It can be frustrating to have a website full of content that isn’t ranking well and it can be easy to hire an SEO expert to get things moving in the right direction. However, it’s important to understand that SEO is a long-term strategy and that content can take a long time to rank well. So, with that in mind, let’s answer one of our most frequently asked questions: how long does it take content to rank?
There’s no strict timeline on how long it takes content to rank as it is heavily dependent on a variety of factors, a number of which are out of your control. However, you might start seeing results at the following timeframes:
- Existing landing pages: 1-3 months
- New landing pages: 3-6 months
- Blogs: 6-9 months
Read on to learn more about what impacts search rankings, why it takes so long for content to rank and if there is anything you can do to speed things up a bit.
How Long Does it Take SEO Content to Rank?
The short answer is: it depends! How long it takes content to rank depends on a variety of factors, most of which you have no control over. Therefore it could take days for your content to rank, weeks or even months.
Better-written content that follows SEO best practices should naturally take less time to rank than poorly written content, but factors such as domain authority, competition and keyword difficulty still play a part. Unfortunately, no matter how good your content is, you might still be waiting a long time to see results. SEO is a long-term strategy.
For optimisations of existing content, you might start seeing results after a few months if things go well. In fact, a study by keyword tool, Ahrefs, revealed that almost 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the Top 10 search results within a year, suggesting that older content will produce better results, faster (which is why we always start our campaigns by optimising existing content before moving on to new content!).
How Long Does it Take for New Content to Rank?
Don’t expect to see new content rank immediately, it can take a while to start seeing results. You’re already on the backfoot in that Google has to find and index your new pages. You then have to wait for it to begin ranking against competitors whose pages may be older and more authoritative than yours.
But this doesn’t mean that it will never rank. Typically, you might start seeing new content ranking well after a few months. If, after 3-6 months, it still isn’t performing, you might want to consider reviewing your competitors and re-optimising your content.
How Long Does it Take Blogs to Rank?
Blogs are a different game. Whilst you’re still battling the same uncontrollable variables, blogs will typically start ranking in the top positions for competitive queries between 6-9 months after publication. Although, this depends on competition and the content being well written and SEO-optimised. A blog may need re-optimisation after 9 months if it isn’t ranking well.
Like with regular content, statistics suggest that optimising old blogs can sometimes be more beneficial than creating new ones. This can bring in considerably more traffic and help to boost your rankings. In fact, data shows that Hubspot tripled the number of leads gained after optimising old blog posts which, ultimately, is more important than just moving up the rankings.
Learn how to optimise a blog for SEO in our recent article. Or, why not learn how many blogs you need to publish before you start seeing results.
Why Does Ranking On Google Take So Long?
As we mentioned before, there are a large number of variables that impact SEO, many of which cannot be controlled by you. Here are some of the most important ranking factors that impact how long it takes your content to rank:
- Quality of content – these days, the top ranking factor is quality content that is written for the user rather than for SEO.
- Keyword choices – your keyword choices will impact the time it takes to rank. A target keyword with a higher difficulty will take longer to rank for than one with an easier difficulty score.
- Domain authority – your domain authority will play a part in how easy it is for you to rank. Websites with a higher domain authority will usually rank faster than those with a lower authority.
- Competition – you can’t control what your competitors do, but everything they do on their website impacts how well you can rank.
- Backlinks – backlinks to your page tell Google that your page is of high-quality and worth ranking. The more backlinks it has, the better.
- Site speed – if your website loads slowly, people will be more likely to immediately leave the page, telling Google that something is wrong. Google won’t rank a page at all if it has bad UX.
- Crawling and indexing – Google needs to be able to crawl and index your website for it to be able to rank. Any issues here will result in poor or non-existent rankings.
- Mobile-friendliness – Google search is now mobile first, meaning that your website must be mobile-friendly in order to rank well.
How Can I Rank Quicker?
There are a few things you can do to speed things up a little, although there are no guarantees it will work. For example:
- Request indexing via Google Search Console – if you have Google Search Console set up, you can request indexing on any page. This will ensure that any new pages are indexed faster and that any changes to existing pages are crawled and indexed in their updated form.
- Internal linking – if you don’t have Google Search Console (and even if you do!), good internal linking is essential to ensure that Google can find and index your content. It also signals the relevance of your content to your website as a whole, increasing the authority and value of your content. When you upload a new piece of content, spend time internally linking to it from other pages.
Learn more about the importance of internal linking in our recent blog about Orphaned Content.
- Outreach – performing outreach to gain backlinks may help to improve the authority of your website/page and therefore help it to rank better or faster.
SEO Content from Wildcat Digital
Do you want to make your content rank better but don’t have the time to create quality, SEO-driven content? Wildcat Digital’s team of SEO experts are here to help. At Wildcat Digital, we offer bespoke SEO services, built to help you punch above your weight online. Get in touch with us today for a free initial consultation.
Chloe Robinson
Content Strategist & Team Leader
