Hey guys. Assuming that Google will rank an aged post higher than a fresh post, how does Google handle the scheduled posts feature in Wordpress? If a post is scheduled to be published in X days, do the spiders still analyze the post?

I am asking because I want to do SEO on posts, but not have them show on the main page (as featured) until a specific date. The Wordpress template I am using gives the option to select which category to show on the front page, so my workaround up to now has been to set the new posts to a secondary category and then change them to the featured category when I want them to show on the front page. However, it would be alot easier just to schedule the publishing. The problem is I still want to rank my post for the specific keywords before making the post featured.

Thanks!