How Long Does It Take To Index A Page? New & Existing Site

On average, Google takes 1 to 5 days to index new pages of standard websites. However, high-authority websites, such as news agencies, often see their content indexed within hours due to their established credibility and frequent updates.

For newly launched websites, the indexing process can take several days to weeks, especially if the site has a large number of pages.

The indexing process and timing are influenced by several factors, including your website’s authority, structure, content quality, and technical SEO.

In this blog, we’ll explore the various factors that affect how long it takes to index a page or website and share actionable tips to speed up the process.

Let’s get started!

Table of contents:

The indexing process
Understanding indexing timeline
Factors impacting the indexing timeline
Content frequency and impact on Google indexing
What to do if your page is not getting indexed?
FAQs

The indexing process

First, let’s understand the indexing process which is the foundation of understanding the timing.

Website indexing is the process by which the search engine crawls your website and stores it in its database. This serves as input to Google, which ranks webpages in the search engine results based on user search queries.

The indexing process can be summarised in the following 3 steps:

Discovery: For a page to be indexed, it must first be discovered by search engine bots. In this process, the bots identify new and updated pages to add to Google’s index.
Crawling: Google uses automated programs called crawlers or spiders to explore the web. These crawlers follow links from known pages to discover new or updated content. This includes reading the text, images, and other page elements.
Indexing: Once a page is crawled, Google analyses its content, including text, images, and videos. This information is then stored in the Google index – a massive database that functions like an index in a book, listing all the words and their locations on each page. The page relevance is determined based on various factors like keywords, metadata, and internal links

Understanding indexing timeline

The website indexing process does not have an assured timeline. It may take a few hours or even weeks.

As a rule of thumb, the indexing time based on number of pages is:

3–4 weeks for websites with less than 500 pages.
2–3 months for websites with 500 to 25,000 pages.
4–12 months for websites with more than 25,000 pages.

The time it takes for search engines to crawl your website depends on the crawl budget.

The crawl budget refers to the number of URLs that search engine bots can crawl and index within a given timeframe. This budget varies based on your website’s authority/tier, size, traffic, and overall health.

As the search engine is limited by its resources to index millions of websites, the crawl budget is a way to prioritise their crawling effort.

Once your site is indexed, it becomes eligible to appear in search engine results pages (SERPs).

Standard website indexing timeline

A standard website is a normal business website where you add content regularly or occasionally. The time it takes to index a standard website can range from 1 day to a 1 week or more, depending on factors such as the website’s structure, content quality, and crawlability.

Here are some of the key factors that can influence the timeline:

Time since last update: If Google hasn’t crawled your website in a while, it may take longer to discover and index your new content. In such cases, submitting a sitemap and waiting for Google to re-crawl your site is necessary before your new pages appear in search results.
Volume of content: If you have added hundreds or more pages to your website in a bulk update, it may take time for search engines to crawl and index the new content. In such scenarios, using dynamic URLs can help search engines efficiently discover and update new pages.
Age of website: If your website has been around for a long time, it is already part of the search index and probably has more links shared across other websites or social media to make it easily discoverable.

New website indexing timeline

How long does Google or other search engines take to index a new website?

A new website can be indexed in a week to several weeks depending on the number of pages on the website, the quality of those pages and other signals.

A new website must be ‘crawled’ by the search engine before getting indexed.

According to a recent study, Google indexes just 56% of indexable URLs after 1 day from being published. After 2 weeks, just 87% of URLs are indexed.

Instead of worrying about getting your new website indexed immediately, focus more on building quality content and a solid structure in the initial stages.

One of the best ways to improve new website indexing is by submitting an XML sitemap in the Google search console.

High authority website indexing timeline

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric developed by Moz that predicts the website’s overall authority. The score ranges from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater likelihood of indexing and ranking.

Search engines consider a high-authority website highly credible and trustworthy. Examples of high-authority websites include academic journals, government websites, respected news organisations, and professional institutions.

Several factors contribute to your site authority such as:

Number of inbound links directing to your website
Authority of inbound links (e.g., links from gov. sites hold more weightage than those from local agencies)
The volume of traffic currently attracted by your website
Age and reputation of the website

Improving domain authority is not an overnight process. It can take considerable time for crawlers to evaluate the changes to your website.

Also, increasing your score from 20 to 30 is much easier than 70 to 80. For this reason, Domain Authority should be used as a comparative metric rather than an absolute one.

Factors impacting the indexing timeline

Several factors can influence how quickly a website gets indexed by search engines like Google:

Content Frequency: This is one of the main signals for bots to visit your website regularly to discover and index new pages. We have discussed content frequency and indexing impact in detail below.
Content Quality: Google rewards quality content that adds value to the users, and is trustworthy. This is based on E-E-A-T (Experience-Expertise-Authoritativeness-Trustworthiness) framework.
Website Structure and Design: Clear navigation and a well-organised structure make it easier for search engines to crawl and index your site.
Loading Speed: Fast-loading webpages makes it easier for search engines to crawl, leading to faster indexing. A good page speed is important for SEO ranking as well.
Sitemap: Sitemaps act like a roadmap for search engines to discover your website content and index pages faster. An XML sitemap lists all public URLs on your site to improve crawler discovery efficiency. It looks something like this:
Backlinks: Quality backlinks from reputable sites can expedite the indexing process. A backlink supports faster indexing by directing crawlers to your site, enhancing visibility and discovery across search engines. Note that backlinks can take some time to work.
Technical Issues: Problems such as broken links, server errors, or issues with the robots.txt file can hinder indexing.
Mobile-Friendliness: Google understands that more people are using their mobile devices to access webpages and, as such, weighs in on mobile friendliness. A mobile-friendly web page loads faster uses a responsive design, avoids pop-ups, and provides a user-friendly interface.

