A week, a month, a year plus? The question of how long it takes to rank top of Google is one that we’re asked almost daily. Unfortunately, it is a difficult question to answer as there are just so many variables to consider: existing domain authority, competition, on-site ranking factors, off-site ranking factors… The list goes on.

If you’re ready to put in the hard yards (or hire an SEO specialist to take care of things for you) then SEO can be a very worthwhile exercise, but it’s by no means a short-term strategy. Exactly how long does it take to rank in one of the lucrative ‘top of the first page’ positions on Google? The short default answer has to be – “it depends” but we couldn’t sleep well at night having left you with an answer like that!

Fortunately, thanks to the help of a superb study carried out by the team at Ahrefs, we think that we can do one better than to simply answer with our own question relating to the length of string.  So to give you something a tad more quantifiable than a copout – “it depends”, we’ve created this infographic (below) to shed some light on the topic.

As always, please let us know your comments or any questions on Twitter (@thewebsitegroup ← Click to Tweet Us).