Google is a digital library where people come every day to search answer for their queries. That’s how many businesses like yours come across their eyes.
However, crossing their path is only possible if the pages of your website are indexed. For that, you can take the help of an SEO company in Seattle. Also, we have created this guide to aid you in indexing your website or web pages.
So let’s know how to do that:
How To Check Google Indexing?
To get an idea of the number of pages on your website indexed by Google, search for site:yourwebsite.com on Google. Then, look at the number of results shown below the search bar.
How to get indexed by Google
Having valuable content for searchers elevates your chances of getting indexed easily. You will have to enable Google to find your pages, which is easy with a four-step process:
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Request indexing for the homepage
Go to Google Search Console and sign up. Add your property, plug the homepage into the URL Inspection tool, then hit “Request indexing.” If your site structure is good, then Google may find and index all the pages on your site.
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Build a sitemap and Submit it to Google
A sitemap enables Google to locate pages you consider significant on your site.
Most website platforms, such as Squarespace, Wix, and Shopify, will automatically generate a sitemap for you. This is typically found at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml or yourdomain.com/sitemap_index.xml. However, if not there, check your robots.txt file at yourdomain.com/robots.txt for its position.
If you use WordPress, employ a plugin like Rank Math or Yoast to build a sitemap. However, remember not to use the default sitemap provided by WordPress, as it includes a lot of insignificant material you do not require.
When your sitemap gets ready, visit the Sitemaps tab in Google Search Console, put the sitemap URL, and click “Submit.”
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Properly Structure Your Site
Every significant page of your website should be easily discoverable by search engines through internal links. If that’s impossible for a page, it is called an orphanage page. There are fewer chances of these pages getting indexed by Google as they are tough to locate and have fewer essential signals.
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Build Backlinks To Your Site
Backlinks authenticate your site and signal to Google that the website has valuable content that deserves indexing.
For newbie websites, the best would be to locate their competitors’ backlinks and replicate the possible ones. The links can be from:
- Listicles that name different competitors, excluding you
- Directories
- Guest posts, podcasts, and interviews
Hopefully, your website will get indexed, but if not, there might be other issues.
Look at Other Issues If Still Not Indexed
If your website is still not indexed after trying the practices mentioned above, then dig out for the following issues and fix them:
#1 Check for Rogue No Index Tags
If you don’t allow Google to index pages, how would it do that? You do it with a no index robots meta tag or an x-robots-tag HTTP header.
#2 Check Your robots.txt file for Crawl Blocks
Google barely indexes pages it can’t crawl, so if you block some in robots.txt, they’re unlikely to be indexed.
You can use Google’s robots.txt tester to see if a page is blocked. Simply enter your URL and click “Test.” If everything is in order, it will indicate “Allowed.”
If you want to index a blocked page, you must change the directive in your robots.txt file to permit Google to crawl the page.
#3 Check for Manual Actions and Security Issues
Google might not show your website or web page in search results if there’s any manual action or security issue in it. You may use Google Search Console’s help to know if these issues persist.
#4 Check Whether Content is Valuable or Not
From the searchers’ point of view, evaluate your content to know whether it generates any value for searchers. Your content should be helpful and inspiring.
#5 Check for Nofollow Internal Links
Nofollow links are those that have the rel= “nofollow” tag. It’s recommended not to employ them because Google may or may not crawl them.
#6 Check for Indexable Pages Out of Your Sitemap
Google relies upon Sitemaps to discover which pages are essential. If your pages are excluded from the sitemap, then that might be why Google is not considering them to index.
#7 Check for opportunities for Internal Linking
Internal links do more than just assist Google in discovering new pages. They also help in increasing their PageRank and signaling their relevance. Adding more relevant internal connections can boost your chances of Google crawling (and ranking) crucial pages.
Here’s a fast approach to look for opportunities:
- Visit the Page Explorer in Site Audit
- Introduce a filter for “internal outlinks”> “not contains”> [URL of the desired page to get indexed]
- Introduce a filter for “Page text”> “contains”> [keyword you’re targeting]
This will look for keyword mentions on pages that do not already link to your target page.
#8 Check for Crawl Budget Problems
The crawl budget is the amount of time and pages a search engine wants to crawl on your site. Some pages will only be crawled or indexed if this figure is within your crawl budget. This is why you should limit the quantity of low-quality pages on your site.
Here’s what Google has to say about it:
Wasting search engine resources on [low-value-add pages] lowers crawl activity from pages with value. It results in too much delay in uncovering exceptional content on a site.
According to Google, “crawl budget […] is not something most publishers have to worry about,” and that “if a site has fewer than a few thousand URLs, most of the time it will be crawled efficiently.”
Hence, eliminating low-quality pages is not a good practice as it will positively affect your website’s crawl budget.
Closing Thoughts
Indexing is crucial for every website to invite traffic from Google. By indexing, you get into the game of ranking your website. It’s your pathway to victory.
However, if you need expert help indexing your website, you may reach out to Codeadapt. From experienced professionals in this field, you can expect the best digital marketing company in Seattle that brings remarkable results.