Content frequency and impact on Google indexing

Regardless of your domain authority, if you publish high-quality content regularly in batches, you can significantly improve the indexing process. This includes updating your existing content to refresh and make it more relevant.

When Google or other search engines detect consistent updates, it recognises that you deliver valuable, up-to-date information to your audience. This can improve rankings, greater visibility, and more organic traffic.

Here’s how regular updates can impact your indexing:

Relevancy: Updated content is frequently viewed as more aligned with current trends, events, and user interests. Search engines may favour recently updated material to provide users with the most accurate and up-to-date information.
Crawling Frequency: Fresh content prompts bots to engage with new pages and crawl them frequently for updated information.
User Engagement: Updating your website enhances user engagement by attracting more traffic, a critical factor Google considers in its indexing and ranking processes.
Edging Competitors: Regularly updating your content can help you stay ahead of the competition, boosting your indexing and overall ranking.
Favouring Algorithm: Search engines use algorithms that account for content freshness. Query Deserves Freshness (QDF), is a concept in search engine algorithms that identifies certain queries where users are likely seeking the latest information.

What to do if your page is not getting indexed?

Picture yourself as a new business establishing a presence amidst your competition. You launch a new website to showcase your products and services. Your goal is to draw organic traffic from a wider audience, which can drive lead generation, strengthen your brand, and ultimately boost sales and revenue.

You believe that you are offering a cutting-edge solution in the industry and it’s just a matter of getting some exposure in the digital world. You spent weeks designing and developing the site, ensuring it had a sleek design, intuitive navigation, and engaging content.

Yet, weeks passed, and the website still didn’t appear in Google search results. This leads to the question – Why Is Google Not Indexing My Pages?

“A page can be of high quality and still not be indexed – it’s not guaranteed” — John Mueller

If the pages are not getting indexed, utilise Google Search Console tools to identify and fix the issues. You can find this in the Indexing -> Pages panel in the sidebar of the Google Search Console. The ‘URL Inspection Tool’ provides detailed insights into recent crawling events for each URL, helping to understand crawl frequency more thoroughly.

There are some actionable steps that you can take to resolve the indexing problem as follows:

Submit your sitemap to Google: Submitting a sitemap to Google helps the search engine understand your site structure and index it more efficiently. You can submit your sitemap through the Google Search Console.
Add internal links to your website: Internal links connect different pages within your website, helping search engines discover new content and understand your site’s hierarchy. Ensure that important pages are linked to other relevant pages.
Improve the content quality: High-quality, relevant, and original content is crucial for indexing. Make sure your content is well-written, informative, and provides value to your audience. Avoid duplicate content as it can negatively impact your indexing.
Improve your website’s loading speed: Faster websites provide a better user experience and are favoured by search engines. Optimise images, use browser caching, and minimise CSS and JavaScript files to improve your site’s loading speed.
Request recrawl through Google Search Console: If you’ve made significant changes to your website, you can request Google to recrawl your site. This can help update the indexed information more quickly. Use the URL Inspection tool in the Google Search Console for this purpose.
Ensure the page is not blocked: Check your robots.txt file and meta tags to ensure that important pages are not being blocked from indexing. The robots.txt file should not disallow search engines from crawling your site, and the noindex tag should not be used on pages you want indexed.
Acquire quality backlinks from authoritative sites: Backlinks from reputable sites signal to search engines that your content is valuable and trustworthy. Focus on building relationships with authoritative websites in your niche to earn high-quality backlinks, which increases visibility.

By effectively monitoring and resolving issues with indexing, you can help increase visibility and grow your business online.

FAQs

How long does Google take to index a new page?

A new page can be indexed in a day to a week more depending on your website authority, content frequency and quality of the new page you created.

What does it mean to be indexed on Google?

Being indexed on Google means that your website’s pages or content have been discovered and added to Google’s database. This leads to your website appearing in Google’s search results when users search for relevant keywords.

How often will Google index my website?

Google doesn’t index websites on a fixed schedule. The frequency depends on factors like your site’s update frequency, domain authority, and content quality. Regular updates and quality content can lead to more frequent indexing.

How does Google find new websites?

Google uses automated software known as “Googlebot” or “spiders” to crawl the web. These bots are constantly on the lookout for new websites and updates to existing ones. They discover these sites and pages by following links from other websites.

How do I submit my website to Google for indexing?

Submit your website to Google for indexing by adding and verifying it in Google Search Console, then submitting your sitemap. You can also use the URL Inspection tool to request indexing of specific pages.

How to check if a page is indexed by Google or not?

The simple way to check is just by using Google search. Just enter the page inside double quotes in Google search like “https://example.com/new-page” or use the URL inspection tool in the search console and you should see if the page is indexed or not.

How long does it take to index a page or website?