How long for Google to index a website?

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I created a new Wordpress website a couple of weeks ago. I started editing the site, getting the theme setup and all the pages, but left each page blank.

Annoyingly, my website has ended up being listed in Google with no content.

I've since added the content, added a site map in Webmaster tools (including 2 pages I marked as no-index), but Google doesn't seem to have crawled my site again.

1) Does anyone have any experience of how long it takes Google to properly index a new site and settle down in the rankings?

2) Will Google remove the pages I've listed as no-index, even though it's indexed them (before I changed them to no-index)?

3) A page has showed up in Google for "Uncategorized", even though my website only has pages and no posts. Visiting this page causes my website to display "Page not found". Will this page automatically disappear from the rankings as things settle down?
#search engine optimization #google #index #long #website
  • 1. Around a month to settle down (Depending on what you are doing with your site)
    2.In my past experience yes it may just take a week or so keep a eye out don't worry to much though
    3.What URL does this go back to? Have you deleted a page and not emptied the trash?
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Thanks the reply, that's great to know it'll settle down in about a month. Also good Google should automatically remove my no-index pages.

      I've just had a look and I don't have any posts in the trash (although one did exist on my default theme when I first setup the website). I've just managed to find the categories page however and although I can't delete the "Uncategorized" category as it's the default one, on pressing edit, it seems my SEO plugin by Yoast has forced this to be indexed by default. I've now turned it off, so it should hopefully disappear!

      One last question if it's alright; on my Webmaster tools, it says the following:

      Do you think this is showing up as my website is new, or is it something that should have been in my theme (and isn't), and that I need to go and fix it myself?
  • Banned
    You can index/re-index a page in 3 seconds (WMT Fetch as Google).
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    • Thanks, do you know if that will force it to work out the ranking position quickly? Or is that something it works out seperately?
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  • Hey Jake,

    Hate when that happens! But you learned, learning is always cool.

    You'll want to avoid this happening to your sites in the future as it's a really awkward step to get Google to index your site with relative/ranking content.

    The first thing to do when developing your new WordPress site is to go to "Settings", scroll down to "Reading", and then at the very bottom of that page check the box that says "Discourage search engines from indexing this site.

    Just remember to deselect the box when your site is ready to publish.
    Then, immediately go to your Google Webmaster Tools account and upload your xml sitemap.

    Google will then immediately begin to index your site properly and you'll be able to begin ranking your site.

    Much Success To You!
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Doug: Thanks, I never realised that option existed within Wordpress! I'll definitely keep that in mind for next time. I was actually caught off guard by how quickly Google indexed my website. I was expecting to submit it myself when I was finished editing.

    Yukon: Thanks, I think I'll focus on my social media for now (as I didn't realise how much work is involved in setting up 6 different profiles!), and then I will start my SEO efforts in about a month or so. That way, the posts on my social media should give my company some history (and so won't look like a brand new site). Then I can focus on building some links and driving some more traffic to my website.
  • The rankings changes based on Google's updates and your marketing efforts. As for indexing, Google became really fast at indexing websites especially those who are submitted using the Webmaster tools. It must not take more than 48 hours at most. In most cases, submitted websites get indexed within less than 12 hours.

    Logically yes it does. You can also demote any links if you saw that it didn't.

    It is your job to fix the empty categories and organize your sitemap. 404 errors are natural for non-existing pages. If the page is not listed in your sitemap and it does not exist then Google will not index it as well.
  • As i mentioned i a previous thread - one of my sites got indexed in about 5 - 10 min....it was very quick, but the site has good content and is useful for the users.
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    How long for Google to index a website?

    I created a new Wordpress website a couple of weeks ago. I started editing the site, getting the theme setup and all the pages, but left each page blank. Annoyingly, my website has ended up being listed in Google with no content.