Moz Q&A is closed.
After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.
Google Indexing Request - Typical Time to Complete?
-
In Google Search Console, when you request the (re) indexing of a fetched page, what's the average amount of time it takes to re-index and does it vary that much from site to site or are manual re-index request put in a queue and served on a first come - first serve basis despite the site characteristics like domain/page authority?
-
I want to be clear that I'm not referring to a re-crawl, but a re-index. Now I realize there are a gazillion ranking signals and most of the stronger signals are probably not on-page signals (although page title, headers, and anchor text combined is probably a relatively strong signal) so that for most situations, on-page changes are going to like move you from the middle of page 2 to top 3 (except for obscure - low competition long tail keywords of course.)
So is there a delay between re-crawl and re-rank (I'll use that term instead of re-index). I also realize the rank can change based on changes on the other sites in the SERPS. I suppose the re-rank delay could be verified by taking a 'sacrificial' page and totally changing the title, headings, and other on-page items to a completed different keyword theme and see how long it takes for the rank to go down for the previous keyword theme and up for the new theme.
I would think Google would quite possibly add a delay, even a random delay length, to discourage people from constantly requesting re-indexing of a single page to see the rank change. Granted the change if any would be small since on-page signals as I mentioned are a sliver of the signal pie. So most SEO's I would think would be of the opinion this 'trial-and-error' is a waste of time?
-
Hi SEO1805
I agree with Casey, if you go into your Google Analytics account and do a fetch and render to check the new/revised page and then request indexing you will normally see the results updated in a few hours.
Do realize tho that of course google is not a single server, so one person may see the updates very soon and others may not right away as the search index propagates to Googles servers.
Of course the search consol will also tell you how many pages Google is visiting every day so you have an idea about how often they think you are updating your content.
Take care,
Herb
-
Exactly what Logopedia y Más said!
I've just made some sitewide changes to a client site today (3-4 hours ago) and done a fetch straight after, some are already reflected in the SERPs while some aren't. So it really just depends, however, I find it typically doesn't take too long with the sites I have dealt with

-
Hi Seo 1805.
Put, indexing and ranking higher in Google isn’t an exact science. There's really no set timetable for how quickly your new page will be indexed by Google.
It isn’t guaranteed that the URL will be crawled again or that it will be done immediately. It usually takes several days to accept a request. Please also note that they can't guarantee that Google will index all the changes made, since to update the indexed content depends on a complex algorithm.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Why isn't our complete meta title showing up in the Google SERPS? (cut off half way)
We carry a product line, cutless bearings (for use on boats). For instance, we have one, called the Able, that has the following meta title (and searched by View Page Source to confirm): BOOT 1-3/8" x 2-3/8" x 5-1/2" Johnson Cutless Bearing | BOOT Cutlass However, if I search for it on on Google by part number or name (boot cutless bearing, boot cutlass bearing), the meta title comes back with whole first part chopped off, only showing this : "x 5-1/2" Johnson Cutless Bearing | BOOT Cutlass - Citimarine ..." Any idea why? Here's the url if it will hopefully help: https://citimarinestore.com/en/metallic-inches/156-boot-johnson-cutless-bearing-870352103.html All the products in the category are doing the same. Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Citimarine0 -
Should I use noindex or robots to remove pages from the Google index?
I have a Magento site and just realized we have about 800 review pages indexed. The /review directory is disallowed in robots.txt but the pages are still indexed. From my understanding robots means it will not crawl the pages BUT if the pages are still indexed if they are linked from somewhere else. I can add the noindex tag to the review pages but they wont be crawled. https://www.seroundtable.com/google-do-not-use-noindex-in-robots-txt-20873.html Should I remove the robots.txt and add the noindex? Or just add the noindex to what I already have?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Tylerj0 -
Is possible to submit a XML sitemap to Google without using Google Search Console?
We have a client that will not grant us access to their Google Search Console (don't ask us why). Is there anyway possible to submit a XML sitemap to Google without using GSC? Thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RosemaryB0 -
Pages are Indexed but not Cached by Google. Why?
Here's an example: I get a 404 error for this: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.qjamba.com/restaurants-coupons/ferguson/mo/all But a search for qjamba restaurant coupons gives a clear result as does this: site:http://www.qjamba.com/restaurants-coupons/ferguson/mo/all What is going on? How can this page be indexed but not in the Google cache? I should make clear that the page is not showing up with any kind of error in webmaster tools, and Google has been crawling pages just fine. This particular page was fetched by Google yesterday with no problems, and even crawled again twice today by Google Yet, no cache.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | friendoffood2 -
How can I get a list of every url of a site in Google's index?
I work on a site that has almost 20,000 urls in its site map. Google WMT claims 28,000 indexed and a search on Google shows 33,000. I'd like to find what the difference is. Is there a way to get an excel sheet with every url Google has indexed for a site? Thanks... Mike
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | 945010 -
How do you de-index and prevent indexation of a whole domain?
I have parts of an online portal displaying in SERPs which it definitely shouldn't be. It's due to thoughtless developers but I need to have the whole portal's domain de-indexed and prevented from future indexing. I'm not too tech savvy but how is this achieved? No index? Robots? thanks
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Martin_S0 -
How to get content to index faster in Google.....pubsubhubbub?
I'm curious to know what tools others are using to get their content to index faster (other than html sitmap and pingomatic, twitter, etc) Would installing the wordpress pubsubhubbub plugin help even though it uses pingomatic? http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pubsubhubbub/
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | webestate0 -
Is 404'ing a page enough to remove it from Google's index?
We set some pages to 404 status about 7 months ago, but they are still showing in Google's index (as 404's). Is there anything else I need to do to remove these?
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | nicole.healthline0