Google has become our go-to resource when we need information. Every time you ask Google for some information, you are asking Google for applicable websites from their index. If Google cannot find your website, you are unlikely to get visitors. You need to work on-site indexing if you want your website to appear on the search engine result page.
Google index is similar to a library. The index contains billions of pages, and Google picks the pages it thinks are relevant. Its advanced algorithm systematically searches the web looking for new content.
Site indexing is not as simple as uploading content onto your website and hoping for the best. You cannot leave indexing to chance.
To rank consistently you need a strategy and ree Google rank checker tools that check the site indexing status of your website. In this blog, we will discuss various ways to get Google to index your site faster.
Is Google Indexing your site?
You must know your website is indexed, but how do check if your site is indexed?
The easiest way is to use Google Search Engine.
- Google search bar type in search: mywebsite.com
- On the result page, right under the search categories, you will see an estimate of indexed pages from your site. If Google cannot find your website, zero results will show up.
You can use Google Search Console to check if your website is indexed, it is free to set up your account. Google Search Console, Index Coverage Report gives a quick summary indexing status of your website.
- Log in to Google Search Console
- Click on Index
- Click on coverage
- You will see the number of pages on your website that are indexed. If the number is zero, Google has not indexed your website.
The report provides you with technical details about your website like – crawling and indexing details.
The report focuses on four kinds of statuses –
- Valid – Pages that are successfully indexed.
- Valid with warnings – Pages were indexed but with some problems. Try to address these concerns as soon as possible.
- Excluded – Pages that were not indexed.
- Error – Google was unable to index the pages.
What are Google’s Ranking Factors?
SEO is the process of optimizing your website to rank high on the search engine result page. You need to aim for the first page since most users stick to the first page. Organic or unpaid search results require a different strategy than paid traffic.
Google has a complex algorithm, and not all of its ranking factors are known. The search engine can change the parameters, but Google assesses websites by quality, trustworthiness, and performance.
The different Google ranking factors are –
- Off-page ranking factors – Google measures mention outside the website and mainly involves backlinks.
- On-page ranking factors – On-page factors are related to keywords, content, and quality.
- Technical ranking factors – this has to do with website performance.
You need to concentrate on technical, on-page, and off-page efforts to ensure your website is SEO friendly. SEO guide can help you improve your ranking.
ALSO SEE – Best SEO Keyword Research Tools
Here is an SEO checklist you can help –
- Update your page experience.
- Crawl through your website and ensure no crawl errors on the website.
- Fix internal and outbound links
- Avoid duplicate content on your website.
- Switch to using HTTPS protocols
- Ensure your URLs are simple as possible.
- Ensure your website has optimized XML sitemaps.
How long does it take for Google to index a site?
There is no fixed time on how long it takes to index your website, it can take a few days or a few weeks to get your page indexed. If you have just launched your website, this can be incredibly frustrating to discover Google has not indexed it.
You can take some proactive steps to ensure your page gets indexed faster.
How to Use On-page SEO to Create a Site Map for Google?
Sitemaps are similar to maps of your website that help search engines like Google crawl and index your website content. You should use sitemaps to tell Google which pages are on your website. Sitemaps impact your on-page SEO score and help search engines navigate your website.
We classify sitemaps into –
- Normal XML sitemaps are the most common type of sitemaps. It lists critical pages on the website to ensure Google finds and crawls them all. Search engines use XML sitemaps to understand your website.
- Video sitemaps – Google uses video sitemaps to understand the video content of your website.
- Image sitemaps – Google uses image sitemaps to understand the image content of your website.
- News sitemaps – Google uses news site maps to find content approved for Google news.
Google wants to display the most relevant results for any search query and the search engines have site crawlers to read, organize, and index information on different websites. It can crawl and index websites more efficiently if you add XML sitemaps and boost your on-page SEO ranking.
The sitemaps tell Google about page location, the last update, and the frequency and importance of the update. Without a sitemap, search engines may think your site has duplicate content, harming your on-page SEO ranking.
We implement Site structure in directories, folders, categories, tags, or links. Directories and folders help you group content meaningfully and group your content by how they relate to one another. Category and tags are a great way to group blogs that are contextual, easy to locate, and access.
You can create your sitemap in five easy steps –
- How is your web content structured? You can use a website template as a guide. All sitemaps start with the homepages, which pages do you want to be linked to the homepage? Remember some pages on your website are more relevant, and the further it is from your home page, the more difficult they will be to find. Ideally, your sitemaps should have a shallow depth. Remember to prioritize high-quality pages on sitemaps. Ideally, you should be able to navigate any page in three clicks.
- Code your URLs with XML tags. If you are familiar with HTML, this will be easy. You need to add location, last changes, frequency of the change, and priority to each URL.
- Validate your code to ensure no errors have crept in. There are free XML sitemap validator tools that will check for errors in the syntax.
- Add the sitemap file to your root directory and the root.txt file.
- Submit your sitemap to the Google Search Console.
