New Site Indexing - How Long Does it Take?

[Juan Roman]

Hey guys,

Just recently launched a new affiliate site at what seems to be the worst possible timing given the latest Google updates.

Even though the site has around 300 pages and we submitted all the sitemaps, so far only the homepage has been indexed, and Google somehow chose the http version over https even though there is a valid SSL certificate.

It's been around 2 weeks since the launch and there have been 0 impressions so far. I realise Google probably needs more time these days to evaluate new sites, but just wondering what is the average time from launch to indexing from your experience.

Thanks!

[PaulEchere]

I guess the time for the website to get indexed may vary a lot, can't even say that doing this during a Google update is bad timing, because it can also have some positive effect on one's clicks / impressions.

I've actually noticed that when I launched a website that had lots of pages "off the bat" - it took a long time to get indexed and some are still not indexed generally Serps are not great either. Luckily, the website I am referring to is more of a "supplemental" one, so I don't care about the traffic and serps all that much.

On the other hand, the most recent one I have just launched with just 1 page, got indexed and started getting impressions within a few days. I am adding pages gradually (~1 per week, because I am producing everything myself) and each page gets indexed quickly and seems to be ranking for all the expected KWs.

Not really an answer to your question but may give help to better understand what's the trend there.

[iso2009]

You should adjust settings in order to force https everywhere. The presence of a certificate doesn't mean the SSL is setup in the correct way. If you are using Cloudflare, it's pretty easy to do that.

300 pages is not much, at least some of them should be indexed. How many crawl requests do you see in Google search console?

Usually, if your type of content is present on many, many websites, Google will not index it right away - it will be flagged as unnecessary and it will wait for more signals from the site (like good backlinks or other type of user interaction - eg from socials). Since the site is new, you have a limited crawl budget anyway.

[Juan Roman]

Yes, I'm having the devs look into the https issue.

Not sure how to check crawl requests, but it's only showing homepage as indexed and https version as not indexed.

Yes, makes sense that it is waiting for other signals before it indexes the site.

[loul07]

For my case, my .ch site was launched in 2021. I have over 200 pages, with only 130 pages indexed by Google (Search Console), and still very few impressions and visits.

[Juan Roman]

Yes, I understand Google will choose not to index some pages due to what they believe is below-par content, and I had that at some of my other sites, but 1 indexed out of 300+ is something else

I think your previous comment was spot on and that G needs more signals that the content on the site is worth indexing.

[iso2009]

Yes, I'm having the devs look into the https issue.

Not sure how to check crawl requests, but it's only showing homepage as indexed and https version as not indexed.

Yes, makes sense that it is waiting for other signals before it indexes the site.

To check crawling data, go to Settings, then look for Crawl stats -> Open Report.

[Juan Roman]

Thanks! Shows 109 total crawl requests. 72 on 8 May and very few afterwards.

[iso2009]

Looks like after an initial "evaluation", googlebot abandoned the site. Usually, this might be due to your content. If you believe you're not posting the exact same thing 1000s of sites are also posting, try adding a few good links.

But first, I think you need to solve the http/https issue and wait a week or so (or do both combined, fix the issue and add some good links - maybe just one good link). See what happens.

[Juan Roman]

Finally seeing some progress. The https issue was resolved by itself, three keywords are showing in GSC and Google is back crawling the site.

[AusPokies]

Have you tried to index it via Google Index Api?

[Juan Roman]

No, but Google has started to index pages slowly. We are now up to 21 indexed pages and seeing some impressions for good keywords. The crawl stats have improved too.

Guess it just needed some more time and additional signals as iso2009 suggested. We have added a few backlinks and I believe that has helped as well.

[Sacha MD]

For a new site, it can take anywhere from a few days to a couple of weeks for Google to index it. To speed things up, I suggest submitting your sitemap via Google Search Console and making sure your site has good internal links and some backlinks from other sites. Regularly updating your content can also help.