When you publish a new page on your website you want it to reach your potential audience as quickly as possible. However, getting it published is not the end of the journey. Google has confirmed that it can take any time between a few hours to a few weeks for new content to be indexed.
Why is there not a precise answer?
A Google representative, John Mueller, answered the burning question in his AskGooglebot series. Although this is obviously a difficult question to quantify, he was able to expand and give some insights into what strategies have an impact on the time it takes to get a new page indexed.
He started by stressing that the time for indexing new pages, can vary. It can take hours to weeks for new content to be indexed. As an explanation, he stated that this can be due to technical issues with a website. On the other hand, he also stressed that it can be because Google has prioritised indexing other sites that it considers to be more important than yours.
Indexing and Ranking
It’s important to note that once indexed, a page will not automatically rank. Indexing does not correlate to a page showing high up in a Google search, but it is an important stage in the search process. Indexing is the way that Google and other Search Engines organize information so that it can be found in a search. This process allows Google to find answers to questions quickly and efficiently. If your page isn’t indexed, it will not be found at all in a search and won’t, therefore, reach your intended audience or potential customers.
Which pages get Indexed?
Google and other search engines don’t index every piece of content on the web. Google will ignore content that is duplicated or copied or content that it does not consider to be useful. For example, it will avoid URLs with parameters that don’t add enough value.
How can I speed up Indexing?
Google have some suggestions to speed up indexing for new pages.
- First, sort out any technical issues with your server and improve the speed of your website. A laggy site will be ignored by Google.
- Link new pages from the home page so they can be found easily.
- Don’t use URLs that are unnecessary.
- Individual URLs can be processed with sitemap files or an inspection tool. This avoids your pages being clunky to find.
It’s all About the Quality
Once you have sorted out any technical or URL issues then you need to think about the quality of the content. If you want Google to prioritise your content, then you need it to be of a decent quality. This means it needs to be useful, original and accurate. Duplicated content is likely to be ignored by Google altogether. Having original ideas or responses are far more likely to be picked up by Google as useful and original. Not only will excellent content ensure that Google indexes your new page fast, but it will also help it to achieve a higher ranking in searches.
The video. Here is the video embed so you can watch the advice:
