How Long Until My New Website Appears in Google?
Google doesn’t give a time-frame on how long it will take, for your new website to appear in their Google search results. However, it can take anywhere from a few hours to 6 weeks or more.
This is as Google must first index your new website and then add it into its database. The time this takes varies according to several different factors.
Basically, this is out of your or your website designers hands, but there are a few measures that can be taken you can take to help speed up the process like submitting your website for indexing and creating a free Google Business Profile.
What is indexing?
When you do a Google search, Google doesn’t search the web—it searches its index database of the web. Google keeps its index current by using scripts “web crawlers” or “spiders.” Web crawlers prowl the web and gather data, particularly looking for new information like new websites, new content, and new links.
That information is added to Google’s index, and once it’s in the index it can then be searched. When you launch a new site or add/alter content, it won’t be searchable until it has been indexed (but note that your new content is still accessible, simply by typing your website address into the address bar or following links there).
How can I get my new website indexed faster?
When launching a new website, we strongly recommend that you request Google to crawl your new site via the Google Search Console tool. It’s quick and easy; just type in your website address into Google’s tool purpose-built for crawl requests.
There is no guarantee that this will quicken the indexing process, but it’s a great starting point.
The next step is to tell Google about all the pages on your website. To do this, we add a sitemap to your Google Search Console.
You can create a free Google site map using this link.
Once you have created your sitemap, just upload it to your website and then add a link to it via your Google Search Console.
External links. If there are links to your new website elsewhere on the web, then the chances of a web crawler discovering that content faster improves. If it’s a new website, you could add it to your social media profile (or create a new profile especially for it). You should also share the link e.g., do a Facebook post sharing the new link with your friends, or tweet the link out to your followers.
Get setup on Google My Business which is a free directory and adds a Map search result for any local searches.
Unfortunately there’s no quick fix to get indexed faster, and it’s not an exact science, but by following the above mentioned steps, you will be well on your way to appearing in the Google search results.
When will I know if my website has been indexed?
You can determine whether or not your new website has been indexed simply by searching for it on Google. Try the following searches:
- “www” address. Type into Google your address, including the “www” bit. Preface it by also typing in “site:” e.g., site:www.scorchedmedia.com.au
- “Non-www” address. Type in the same address without the “www” bit but still keep the “site:” preface e.g., site: www.scorchedmedia.com.au
- Your company’s name. Type in the title of your business, and possibly also the industry. Use quotation marks around to ensure it searches for that exact phrase e.g., “Scorched Media.”
If your website shows up, that means it has now been indexed. But if your site doesn’t show up, then it probably hasn’t been indexed yet.
What if my website has been indexed, but doesn’t rank highly in search results?
Getting your website indexed is really just the beginning. Your site may be indexed but still not feature prominently in customer’s search results, which will mean fewer visitors to your site.
To move up the rankings you need to apply search engine optimisation (SEO) to your website
