Indexing your site on Google in 2023 largely depends on Google’s algorithm consideration of user demands and quality checks. However, it is a process that you can easily influence and make the most of if done the right way.
Several website owners and webmasters want to know why there is a delay in their site featuring on Google SERP - Search Engine Result Page. They know the importance of organic searches to their website. They know that it is responsible for 53 percent of their web traffic. Hence, the need to ensure that their web pages appear in search results.
Featuring your site on Google should be your ultimate goal if you have web content. And as such, the marketability of your website will determine traffic inflow that would convert to sales. In this article, you will find the easiest and most reliable ways to index your site on Google in 2023. Before delving into the major stuff, it is best to understand how Google indexes and crawls a website. This is quite important in grasping the basics involved in ranking organically and gaining important leads that drive conversions.
How Google’s Indexing Works
The thing is, Google’s algorithm keeps combing the web for resources and new content and will get to your content, even without submitting it. But calling on Google reduces the time you'd have spent waiting. Knowing how Google indexing operates will help you identify where you are in the indexing stages. Google indexes websites in four major stages. They are:
Discovery – Crawling – Process – Indexing
Step 1: Discovery
The discovery stage is the point where Google recognizes the existence of your website through submitted sitemaps or backlinks pointing to your site/webpage from already-indexed sites.
Step 2: Crawling
Coined from a spider’s movement, Google bots/spiders visit your website and download its pages.
Step 3: Process
This stage involves the extraction of content from your crawled web pages. Afterward, it prepares it for the index stage.
Step 4: Indexing
Google's index comprises trillions of crawled pages. It is a digital library that enables Google to create search results for its users. At this stage, Google simply adds each processed crawled web content to its massive digital library pool.
After going through how Google indexing works, the next thing is to get your website into Google’s digital library of indexed information.
How to index your website on Google the fastest ways
Although Google would eventually find your site, this can take time. To feature on Google's SERP – Search Engine Result Pages quickly, you should send your site to Google.
Submitting your website is a straightforward process and should come with no hassle if you know what to do. To make the experience even better, you can submit your site in two ways. One way is by making use of Google’s ping service, while another is uploading an updated sitemap of your website in Google’s search console. Both of these methods are quick to execute and would typically take a few seconds of your time. You would also need to locate the sitemap of the website that you’d like to crawl. Before delving into both processes, here is how to locate your sitemap.
Locating your Sitemap
The location of your sitemap largely depends on the platform you built your website on. For instance, if you build your website using WordPress, any SEO plugin -whether free or paid- like Rank Math, The SEO Framework, or Yoast will point your sitemap's location to you. Often, you will find it with this URL template:
abcxyz123.com/sitemap_index.xmlSquarespace, Shopify, or Wix website locates the sitemaps using this URL:
abcxyz123.com/sitemap.xmlThere are situations where you might not locate your sitemaps using the suggested links above as a result of the permalink setting or other technical reasons. You can simply use the robot.txt file of your website to identify your sitemap. Simply attach ‘robot.txt’ at the end of your site’s URL i.e.
www.abcxyz123.com/robots.txtAlso, if your website is not built on a CMS or site-building platform, the creation of a manual sitemap would be the thing to do. This should be the last resort as you may have one in place already. Now that you have located your sitemap, here is how to submit it to Google.
Google Ping Service
This involves pinging Google to crawl your new website. All you need to do is to type this URL in your browser’s search bar:
http://google.com/ping?sitemap=<your_sitemap_url>You should not forget to input your sitemap’s URL at the appropriate space in the URL. Typically, the URL on your web browser should look like this:
http://google.com/ping?sitemap=https://abcxyz123.com/sitemap.xmlAfter going to the address on your web browser, Google notifies you of receiving your sitemap by sending you to a page containing the message “sitemap notification received.”
Google Search Console
Google Search Console remains the ultimate tool to maximize Google search engine as it not only gives an insight into the performance of your website and health, it also serves as an entry point to gain visibility. So, here's how to submit your sitemap to Google Search Console:
First, you must gain access to Google Search Console using your Google account.
Next, you have to select the property associated with the website you want to submit to Google.
Locate the sitemap section on the left of the Google Search Console under index.
In the 'add a new sitemap area,' paste the URL of your sitemap. Exclude your domain name.
Ensure you click on the 'submit' button afterward.
Through the URL Inspection section, you can further inform Google of any change to your website – additional or removal of any web content. You can find this on the left menu area of Google Search Console. Paste the URL to the page where you made the change and submit.
Bottomline
Getting your website on Google's organic searches can determine the success of your web property - content, business, blog, or portfolio website. Consequently, it is important to get your website to the top of search engine result pages. This would be impossible if Google can't recognize your website in the first place.
Indexing your website on Google is a straightforward process that should not take much time when done right as revealed in this article. The curated steps here help in submitting your website for faster indexing as well as informing Google of any change you make on your webpage. You should also note that it takes Google between a couple of days to weeks to crawl your website. Still, initiating the process remains the fastest route.
Now, that these basic steps in optimizing your website on Google are out of the way, you can start implanting other technical, on-page, and off-page SEO techniques. In due course, you will observe organic growth in your web traffic.
Other Resources: How to indexed sites backlinks , index auto pilot, one hour indexing