How to Get Your Website Indexed by Google Fast

A page that Google has not indexed cannot appear in search results, however good it is. For a new website this is the first problem to solve, and it is mostly in your control. Google will not index everything on request. But you can remove every obstacle, signal which pages matter, and make sure it finds them in days rather than months.

This guide walks through it in order: what indexing is, the setup that takes an hour, and the signals that speed it up. Then the problems that keep pages out, and what to expect in the first weeks. It is written for a new startup site with tens or hundreds of pages, not a store with millions.

What indexing actually means

Google works in three steps. It crawls, fetching pages it finds through links and sitemaps. It indexes, reading each page and deciding whether to keep it and which URL is the main version. Then it ranks the indexed pages for each search. Our glossary entry on indexing covers the detail.

The important part for a new site: a page can be crawled and still not be indexed. Google keeps what it judges useful and unique. So "getting indexed fast" has two halves. Help Google find the page quickly, and give it a reason to keep the page once it has read it.

Step 1: make sure nothing is blocking Google

Before you ask Google to visit, check that the door is open. Launch sites are blocked by accident more often than you would think, usually by a setting carried over from staging.

• robots.txt. Open yoursite.com/robots.txt. A line reading Disallow: / under User-agent: * blocks the whole site. Test individual pages with the robots.txt tester, which shows which rule decides for Googlebot and other crawlers.
• Noindex tags. Many frameworks and site builders add <meta name="robots" content="noindex"> to preview or staging builds. Check the live page source, and check the HTTP headers for X-Robots-Tag: noindex too.
• Canonical tags. Each page should name itself as canonical, on the final domain. A canonical pointing at a staging URL or at the homepage tells Google to index something else. The canonical URL checker shows what each page declares.
• One version of the domain. Pick https:// and either www or not, and redirect every other version to it with a 301. Four live versions of the homepage split every signal four ways.
• Pages that need JavaScript to show text. Google can render JavaScript, but it may do so later than the first crawl. If your main content only appears after scripts run, server render it or pre-render it where you can.

Step 2: set up Google Search Console

Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners, and it is the only place Google tells you directly what it thinks of your pages. Set it up on launch day, not after.

• Add a domain property if you can edit your DNS. It covers every subdomain and both http and https in one place. Verification is a TXT record at your DNS provider.
• Or add a URL prefix property if you cannot touch DNS. It covers one exact origin and verifies with an HTML file, a meta tag or your analytics.
• Give it a few days. Reports fill in gradually. An empty performance report on day two is normal.

While you are at it, add the site to Bing Webmaster Tools. It can import your Search Console sites in a few clicks. Bing's index also feeds several AI assistants, which matters more each year.

Step 3: submit a clean XML sitemap

An XML sitemap is a list of the URLs you want indexed, ideally with the date each one last changed. It does not force indexing and it is not a ranking factor. It helps Google find pages, especially new ones and pages with few links pointing to them.

Most frameworks and site builders can generate one. If yours does not, paste your URLs into the XML sitemap generator and upload the file it gives you. Then:

1. Put the sitemap at a stable URL, usually /sitemap.xml.
2. Add a line to robots.txt: Sitemap: https://yoursite.com/sitemap.xml. Every crawler that reads robots.txt will find it.
3. Submit it in Search Console under Sitemaps, and in Bing Webmaster Tools.
4. Check it with the sitemap checker: valid XML, every URL on the right host, nothing over the limits.

What belongs in it matters more than having one. A sitemap is a list of suggestions, and Google learns how far to trust it.

• Only canonical URLs that return 200. No redirects, no 404s, no noindexed pages, no URLs with tracking parameters.
• Honest lastmod dates. Google uses lastmod when it is consistently accurate. Setting every page to today's date on every build teaches it to ignore the field.
• Skip priority and changefreq. Google has said it ignores both. They do no harm, but they do no good either.

Step 4: request indexing for the pages that matter most

In Search Console, paste a URL into the inspection bar at the top. The URL Inspection tool tells you whether the page is indexed, when Google last crawled it, which canonical it chose, and whether anything blocked it. If the page is not indexed and nothing is wrong, click Request indexing.

Use it with judgment:

• There is a daily limit on requests per property. Spend it on the homepage, the pricing page and your most important landing or feature pages, not on every blog tag page.
• A request adds the page to a priority queue. It does not guarantee indexing. If Google crawls the page and finds it thin or duplicated, it can still leave it out.
• Asking twice does not help. Request once, then give it a few days before you look again.
• Use "Test live URL" first when you have just fixed something. It shows what Googlebot sees now, including the rendered HTML, rather than the old crawl.

One thing that does not exist for most sites: a way to push pages into Google instantly. Google's Indexing API is officially limited to job postings and livestream video pages. Services that promise to use it for ordinary pages are working against Google's own rules. The old sitemap "ping" URL was also retired in 2023, so a tool that still pings it does nothing.

Step 5: use IndexNow for Bing and the other engines

IndexNow is an open protocol that lets you notify search engines the moment a page is added or changed. Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver take part and share submissions with each other. Google does not take part, so IndexNow is not a way into Google. It is still worth the ten minutes it takes, because faster Bing indexing can mean faster visibility in the AI assistants that search with Bing.

