Gary Illyes from Google on the last Search Off The Record podcast said that for brand-new websites, their homepages should be indexed without a problem. If not, then the site has a bigger issue. Plus, the Google’s John, Martin and Gary spoke more about indexing.
Gary said at the 6:33 mark into the podcast, “For new sites, especially the home page, should be very simple to get indexed. If that doesn’t get indexed, then that definitely points to some bigger problem.” “Our systems are built such that homepages, like domain.com, will get crawled pretty much first and get indexed first,” he added. Then he said “If we don’t– don’t even crawl it, which you can check from Search Console or your server logs – then that definitely points to a bigger problem.”
Here is the embed where he said this:
This goes well with John’s statement about first launching a new site and then waiting a bit before migrating your content to it.
Here is how Glenn summed up what Gary said:
Google on indexing: Even for a brand new site, the homepage should be able to get indexed. It’s only after indexing more pages on the site, & seeing how the web reacts to the content, will Google be able to assess quality (which can then impact indexing): pic.twitter.com/Ne2ol7i4GO
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 23, 2023
Some other tidbits on indexing from that, although, they are not new tidbits include that Google cannot index everything and that quality impacts indexing.
Here is how Glenn summed up what Gary said:
One more: Gary says for sites w/high-quality content, you should never really have to use the request indexing tool in GSC. If something HAS TO BE indexed quickly (like something newsy), then it’s an option. But most don’t have to use it for normal content pic.twitter.com/iiCtYm8rPv
— Glenn Gabe (@glenngabe) June 23, 2023
Forum discussion at Twitter.
