Semalt: How To Speed Up Your Website's Google Indexing?
Do you want to rank as high as possible in Google search results? And do you want more traffic to your website? If so, getting your website indexed on Google is one of the first important steps to achieve those wishes.
This is because Google only knows of your website's existence if it is included in the Google index. Additionally, only websites that appear in the index are eligible to be included in search results. So, don't wait any longer to check if your website is already indexed.
To do this, find out in this guide how to check it and how to speed up the process.
What does indexing your website on Google mean?
Indexing your website on Google is the process of adding your site to the Google index. It consists of adding the pages or content of your website to the Google search engine to be visible there.
The Google index can be compared to the Spotify index, which role is to publish music from artists and inform you when new music appears on the market. So, if a song or artist has been added to Spotify, you can find it using a search term. It is the same process concerning your website which, when indexed, allows Internet users to have free access to it.
Therefore, for your website to be found in Google search results, it must appear in the Google index.
How does indexing with search engines work?
The operation of indexing with search engines like Google is done by using small robots. These little robots are also called Googlebots, spiders or crawlers. Their missions are to crawl a page to determine what it is about and what information is available. Although exploration is a complicated process, we will try to explain it in simple words.
Every day, millions of new pages are added to the Internet. This is the case for new recipes, products, blogs, and services. All these URLs are queued with a certain priority.
The bot, therefore, starts from a queue source URL. It can be a page that has already been crawled but updated in the meantime or a new URL that has become available from an XML sitemap.
Crawl here is the process by which Google bots analyze the content of the page. They process information using different systems. For example, there is a canonicalization (duplicate content) system, a system to add the URLs they encounter on the page to the queue, and a rendering system. Rendering means that the page is loaded as it would be seen by a visitor. The speed, usability and navigation of a page are also checked.
If the page meets all the conditions, the information is added to the Google index. As a result, it can now appear in Google search results and other Google services such as Discover.
With the help of technical SEO, you can ensure that your website is fully accessible to crawlers. This way you ensure that the pages can be included in the index without any problems.
How long does indexing on Google take?
There is no standard answer to the question of how long it takes for a new or updated page to get indexed. Sometimes it's within a day, sometimes it can take up to 30 days or more.
7 tips to get found on Google faster
If you'd rather not wait a month for your page to be included in Google's index, use the tips below to get your website indexed faster.
1. Create a sitemap
Creating a sitemap is one of the steps for Google to quickly index your website. This is because crawlers always look for a sitemap first. After all, the information is easy to read.
On the other hand, the XML sitemap can be considered as the table of contents of your website. It's a complete list of all the pages and associated URLs on your site. It allows you to see which pages are regularly updated, such as a blog page where new articles are posted regularly.
Thus, indexing your website on Google can be faster with a sitemap because the information available there can easily be read by crawlers.
2. Log in to Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free Google tool you can use to get your website indexed faster. You can choose to have your whole website (re)indexed or just one page.
You can index your entire website on Google under "Sitemaps". Here you indicate that new URLs have been added to the sitemap. Google will now work on crawling your entire website.
Use the search bar to find a specific URL to analyze it. For example, you can use it if you updated a page, blog, or post.
3. Server Optimization
Your website server has a certain capacity. The analysis occupies such a capacity. It is therefore important that you have enough capacity to let the crawlers do their job.
The crawlers are configured in such a way that they do not overload a website. Therefore, if there is not enough capacity, it negatively affects the number of crawled URLs.
4. Structure of internal links
Link structuring is also an important trick to be indexed more quickly by robots. The crawlers follow all the links provided on a page. Because of this, by using internal links, you ensure that crawlers jump from one page of your website to another.
Make special use of relevant internal links. This helps crawlers better understand what a specific page or part of your website is. So, link mainly to blogs that fall into the same category. This way, the structure of your page, both for visitors and crawlers, remains clear and understandable.
5. Link Building
In addition to internal links, backlinks are also very important. Google has indicated that there is a relationship between the authority of a website and the time Google spends crawling such a website.
The higher the authority of a website, the more time bots spend on it. Authority is determined based on several elements, but the number of backlinks plays an important role.
For this purpose, several paid SEO tools can help you verify the quality of your backlinks. Among them, the Dedicated SEO Dashboard is a very useful one. In fact, this tool will allow you to check if the backlinks of your site are reliable and competitive. Since this is what Google's robots are looking for, your site will inevitably rank higher.
