According to Google’s John Mueller, the rankings for new website could fluctuate wildly for the first year. This is because new sites are being compared to older, established sites on the Internet and ranked in relation to them.
According to Mueller: “I think if your website is just, let’s say, a couple of months old, maybe 8 months, maybe a year, then that’s still very fresh with regards to the rest of the internet. So that’s kind of a time where our algorithms are still trying to figure out how and where we should show your website in the search results overall. So that’s something where it would be normal to see some kind of fluctuations around how it’s being shown in search. Sometimes things go up for a while, sometimes they go down for a while. And then, I’d say over the course of a year, things settle down in kind of a stable state. So that’s something where I wouldn’t necessarily worry too much about this particular situation. I’d continue working on your website, and over time that’s something that should be reflected in search overall.”
New website owners are typically in a hurry to get ranking, traffic, leads and make money. This is understandable.
It’s been understood for many years, however, that Google gives preference to older domain names and websites as there is a certain “trust” established, which newer websites have not established yet.
So, for new clients, with new websites it needs to be communicated that the first year can be the most challenging with regard to rankings, but afterwards things will likely even out and become more predictable.
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