Setup is a key file on your site and one request per batch of changed URLs. The IndexNow tester generates a key, checks the key file is live at the right address, and gives you the exact request to send. Many hosting platforms and CMS plugins can send it automatically on every publish.

Step 6: give Google links to follow

Sitemaps tell Google a page exists. Links tell Google a page matters. A new site with no links pointing to it is low on Google's list. That is why the same site can wait weeks for its first crawl, or get crawled within a day of a link from a busy page.

Internal links

• Link every important page from the homepage or from a page the homepage links to. Pages buried four clicks deep get crawled least.
• Use plain HTML links with an href. Links that only work through a JavaScript click handler may not be followed.
• Link new pages from existing ones the day you publish them. A new blog post linked from three older posts gets found sooner than one only in the sitemap.
• Avoid orphan pages. A page in your sitemap that no other page links to looks unimportant, and often stays unindexed.

External links

• Launch listings and directories. A listing on a crawled launch platform puts a link to your site on a page Google already visits often. The dofollow launch sites list includes only platforms whose link type we checked on a real listing.
• Your own profiles. Add the site to your GitHub, X, LinkedIn and company pages. These are quick, and crawlers visit them often.
• Communities where you already take part. A genuine Show HN or Indie Hackers post links to you from a page that is crawled within hours.

Our guide on how to get backlinks for a new website goes further on earning links that last.

Step 7: give Google a reason to keep the page

Once Google has crawled a page, it decides whether the page is worth indexing. On a new site, this is where most pages fall out, and no request or ping fixes it. What helps:

• Real content in the HTML. A feature page with a headline, two sentences and a button gives Google little to index. Explain what the feature does, who it is for, and answer the questions people ask about it.
• No near-duplicates. Ten location or use-case pages that differ by one word are read as one page. Google picks one and drops the rest.
• A unique title and description per page. Check each with the meta tag checker. Identical titles across pages are a common sign of templated content.
• Fewer, better pages first. A new site with 30 strong pages gets indexed more fully than one with 3,000 thin ones. You can add more once Google trusts what is there.

Reading the page indexing report

Search Console's Pages report groups every URL Google knows about by status. The three that matter most on a new site:

Status	What it means	What to do
Discovered, currently not indexed	Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet.	Normal for new sites. Add internal links to it, and earn a few external links to the site.
Crawled, currently not indexed	Google read the page and chose not to keep it, for now.	Improve the content, merge near-duplicates, and check the page is not thin.
Excluded by noindex, blocked by robots.txt, or alternate page with canonical	Something on your side told Google to skip it.	Fix it if it was a mistake. If it was deliberate, leave it.

"Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user" also shows up often. It means Google decided another URL is the main version of your page. Check that the two pages are actually different, or point the canonical at the one you want.

How long indexing takes for a new site

Google's own documentation says crawling and indexing can take from a few days to a few weeks, and gives no guaranteed time. In practice, for a new domain:

• The homepage is often indexed within days of being submitted and linked from somewhere Google visits.
• The rest of a small site usually follows over the next few weeks, in the order Google finds links to it.
• Some pages wait longer, or stay out, until the site has earned more links and a crawl history.

Being indexed is not the same as ranking. A newly indexed page usually appears far down the results at first, for a few long and specific searches. Our guide on how long SEO takes for a new website covers what happens after indexing, month by month.

A one-hour checklist for launch day

1. Check robots.txt allows crawling and lists your sitemap.
2. View the live source of three key pages: no noindex, a self-referencing canonical, a unique title.
3. Confirm every version of the domain redirects to one.
4. Verify the site in Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
5. Submit the sitemap to both.
6. Inspect and request indexing for your five most important URLs.
7. Set up IndexNow, or turn on your host's built-in support.
8. Link to the site from your own profiles and your first launch listing.

The wider SEO checklist for a startup launch covers titles, structured data, link previews and page speed as well.

Where Aback Launch fits

Every product on Aback Launch gets a permanent launch page that search engines and AI assistants can read, linked from the weekly launch list and its category. Launches go live every Friday at 00:00 UTC. The link to your site becomes dofollow once you add our badge, which makes a listing one of the first crawled links a new domain can get.

FAQ

How do I get Google to index my website faster?

Remove anything blocking it: robots.txt rules, noindex tags, wrong canonicals. Verify the site in Search Console, submit a clean sitemap and request indexing for your key pages. Then get links to the site from pages Google already crawls often.

How long does it take Google to index a new website?

Usually from a few days to a few weeks for the first pages. Google does not guarantee a time. Sites with links from crawled pages and clear, unique content get indexed sooner.

Does submitting a sitemap guarantee indexing?

No. A sitemap helps Google find your pages. Google still decides whether each page is worth indexing after it reads it.

Why is my page "Crawled, currently not indexed"?

Google read the page and decided not to keep it for now. The usual causes are thin content, near-duplicate pages, or a site with too few signals of trust yet. Improve the page and add internal links to it, then request indexing again.

Does IndexNow work with Google?

No. Google does not take part in IndexNow. It works with Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver. For Google, use a sitemap and Search Console.