximation, then you could say that it takes three to six months to rank on the first page of Google. However, there are many factors that could make your page rank in as little as a week or in well over a year.
If you’d like help ranking on the first page of Google faster, contact Auxilium Technology to see how we can help. We are a full-service digital marketing agency that has years of experience in SEO. Call us today at 301-519-9622 to get started.
