How Long Does It Take for a Blog to Show Up and Rank on Google?
If there is one question that every new blog owner and website owner asks is that how long it is going take for their blog to show up on Google. In other words, how long does it take for a blog or a website to rank on Google?
Sadly, there is not a definitive answer to that question. There a lot of factors that Google considers when ranking a website, there is an entire industry built around optimising website content for search engines. A recent study suggest that it takes 2-4 months for only 5.7% of new blogs to show up and rank on Google. They are the lucky ones. What about the rest?
It seems that the actual time to rank can vary from as soon as a few hours to literally never showing up on Google.
The Difference Between Indexing & Ranking
We must distinguish two terms here.
Indexing
For your new website to be found by Google takes about 4 days to 4 weeks. In my experience, it takes about 8-10 days give or take 2 days for Google to find my new websites naturally.
This is called Indexing.
You can make this process faster (if you’d like to) by creating a Google account, and tell Google that you have a new blog or website. You can do this through Google Analytics and Google Search Console.
Other search engines like Bing, Yahoo, Yandex etc. will do the same as Google, they have their own robots crawling new websites all the time.
Ranking
If Google was a library, this new book (your website) would be given an reference number by the librarian. This, sadly, does not mean that the new book will be put on the shelf, or read by visitors. Nobody yet knows what the book is about. There may be a title that suggests something, but the new website is like the cover page of the book. You need to fill it up with content, so that Google can start reading it. As you add more chapters (=content), Google will be able to understand what the book – your blog – is about so that at least it can put it on the right shelf.
Still no-one knows its there. But if the content is plenty and useful, Google will start suggesting it to people who have expressed interest in similar topics. After a long time (and a lot of people reading the book) people will come and look for the exact title of your book.
I hope you get the analogy. This is how – in layman’s terms – Google ranks a new website.
Now you can see that this is a lengthy process, but as your site grows older (more chapters are being added to the book, better understood by our great librarian), new content will rank more easily.
Rank for target keywords
Normally, if you follow any training or advice on how to rank on Google, you target a keyword with your post. Ideally, you’d like to rank high for that keyword, you do all your SEO and you write a great piece of content.
As it happens, you may never rank for that keyword. On the other hand, you may rank for a dozen others that you did not think you’d rank for.
It’s because Google looks at your content, tries to understand the context and will show it to people, almost randomly to see who’s interested. (More on this in this article). I know it sounds very ‘unprofessional’, but based on my experience this is what it feels like…
How long does take to rank then? – What data shows us
There are two studies that I’d like to highlight, one by Neil Patel and one by Ahrefs.
Neil Patel’s take on a data driven study (link here) talks a lot about link-building for some reason, but I was more interested in the actual outcome of their study then his sales pitch. It suggests, that – on average – it takes 3 months for a new blogpost to show up on Google. He defined ‘showing up’ as being shown on the first two pages of a search result.
Okay, that’s one take. Ahref carried out a study too, and they found that websites on Google Page 1 got there within 2-6 months.
Close enough…
On the other hand, the Ahref study showed that only 5.7% of new blogposts / websites ranked on Google, the rest never appeared on the first two pages…So the 2-6 months only applies to this 5.7% of new content.
It does not say however, if they look at pages ranking for the keywords they targeted, or ANY KEYWORD.
They also found that the speed of ranking correlates with how strong the domain is, in other words, how much Google trusts you. This trust builds up of various elements, such as the authority, age, audience (number and loyality) etc.
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What real life teaches us
What none of these studies highlighted is what SEO techniques put those sites on top of the SERP, if any.
Neil Patel suggested link-building, because domain strength influenced the speed of ranking (and also, he has a course to sell).
But actually, anyone can rank without link-building, without any in-depth knowledge on SEO.
All you need is an easy keyword to rank for, and an established domain/brand (Ie, if you abandon your new site, you will never see if it would have ranked)
If, added to this, you have a big and loyal audience, that generates immediate traffic and a cool piece of content, that is worth ranking then you will fly on top of the SERP in hours.
So, as it seems, it takes a lot of time and work (ie creating content, building up an audience) to rank on Google fast.
Learn how to rank fast on Google
I am far from being an SEO expert, in fact, I know very little about SEO. Everything I know I learnt through a free training course, creating websites, and see what happens when I put out (I’d like to think) good quality content.
So, is it possible for a new website or a blog to rank on Google?
Absolutely yes. At first, it may be for a different keyword to what you hoped for, but creating quality, comprehensive content will be followed by ranking in Google.
Related post: Where To Find Keywords For Blogging – Endless Source of Ideas
Related post: 7 Proven Ways to Get More Visitors to Your Website (Free Methods)
How fast is it for a new website to rank on Google?
Some of my posts are still not ranked, or slowly crawling up the ladder. Others ranked in a day.
Where can You learn how to rank?
I recommend my article on How to Get on Google Page One. As for training, you can find the courses (free and paid) that I recommend under the Resources tab.
Related post: Where can you learn affiliate marketing for free?
Tell me about you experience! Do you struggle ranking or did you land on Page 1 instantly?
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