{"id":2097,"slug":"ahrefs-page-age-top-10","title":"Ahrefs — average #1 ranking page is 5 years old; 72.9% of top 10 is 3+ years","kind":"reference","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","candid-team"],"topics":["incumbent-authority-accumulation"],"reference_body":"**Claim:** Ahrefs found:\n\n- 72.9% of pages in Google's top 10 are more than 3 years old.\n- The average #1 ranking page is **5 years old** (up from 2 years in 2017).\n\nIndependent corroboration: SE Ranking (vendor) reports a majority of top-10 domains are 15+ years old.\n\n**Source:** Ahrefs + SE Ranking (both vendor).\n\n**Confidence:** Industry-consensus across vendor datasets.\n\n**Why this matters for Candid:** A new domain in 2026 is competing against a #1 page that took 5 years to get there. The widget should reflect this in its timeframe expectations — for a young domain, \"moderate\" difficulty still implies multi-year compounding.","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-smb-widget-market-difficulty-june-2026","title":"Research brief: SMB widget market difficulty — six ranked factors (June 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"incumbent-authority-the-deepest-moat","title":"Factor 1 — Incumbent authority accumulation (the deepest moat)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}]},"created_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:04.188Z","updated_at":"2026-06-23T19:16:04.188Z"}