Various aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. In some aspects, a base station may transmit, and a user equipment (UE) may receive, a bitmap that includes a bit sequence to indicate a synchronization signal block (SSB) transmission pattern. The UE may perform rate matching around one or more candidate SSB positions in an initial portion of a window in which SSB transmission is expected, based at least in part on the bitmap, a first parameter indicating a quantity of initial candidate SSB positions in the window subject to rate matching, and a second parameter indicating a quantity of initial bits in the bit sequence that define the SSB transmission pattern. Numerous other aspects are provided.