Can One Indexed Page Trigger Google to Index an Entire Tutorial?

SEO Test: Testing Google's Indexing on My 3-Week-Old Website

Before making any changes, I wanted to record the current state of my website in Google Search Console.

At the time of writing, my website is just three weeks old.

Google Search Console reports:

• 6 pages indexed

• 26 pages not indexed

Looking a little deeper, this row still stands out. As i mentioned in a previous post but i am becoming more curious, it has been such a long time since i built a new website with a new domain my thoughts run deeper.

Google reports 23 pages as “Discovered – currently not indexed.”

For a brand-new website, this is a common early-stage pattern, but it still raises an interesting question about how Google is choosing what to prioritise.

The Strange Part

I have a 13-part tutorial documenting how to build and deploy a self-hosted server.

Every page links to the previous and next stage, creating one continuous chain of internal links.

Yet Google has only indexed Stage 13, the final page of the tutorial.

None of the pages leading up to it have been indexed.

That immediately made me wonder what Google was seeing that I wasn’t.

Rather than making random SEO changes across the entire website, I’ve decided to document the process and run my own indexing experiment.

Context: Why This Website Has No Established Crawl History Yet

It’s important to set expectations for this experiment.

This is a brand-new website, less than three weeks old at the time of writing.

Because of that, Google has had very limited time to build a crawl history, understand the site structure, or establish consistent indexing patterns.

There are no strong external signals pointing to the site yet, and very little historical data for Google to rely on when deciding what to index first.

Like most websites at this stage, it is still in the “discovery and evaluation” phase.

To support clarity and transparency, the site does include standard trust and informational pages, generated through a footer trust bar system:

• About

• Contact

• FAQs

• Terms

• Cookie Information

These pages help establish basic site legitimacy and structure for users and crawlers, but they are not expected to directly influence indexing decisions on their own.

They simply provide context about the site’s purpose and ownership.

This experiment is therefore being run in a situation where Google has minimal prior signals to rely on, which makes indexing behaviour more sensitive to internal linking, structure, and page-level updates.

The Experiment

Instead of rewriting the entire tutorial, I’m going to make small, controlled changes to two pages.

The first page I’ll update is Page 2.

The changes will be minimal.

• Create a unique hero section.

• Replace the copied homepage hero.

• Write a unique page title.

• Leave the URL unchanged.

• Submit the page for indexing using Google Search Console.

After allowing Google a few days to crawl and process the page, I’ll observe what happens before making any further changes.

The second page I’ll update will be Page 12, which sits immediately before the only indexed tutorial page, Stage 13.

Again, I’ll submit it for indexing and then wait several days before making any further changes.

Why Page 2 and Page 12?

The tutorial follows a simple internal linking structure.

Page 1 ⇄ Page 2 ⇄ Page 3 ⇄ ... ⇄ Page 12 ⇄ Page 13

My question is simple.

If Google indexes Page 2, does it naturally revisit Pages 1 and 3 because they’re directly linked?

If Google indexes Page 12, does it strengthen the connection with the already indexed Stage 13 and begin reconsidering the surrounding pages?

I’m not expecting internal links alone to trigger indexing.

However, internal linking is one of the ways Google discovers and understands websites, so I’m interested to see whether improving two strategically placed pages has any noticeable effect on the rest of the tutorial.

Keeping the Test Fair

To make the results meaningful, I’m deliberately changing as little as possible.

The URLs won’t change.

The tutorial content itself will remain largely the same.

Only the hero section and page title will be updated before requesting indexing.

That should make it easier to judge whether those small improvements influence Google’s crawling or indexing behaviour.

Other Factors Worth Considering

There are several variables that could influence the results.

The website is less than one month old, so Google is still learning about the site and deciding how often to crawl it.

The website is also hosted on my own home server rather than with a commercial hosting company.

That means it runs from a residential internet connection using a residential IP address.

I don’t know whether that makes any difference.

Google hasn’t said that residential IP addresses are treated differently for crawling or indexing, but it’s one of the factors worth acknowledging in this experiment.

I could move the website to a public hosting provider, but that isn’t the point of this project.

The purpose of this website is to document the experience of running and optimising a self-hosted website, so changing the hosting environment would introduce another variable.

What I’ll Be Watching

After each indexing request, I’ll wait a few days before making the next change.

During that time I’ll monitor:

• Whether the submitted page becomes indexed.

• Whether neighbouring pages begin appearing in Google’s index.

• Search Console Performance data.

• Changes to the Page Indexing report.

• Any signs that Google is following the tutorial’s internal linking structure more effectively.

Conclusion & Updates

This isn’t about finding a secret SEO trick.

It’s about documenting Google’s indexing behaviour on a brand-new, self-hosted website.

If Google begins indexing more of the tutorial, I’ll update this post and let you know.

If nothing changes, I’ll also add that too. My expectation at this stage is that Google may index the single submitted page only, and in a few days I will submit a new page for indexing with a change to that hero section.

Either way, the results should provide an honest look at how Google approaches indexing on a new website.

Wish me luck. Over and out!!!!

Update

Both pages were been indexed on the same day, so now i will wait to see if any linked to page either side of it gets indexed.

Update (1st July)

Today I will submit two more pages — one earlier in the sequence (Page 3) and one later in the sequence (Page 11). What will the effect be?

Does Google start to understand and crawl this as a connected “tutorial chain”, or does it continue treating each submitted page as an isolated document?

At the moment i think i am in the “doom loop cycle” — where only manually submitted pages get indexed, and internal links don’t seem to trigger further discovery.

If Google begins to pick up Pages 3 and 11 through internal linking alone, it would suggest the loop is breakable through structure and navigation. If not, it may indicate a more cautious crawl pattern on a new website where discovery remains submission-led rather than link-led.

Will wait and see results and update this post with any spectacular or more “doom loop cycle” behaviour.

🤓

Update (4th July)

Since the last update, Pages/Stages 5, 6, 7, and 9 have now been indexed by Google without manual submission.

At this point, I’m going to stop submitting URLs manually and observe whether Google continues discovery through internal linking and crawl progression alone.

The interesting signal is in Search Console: the last recorded update was 30/06/26, meaning it took around 18 days for Google to revisit. I’ll now monitor how long it takes for the next crawl cycle and whether indexing continues naturally through the site structure.

There will be new content being added over the next few weeks, i have some new plugins in testing stage.

I’ll update again once the next crawl cycle or indexing movement appears.

Update (11th July)

Two pages still not indexed so will complete the indexing of all the tutorial today with manual submission.