6. Charging speed
As mentioned earlier, crawlers spend some time on your website indexing pages. The longer it takes to load a page, the more time is wasted and the fewer pages can be explored.
Getting your website indexed on Google is faster if the pages load quickly. In addition, a fast website also contributes to the user experience, which Google attaches great importance to when it comes to rankings.
To facilitate the user experience and a good indexation of search engine robots, you can use the Dedicated SEO Dashboard. The tool will allow you not only to identify the elements that prevent your page from loading quickly but also, will propose solutions to eliminate them. Thus, it will allow Google to index your site quickly.
7. Social Media
Crawlers follow links they encounter on other pages. They also follow links that come from social media platforms. Thus, posting a link to a new article on Facebook or Twitter can instantly attract the attention of crawlers.
However, opinions on the value of social media links remain divided. For example, some say they don't add value. On the other hand, while it is debatable whether or not they help index your website on Google, at least they can't hurt.
Problems that lead to poor indexing
![Google Confirms Ongoing Issue With Its Search Index [Update: Fixed?]](https://cdn.searchenginejournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/9d88d778-bd3e-4dbf-803b-8d32992b59f9-62d182fb6279d-sej.jpeg)
You may apply all the tips above, but your website or page is still not indexed. Below, we'll cover some common issues that can lead to poor indexing.
Crash in robots.txt file
The blockage in the txt file represents one of the problems leading to poor indexing of sites. The role of the robots.txt file is to indicate which parts of your website can and cannot be crawled.
So, when it happens that the txt files are blocked, it prevents the crawlers that can no longer crawl the site, so that a URL may not be indexed.
To unblock it, check the robots.txt file to see if crawlers have free access. You can do this by searching for the following piece of code "User-agent". Make sure it is set to "Allow" to allow crawlers to access the page.
No-index tag
No-index tags can be a way to prevent your page or URL from being indexed. This can happen when the tag has been used for another page than the agreed one.
Indeed, a page with a no-index tag is not included in the Google index. This is why crawlers can visit the page, but nothing is done with the information. If this was unintentional then check if a tag without an index is present and remove it.
However, if you want certain pages not to be indexed. Make sure these pages have a no-index tag or are blocked in the robotx.txt file so that they are not included in the Google index.
Incomplete sitemap
An XML sitemap tells Google which pages can be indexed. A missing page in the sitemap is therefore not indexed. It is therefore important that you keep the XML sitemap up to date. Upload a new sitemap as soon as you publish a new article. If you use WordPress or another CRM, the XML sitemap is automatically updated when you create a new page or post.
When should you reindex a website?
Sometimes it is necessary to have your website re-indexed by Google. There can be several reasons for this, such as:
- You have a new website with a whole new structure. When this is so, a new sitemap must be imported into Google Search Console so that crawlers can view and follow the new structure.
- The content of several pages has changed drastically. You can choose to reindex pages one by one or reindex your entire website.
- You notice that Google is not indexing your website correctly. Indicate in Google Search Console that you want the website to be indexed again.
Check if your page is indexed on Google
Do you want to know if your website or your new page has already been indexed by Google? If yes, you can check this in two ways, namely by searching on Google or by using Google Search Console.
Check indexing by Google
- Step 1. Go to www.google.com
- Step 2. In the search bar, type the following query: "Site:sitename". For example, Site:social.com
- Step 3. Check if your website appears at the top of search results.
Similarly, if you want to know if a specific page is already indexed you can type the full URL of a page. For example:
Site:social.com/blog/technische-seo.
So, when the page appears, you know it is indexed.
Check indexing with Google Search Console
- Step 1. Access Google Search Console
- Step 2. In the left menu, under "Index", click "Cover"
- Step 3. You can now see in an overview how many URLs are indexed and excluded, but also for which URLs there are errors or warnings.
The benefit of this report is that you can click through error messages and warnings to get an overview of the URLs involved. Google will point out any errors on the page so you can fix them.
Conclusion
Indexing your website in Google is the first step to getting better positioning on search engines. To rank your site better, you can implement various search engine optimizations. On-page and off-page SEO also play an important role in this regard.
Good content, a user-friendly website, link building and using SEO tools including Semalt's Dedicated SEO Dashboard are also important factors to reach the top of Google.