> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.sageseo.ai/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.sageseo.ai/reference/indexing-submission.md).

# Telling Google About New Articles

Publishing an article to your site doesn't automatically put it in front of search users. Google has to crawl it first. By default that can take days or weeks, especially on smaller sites.

Sage shortcuts the wait. The moment an article goes live — autopilot OR your manual Publish — Sage tells Google directly that there's a new URL worth crawling. Most of our customers see articles indexed within hours instead of days.

## What this actually does

Submitting a URL to Google **prioritizes** the crawl — Google moves your URL toward the front of its discovery queue. It does NOT guarantee indexing. Google still makes its own call about whether the content is good enough to keep in the index. (That's what the [URL Inspection](/reference/url-inspection.md) check tracks.)

The submission is fire-and-forget. Sage doesn't wait for Google to respond before continuing — the article publishes immediately to your WordPress site either way. The submission happens in the background.

## When Sage runs it

* **After every publish** — autopilot OR manual Publish button. Always automatic. You don't need to click anything.
* **Once per article URL** — Sage tracks which URLs have already been submitted in the last 24 hours to avoid wasted submissions.
* **Re-submission on content changes** — coming soon. Today, Sage re-submits if you re-publish via the Sage interface; manual edits to the WP post don't trigger a fresh submission.

## What if it fails

A submission failure (rare — usually a temporary Google API issue) doesn't break anything else. Your article still goes live on your site. Google will discover the URL through your sitemap or internal links within days. Sage logs the failure but doesn't surface it to you unless it's a persistent pattern across a domain.

## How this fits into Sage's bigger picture

```
   write content  →  publish to WP  →  tell Google  →  Google crawls  →  Google indexes  →  rankings
                                          ↑                  ↓
                                          │              tracked by
                                       Sage does            URL Inspection
                                       automatically
```

The crawl → index path is Google's call, not ours. Our job is to make the crawl happen fast, then watch the indexing decision in real time so you know whether the article landed or got rejected.

## Why this matters more than people think

On a fresh domain, "we'll wait for Google to find it" can mean 3–6 weeks before an article gets crawled at all. By submitting directly:

* **You see indexing decisions in days, not weeks** — fast feedback loop on what's working
* **Stuck articles surface fast** — if Google crawls and chooses not to index, you find out quickly and can strengthen the content
* **Your sitemap stays trustworthy** — Google learns your site publishes regularly + freshly, which improves overall crawl rate over time

## Related

* [URL Inspection](/reference/url-inspection.md) — once submitted, this is how Sage tracks the verdict
* [WordPress Publishing](/reference/publishing-mechanics.md) — the upstream action that triggers submission