If you've recently redesigned your site, here's a guide on how long it might Google to index it.
Redesigning your website can impact your keyword rankings in both the short and long term. On average, Google can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks to crawl and reflect changes to your website in search results. However, several factors influence how quickly your keywords update.
Why It Might Take Time
-
Crawl Frequency: If your site isn’t crawled often, Google may take longer to discover and re-evaluate the changes.
-
Structural Changes: If your redesign includes new URLs, updated internal linking, or a different content layout, Google has to reprocess your entire site structure.
-
Removed or Moved Content: If pages were deleted or moved without proper redirects (301s), you may lose rankings for keywords tied to those pages.
-
Content Changes: Google may need to reassess what each page is about if major content updates or rewrites were made.
How to Speed Up Indexing in Google Search Console
You can help Google crawl and reindex your site faster using these steps:
-
Submit a sitemap:
-
Go to your Google Search Console.
-
Under the Sitemaps tab, enter your sitemap URL (usually
/sitemap.xml) and click Submit. -
This helps Google discover updated or new pages faster.
-
-
Request indexing for key pages:
-
Use the URL Inspection Tool in Search Console.
-
Paste in a URL and click Request Indexing.
-
This is helpful for new or updated pages you want Google to re-crawl ASAP.
-
-
Fix crawl errors:
-
In the Coverage and Page Indexing reports, check for any errors like broken links, 404s, or redirect issues.
-
Fixing these ensures Google can properly access and evaluate your updated content.
-
-
Monitor performance:
-
In the Performance tab, watch for keyword changes and traffic trends.
-
Expect some fluctuation — rankings often shift before stabilizing post-redesign.
-
What to Expect
-
Week 1–2: Google starts to recrawl updated pages. You may see some rankings fluctuate.
-
Week 3–6: Keyword positions begin to stabilize based on your new content and structure.
-
Beyond 6 weeks: If optimized well, redesigned pages can begin to outperform your old ones.
If you notice a sharp drop in keywords or traffic that doesn’t recover after a few weeks, it may be worth doing an SEO audit to check for issues like broken redirects, missing metadata, or cannibalized keywords.