We all know that feeling: you’ve invested months of hard work into your website launch and it’s finally ready to go live. You hit the ‘publish’ button with glee, only to realize a few days later that Google still hasn’t indexed your site!
For most business owners, this can spell disaster – after all, how are potential customers going to find you if you haven’t been picked up by one of the biggest search engines out there? Don’t worry though: in this blog post we are going to help you figure out just what steps (and snafus) have prevented Google from seeing your site and provide some simple solutions for website indexing so everyone will be able to search for — and find — your amazing website!
What is website indexing and the Google crawler?
Website indexing is a process used by search engines to catalog webpages and enable their users to more effectively find the content they are looking for. It involves organizing researched information onto websites in order to make them easier to find.
Website indexing typically starts with a “spider,” otherwise referred to as the Google site crawler. This web crawler tool is a program that follows hyperlinks across the internet and “crawls” each website, downloading the HTML content and data associated with each page so that it can be indexed. This makes essential web information accessible instantaneously through search engine results pages (SERPs). Indexing can greatly improve the visibility of websites in SERPs, which is why SEO professionals consider it an important part of optimizing a website for organic search engine traffic.
Everyone wants to have their website noticed and being indexed is an essential part of standing out from the crowd on the internet. Without proper website indexing, potential visitors may not even know you or your website exist as they won’t be able to find you on a search engine results page. Being indexed also means that people can see whether or not your site has been updated lately, as well as giving them a chance to discover content that may be relevant to them. All in all, getting indexed provides opportunities for increased traffic and engagement, which is why it’s so important for websites to get discovered.
The Steps: How to index your website on Google
Optimizing your website for search engines is actually kind of like a game. It may sound complicated, but once you get the rules down and start to experience some wins, you’ll see it’s really quite simple – and incredibly rewarding. Here is what you need to do to start ranking higher on Google and making sure your web pages are appearing in search results.
1. Make sure your website is set up for SEO
To start, you need to research and understand the keywords relevant to your website. This is a vital part of SEO and will help determine which phrases and words you should use when creating page titles and content. Additionally, by optimizing the URLs of each page on your website, users can better understand what they’re clicking on before arriving at your page. Don’t forget to add keywords, meta descriptions and internal links to other pages on your website; this helps users understand what kind of content they are about to see.
2. Submit website to Google for indexing
Once you have your website powered by SEO, the next step is to submit it to Google Search Console. This will alert Google that your site exists, allowing them to visit and index it. To do this, simply create a free account at Google Search Console and enter the URL of your site.
3. Create a sitemap and submit it to Google
Creating a sitemap and submitting it to Google can be greatly beneficial for your website and will give the Google site crawler something to be impressed by.. Not only will this help Google better index and understand your site, but it will also allow them to crawl deeper which can help you reach more of the people who are searching for content related to what you offer on your website. With easy steps from signing into the console, exploring the tools, and finally creating a map, you can get set up with a sitemap in no time.
4. Create high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience
Consistently creating high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience can be a great way to ensure that your website indexing is on task. Not only will this show potential customers what you’re all about and why they should consider your business when in the market for something, it also helps with SEO rankings which boost the visibility of your website in search engine results.
5. Monitor your website’s search engine rankings and traffic levels
After you have done all of the above, make sure you regularly check back on the console for any improvements or issues that need addressing with your website’s SEO. By following these few easy steps, you’ll be actively participating in improving your website’s visibility online!
Don’t Have Time for All of This? Call zö seo!
Website indexing is important for making sure people can find you online – and it’s something that takes time and effort. If you don’t have time to figure out the web crawler tool or how to index your website on Google, yourself – or if you just want someone to take a second look to make sure everything is perfect – contact us here at zö seo. We offer some of the best SEO consulting services you could find and we would be more than happy to help you with getting your site indexed so that people can start finding you online!
