One word: caching.

Continuum caches your site. (Read up on the the purpose of caching here.).

If your website doesn't have special caching rules in place we have the following cache rules by default:

• Homepage: 15 minutes
• Navigation / Footer / Header elements:
• Rail elements:
• Main content of a page: 

We also have a caching layer, Varnish, that has a 5-minute cache. 

Example of Caching Math:

• Default varnish cache for a homepage is 5 minutes.
• Homepage has a 15 minute database cache If a query is cached for 15m and varnish caches for 5, the minimum time a homepage would remain cached is 5 minutes.  In this scenario, the query cache updated precisely 10 minutes ago, and the varnish cache has just refreshed, so the query cache and varnish cache will recache in 5 minutes. The maximum cache time is 19m 59s.  In this case, the query cache stays the same for 14m 59s, and varnish refreshes its cache 1 second before the query cache expires, and it caches the homepage for 5m from that point. 

Note: If you have specific sections of your site that you want to have be updated as quickly as possible, talk to your SM about modifying the cacheing rules for your site.

Please understand that the lower your cache time, the slower your site will load, especially during traffic spikes.