Since search results are the ultimate destination for websites when implementing SEO, it is essential to ensure that Google knows about your new website or blog soon after its launch.
Delay in informing Google would hamper your SEO prospects because with every passing minute the competition is growing intense. So, how do you inform Google that you have arrived? Google and all other search engines use spiders or crawlers that keep sweeping across the internet in search of new content or website. It means, by optimizing your website or content for SEO, you stay prepared and wait for Google to find you. The problem is that you do not know when Google will come calling and until it does, your website or content will not qualify for indexing and not appear in search results.
Indexing is thus most critical because it helps Google to create a database of everything that it scoops out from the internet. Google's index is very similar to the index you find in books that helps to access the topic you are looking for. The index of search engines is like a vast library that captures all crawled websites and is the only source for finding answers against search queries.
Whenever search engines come across any question, it reverts to the database that contains the list of all web pages for answers. When you have an indexed website that includes the answer which Google finds most appropriate, the web page will likely appear in search results. Since qualifying for appearing in search results is the primary goal of marketers indexing acquires enormous importance.
Delayed indexing is bad
The delay in indexing will hit you hard, and you must do something to expedite the process. However, you must first analyze the reason for the delay so that you can create a plan for going forward. Since the crawlers are continuously scanning the internet, it is only a matter of time before Google indexes your website. While diagnosing the reason for the delay you may discover that something as simple as sitemap is missing in your site that is hindering the process of indexing.
Google might omit pages from indexing if it smells spam or because it is so slow that it becomes inaccessible. If your website has flaws that you can detect, getting rid of it will make the process of indexing faster. Once indexed, the site or web pages start appearing in search results and creates the opportunity of driving traffic to websites.
The better you know about crawlers and the process of indexing easier it will be to meet the requirements of faster indexing without doing anything special. Adhering to the SEO best practices under the guidance of a professional SEO company can help to get the right results.
We have already mentioned a number of times about crawlers, but you need to know what these are actually. Google runs on algorithms, and therefore it is no surprise that crawlers are tiny algorithms. Crawlers behave like Google's eyes and ears. Search engines use crawlers to gather information about every page published on the internet by scouring the codes. Also known as spiders, the crawlers are continually moving across the web in search of new content.
The crawlers have become very speedy and can capture anything new that it comes across including updates almost immediately. On finding new content on your website, the crawlers would update the earlier indexed version of your site.
Crawlers can analyze the codes that make up a web page along with its location and use the data for indexing. It is also capable of, processing ALT attributes, title tags and links. The algorithm helps to assess the quality and relevance of the page with respect to keywords even when the crawling and indexing process is underway. The method is the same whether you launch a new website or upload a new page.
Sitemap facilitates fast indexing
The sitemap is very important for indexing because it gives quick direction to crawlers to access the right places on websites and expedites the indexing process. Proper structure and codes of sitemaps help to index pages faster. You must avoid poorly coded sitemaps that block crawlers and spam content because these are detrimental for indexing as search crawlers would never consider it fit for use by search engines. Making all efforts to see that crawlers index websites and pages faster should be your goal.
To know whether your site is indexed search on Google by typing 'site: domain name.com.' No results mean no indexation and your site will not appear in search results. If the result is out of date, it means that the interval of indexing is too long. It is possible to know how frequently Google indexes your website by going to the Google Search Console and then clicking crawl to display all crawl statistics.
Keep reading to know how you can speed up the process of indexing.
Include a reference to a new page in the sitemap
A simple way to speed up the process of indexing a page is to add a reference of the new page to the sitemap which is an XML list of the contents of the website. The sitemap is like a table of contents that facilitate quick navigation across the site without searching for the pages that one is looking for.
The sitemap is responsible for informing search engines of any updates or changes that happen to the website. Another critical function of the sitemap is that it helps to determine the frequency of checking by search engines to keep the indexing updated.
Sitemaps are important even though it does not contribute to improving search rankings because if you have a poor sitemap, you will fare poorly in search rankings.
Even though sitemaps have no relation to search rankings, Google has admitted to the power of sitemaps in influencing search rankings. Google says that when sitemaps support crawling and indexing, it speeds up the process of website moving up the ladder in search rankings. Sitemaps are like road signs that tell Google about the URLs of your site.
For the above reasons, creation and submission of sitemaps have become so important for websites. WordPress users would find it very easy to create sitemaps by using the plugin for Google XML sitemaps. The plugin allows you to schedule sitemap settings as you can program it for setting various timings related to sitemap creation, submission, and submission to search engines.
The best thing about the plugin is that it is possible to automate the process. It means that uploading anything new on the website will automatically update the sitemap and keep the content ready for indexing. The method of indexing automatically gets a boost and improves the SEO prospects.
However, you must ensure that sitemap remains always updated and tuned to the Google Search Console. Create a schedule for sitemap update every fortnight or after a month. Delaying the update will delay indexing.
New content should show up in RSS feed
You should know that there is a link between your content and RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) or as some call it Rich Site Summary. RSS is an automatic feed linked to your content that keeps updating every time you publish a blog post or any new content. By using some popular RSS readers like Feeder or Feedly, you can create your RSS feed. It opens up a new avenue for connecting with your audience because users who subscribe to your feed will automatically receive new content.
RSS feed is a great way for content distribution that benefits both visitors and site owners. Readers subscribing to RSS feed can do so even without signing to the mailing list. Through RSS feeds you can deliver large amounts of content that subscribers can consume quickly and it gives an enhanced user experience especially to privacy-conscious subscribers.
RSS feeds help quick indexing of pages besides increasing viewership and conversion rates. You can either include full posts in RSS feeds or can choose to include excerpts only. For longer articles, excerpts are a good choice because readers are not willing to devote much time to go through the feeds.
Enhance user experience
While the actions mentioned have a direct impact on the indexing speed, there are some other indirect but essential signals that search engines pick up for fast indexing. When high traffic flows to websites search engines treat it as a sign of good quality and Google would be eager to index it fast.
To enhance traffic flow, make sure how you can improve user experience that acts as a signal to search engines for picking up websites to index it quickly.
Since Google wants to provide the best user experience, it relies on websites that also make the user happy and naturally would index it in priority.
Sujain Thomas is an experienced blogger who has written articles for several renowned blogs and websites about various uses of social media to engineer more business traffic on business websites. Currently, she is working with a Los Angeles SEO Firm as a part-time freelancer.
