Google's indexing patterns -- odd or not?

I just changed some things on my site to make the pages more SEO friendly (my first stab at it). And I've noticed that SOME of my sites are indexed on the 9th, but some AREN'T. Which is weird, because I thought Google indexes the WHOLE site at the same time. No?

 

No. A spider will visit and send back information, for example, links, and also send back directions so that at a later date another spider with the same name but a different purpose, will return to your site and index the information it was directed to by the first spider.

Spider #2 will also send back further information which may cause a third spider which is designed to gather different information than the first two.

Spidering is a step by step process. One may gather links within the site, another may gather text and another may gather links pointing out.

 

its important to have a good sitemap if you want to get as much as possible indexed at the same time

 

Yes, and split your sitemap into more than one page if it has over 100 page links.

~VegasMack

 

I have a lot of pages, and they're all linked to four major pages. Since all four major pages have been indexed already (all on the 9th, a day after I updated the pages), it shouldn't be long before the rest of the pages gets indexed, right? Since my major pages are essentially archives with links to my other pages, I mean.

 

Yes, google has several different types of spiders, some deep crawl and some don't, this is nothing unusual.

 

Probably it also depend on number of inbound links you have and pagerank, If you can get few inbound links to these 4 deep pages, may help.

 

If you're interested in the processes involved in spidering then read this article about 'Mercator'. Not the exact same as Google's technoogy but the fundamentals must be the same:

http://research.compaq.com/SRC/mercator/papers/www/paper.html

McFox's post is pretty spot on indeed.

Just because those 4 pages are indexed doesn't mean the rest will follow suit shortly.

 

I have also noticed that just because a new page on my site has been indexed, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the entire text (600 -900 words) has been completely analyzed.

The page may be built for 3 for 4 keyphrases, and may show up for the most prominent phrase early on. But, it may take 2 or 3 months before it becomes visible for the other phrases which are typically in the middle or bottom of the page.