When will my site appear on Google?

The short version: 1-3 days for indexing, 1-2 weeks before Google starts ranking you for your property name, and longer for non-brand queries. Below is the timeline you'll see in your Domains tab and what each step means.

The four-step timeline

1. Live on `${your-domain}` (or your Haven URL)

Your site is now serving HTTPS traffic. Visitors who type the URL directly will land on your booking page right away. This step happens within minutes of attaching a custom domain or publishing your property.

2. Submitted to Google

Within minutes of going live, Haven submits your URL to Google's Indexing API and to IndexNow (Bing/Yandex). This is a "please come crawl me" ping — it doesn't index the page itself, it just bumps your URL up Google's crawl queue.

3. Indexed in Google search

Google has now crawled your page and added it to its index. This typically takes 1-3 days after submission, sometimes up to 7 for new domains. You can check the exact status at any time in your own Google Search Console once you've added your site (Haven gives you a one-click link inside the Domains tab).

If it's been more than 7 days and you're still not indexed:

Confirm your site loads with a 200 response (not a 404 / redirect loop).
In Search Console's URL Inspection, check that there's no noindex directive.
For custom domains, confirm your DNS has fully propagated by visiting your site in a fresh incognito window.

4. Findable on Google

Your page is now ranking in the top 10 for a search query related to your property — typically your brand name (the property title or collection name). When this happens, Haven sends you an email with a one-click "Try it on Google" button, and the same status appears in your dashboard.

This step usually arrives 1-3 days after indexing for brand-name queries. Generic non-brand queries (e.g. "St John villa") can take weeks or months and depend on factors outside Google's normal indexing pipeline (links from other sites, content depth, location competition).

Custom domain vs. Haven URL

Both flows go through the same four-step indexing pipeline. The only difference:

Custom domains get their own Google Search Console URL-prefix property registered automatically by Haven.
Haven URLs (e.g. bookwithhaven.com/properties/your-code) are covered by Haven's umbrella bookwithhaven.com Search Console property.

If you set up a custom domain within 3 days of creating your property, Haven will only send you the custom-domain findability email — not a Haven-URL email first and a custom-domain email shortly after — to avoid duplicate notifications during initial setup.

Why the staggered timing

Google's pipeline has three independent stages: discover, crawl, and rank. Indexing API tells Google to discover quickly, but crawling and ranking still happen on Google's own schedule. There's no API to skip either step.

For brand-name queries Google moves fastest because the keywords are unambiguous (no other site is competing for "Cocoa Tea Villa St John"). For generic geo + amenity queries you're competing against thousands of pages and the timeline stretches out accordingly.

Where to monitor it yourself

Inside Haven: the four-step timeline in your Domains tab updates automatically as Haven detects each transition.
In your own Google Search Console: once you've added your site as a URL-prefix property, you'll see live performance data, ranking, and crawl errors. Use the Search results report and filter by your domain.

Want help getting beyond brand-name ranking?

Brand-name indexing is automatic and arrives within days. Generic discovery queries ("villa in St John", "cabin near Asheville", "Airbnb alternative on the coast") are a different game — they depend on links, content depth, location competition, and ongoing campaigns. That's what Haven Boost is for: an add-on to your Haven plan that pairs you with a dedicated hospitality marketing specialist who runs search, local-event, social, and repeat-guest campaigns on your behalf. If you want help getting found for more than just your property name, that's the right next step.