A new page typically gets discovered within days, indexed within days to a few weeks, and then spends anywhere from a few weeks to several months being evaluated before it settles into a stable position. On an established site with strong internal linking, a page can hold a position within two to four weeks. On a new domain, or for a competitive term, several months is normal and nothing has gone wrong.
The three stages
| Stage | What is happening | Typical duration |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery | Google finds the URL, through a link, a sitemap or a submission | Hours to days |
| Indexing | The page is fetched, rendered, understood and stored as eligible | Days to weeks |
| Evaluation | Google tests the page against competitors and watches how people respond | Weeks to months |
Most people troubleshooting a slow page are actually stuck at a different stage from the one they assume. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console tells you which, in about thirty seconds.
Why positions bounce at first
A new page frequently appears high, drops sharply, then climbs back to somewhere in between. This is normal and it catches people out every time.
Google has little data about how a new page performs, so it tests it, observes, and adjusts. Judging a page in its first fortnight means judging a test rather than a result. Give it six to eight weeks before drawing conclusions.
What speeds it up
- Internal links from pages that already rank. The single most effective thing available, and the most commonly skipped.
- A place in the site structure. A page reachable in two clicks from the homepage gets treated differently from one reachable only through a sitemap.
- Submitting the URL in Search Console. Helps with discovery, does nothing for evaluation.
- An accurate, current sitemap with a real lastmod date.
- Publishing something that is clearly better than what currently ranks. This is slower to arrange and it is the only one that reliably works on competitive terms.
What slows it down
- Publishing into an orphaned section nothing links to
- Content that closely resembles a page you already have
- A slow server, which limits how much gets crawled at all
- Rendering that depends entirely on client-side JavaScript
- Targeting a term where the top ten are all established authorities
When to intervene
- After a week, check indexation. Not indexed by then, on a healthy site, means something is blocking it.
- After a month, check impressions. Indexed with zero impressions means Google does not think it answers anything, which is a content and intent problem.
- After two months, check position. Impressions with a position past fifty means you are in the running and losing. Compare against the pages beating you.
- After three months with no movement, revisit whether the term was realistic in the first place.
Rewriting a page in its third week because it has not ranked yet. Each rewrite restarts the evaluation, so a page that gets changed every fortnight never finishes being assessed.