CAN — "How old is your website?" (concrete date-based fact)

Question pattern: How old is your current website? (under 1 yr / 1-3 yrs / 3+ yrs / I don't have one.)

Why it works: Concrete, date-based, retrievable. Strong proxy for digital maturity, though correlation is directional only (see caveat).

Caveat: Website age correlates with accumulated signals (links, history, brand demand), not a ranking factor in itself. See [[incumbent-authority-accumulation]] in sister brief Research brief: SMB widget market difficulty — six ranked factors (June 2026).

Confidence: Verified — answerable. Correlation to "digital maturity" is industry-consensus.