Writing your sitemap can be challenging, and unintended errors can creep in, use a site map generator instead. Google has a new open-source Google Sitemap Generator that collects the URLs to create sitemaps. Site map generators can save resources and time.
The best free site map generator tools you can use are-
- XML-sitemap.com
- Screaming Frog XML Sitemap Generator
- Inspyder Sitemap Generator
- Flowmapp
- Gitmind
Website Structures and How They Affect Your Rank in the Search Engine Results Page
Your website is a powerful communication tool. While structuring the website, try to ensure-
- Audiences and search engines find vital content on your website easily.
- Visitors should be able to navigate your website easily.
- Have a robust framework to evaluate your site’s health and performance.
Working on technical SEO structure is often overlooked. A good web architecture ensures users can find content quickly with as few clicks as possible. The architecture is essential for SEO success.
While working on your SEO structure, try grouping topical content together. You can use the structure to show how the pages are interconnected. This grouping is called topical relevance or topical authority, and if done well, it can help position you as a subject matter expert.
Use SEO Structure to highlight critical pages (pillar pages) on your website. You can position the pages that rank for competitive high-volume keywords.
Backlinks are an integral part of your SEO ranking. As a part of link building strategy, ensure your links are distributed throughout the website. To get quality backlinks, try to ensure different web pages answer specific questions and benefit your readers.
Keyword cannibalization can deter your website from ranking well when multiple pages two or pages with the same objectives compete with one another. A well-planned SEO structure ensures a clearly defined place for a particular piece.
Well-defined site architecture should –
- Pages are sorted by topical relevance.
- Highlight your most important pages
- Organize your content in a logical hierarchy and easy to navigate.
Some different website structure examples are –
- Hierarchical website structure (tree page)- It is a commonly used website structure and can be easily understood. Websites that are information-heavy with many pages prefer a hierarchical structure. The home page is a top-level page, after which there are subpages and child pages. Even though the pages are linked internally, the website follows a logical top-down approach.
- Linear website structure (Sequential model) – This structure is the simplest website structure and is unsuitable for large websites. It model has a few pages without any subcategories.
- Webbed website structure – Webbed website structure has a main page and parent pages with child pages. All pages are interconnected, and users can access pages with minimal clicks.
- Database website structure – The database website structure has a bottom-up approach. You need to consider the metadata and taxonomies of the content while designing the structure.
How to Index your WordPress Websites?
WordPress is a popular CMS for creating your website. If you are following WordPress-recommended SEO practices, Google should automatically find your website. You need to start working on ranking on the website as much as possible. Top PR social bookmarking sites are an important SEO strategy. The website uses social bookmarking to improve backlinks, branding, promoting, and indexing while increasing traffic.
- To Index page Install All in One for WordPress – You need to install and activate All in One SEO (AIIOSEO) for WordPress. Free and paid versions of the software are available. After activation, you just have to follow the setup instruction. AIIOSEO will take care of many SEO tasks.
- Add your website to Google Search Console – Google Search Console allows website owners to monitor their website performances. You can track search ranking and get notified if Google cannot crawl through your website.
- Add XML Sitemaps to Google Search Console – Remember to add an XML sitemap to the Google Search console so that website can find the page.
- Optimize content for ranking – You can add meta titles and descriptions to your webpage or post using AIIOSEO.
- Add internal links – Internal links to other pages on your website can improve your SEO. You need to consistently add links to your most important links to any new web pages or content.
- Share your content – A quick way to promote your content is to share content on your social media posts.
Working on high pr sites and high pr backlinks is part of your off-page SEO strategy. Start working on high pr backlinks, you need to submit your posts to social sharing sites or sharing bookmarking sites. Some of the benefits offered by SBM sites are-
- Bookmarks can ensure your website is indexed quickly by search engine sites like Google.
- High PR sites can ensure you will get quality backlinks.
- Submitting articles to high PR sites ensures you get new traffic. Submitting your blog to a high bookmark site can make your blog go viral.
- It helps establish your domain authority.
- Reduce bounce rate on your site
High pr sites like Reddit.com and bizsugar.com have strict rules like spamming can get you banned. To get noticed, you need to get creative and social. Work consistently to build your profile by submitting authoritative blog posts for other websites or commenting on other people’s posts and resharing content.
ALSO SEE – How to Outsource SEO
High PR backlinks are links to your website from other high-ranking websites. High PR backlinks between PR7 to PR10 can improve your SEO rank. Google’s page rank algorithm uses a scale between PR1 to PR10. The Page Rank algorithm analyzes the quality and quantity of the external links. A high PR rank means that trustworthy sites have referenced your website.
Free tools like HARO (Help a Report Out) can help get your PR backlinks. Alternatively, you can use SEO tools like Ahref, Semrush, or LinkMiner to analyze the backlink profile of your competitors.
Conclusion…
You need to work consistently on building and improving your website. You cannot ignore indexing if you want Google to find your website. You do not need to leave indexation to chance. Using tools like Google Search Console and Yoast can help ensure your website is crawled and indexed, and fix issues if any.
We recommend you follow best practices of sitemaps, and backlinks, and update your website regularly.
