Does your business have a website? We hope the answer is yes, and assuming that it is, do you know whether your site is listed on Google? The phrase “If you build it, they will come” isn’t necessarily the case if search engines haven’t indexed it. While there are others, such as DuckDuckGo and Bing, Google is by far the largest. So today let’s look at how to get Google to index your site.
Check and uncheck
Depending on how your website is built, there are a couple of things you need to check or uncheck. For example, in the backend of WordPress sites, there is a box to uncheck under Readability settings, stating “Discourage search engines from indexing this site.” However, within Wix it’s the opposite: you need to check the box to allow search engine indexing.
In addition, you should double-check your Robots.txt file to verify that you don’t have any rogue code blocking search engine crawling.
Create a sitemap
Although this will come into play later, the next step to get Google to index your site is to create a sitemap. Think of this as a table of contents outlining the pages within your site and their relation to each other.
Most often, there is a plugin or setting in the backend of your Dashboard to create a sitemap. Once you find it, and create one, save your sitemap’s URL.
Make certain you’re not using noindex tags
Finally, if your site has been live for a while yet doesn’t appear in search engine listings, you may be using what are called “noindex” tags. Essentially, these tags prevent search engines from — you guessed it — indexing parts of your site. It can be particularly troublesome if your entire site has this tag (such as in your Robots.txt file).
Of note is that some pages should have a noindex tag. These are usually Thank You pages or client-specific pages.
Wait for Google to index your site
If you recently gave search engines permission to crawl your site through your website’s settings, one method to get Google to index your site is simply to wait. Over time, Google will eventually find, crawl, and index your website pages.
However, this can take sometimes far longer than is desirable. If you’re trying to launch a campaign or bring in immediate revenue, waiting for Google may not be viable.
Request indexing
This is where our next tip comes in. The most proactive way to get Google to index your site is to submit it through Google Search Console. Here, you can provide Google with the URL to the site map we had you create earlier. Over the next week or two (sometimes even the next day), Google will visit and index your site, adding it to search results.
Work with an agency
However, even after following each of these steps, it’s possible Google may still have a problem with indexing your site. In addition, some of the above steps are technical, especially if you don’t know where to find the checkboxes or how to edit your Robots.txt file.
We’d love to help you with this or any other of your digital marketing initiatives. Contact us here to let us know what problem you’re experiencing and how we can help!
