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Indexing in SEO refers to the process of crawling and ranking a website through search engines like Google or Bing. Having your website listed in the Google directory is essential to your company’s success online. However, you may not know how to accommodate search engine crawlers if you are new to web development or digital marketing.
Learning how indexing in SEO works will encourage you to spend more time creating a website that earns you more leads and conversions. Professionals from The Woodlands’ top-rated SEO company explain everything you need to know about crawling and indexing a website.
Google Indexing Fundamentals You Should Know
Before the advent of the Internet, customers had to scour through the pages of physical directories and magazine ads to find products and services. Modern search engine capabilities now allow users to find hundreds of brands corresponding to their search queries in just minutes.
Google and Bing use complex algorithms to scan content from websites and rank them in order of relevance and authority. Consequently, high-performing websites with essential search engine optimization strategies in place are more visible during organic searches than those without.
The indexing process occurs in three phases: Crawling, indexing, and ranking.
Crawling
Google uses crawlers — also called Googlebots or spiders — to scan text, images, and metadata across your website. These programs will translate the data to determine what your website is about, how credible it is, and how intuitive it is for online users. Crawlers can find your website in one of two ways.
First, a Googlebot may end up on your website by following a link from an already indexed domain. For this reason, reputable digital marketing specialists emphasize the importance of adding backlinks and internal links to your content for better indexing in SEO.
Alternatively, you can register a sitemap with the Google search engine, forcing crawlers to inspect your domain. You can read more information on this topic in a later section.
Regardless of your approach, web crawlers will determine if your content is suitable for indexing and periodically reassess your website after updates or changes.
Indexing
Just because a Googlebot scans your website does not mean it will index your website in the search engine. For example, crawlers may ignore your site if you duplicate content or fail to add tags or meta descriptions on images.
It’s important to check your website URL to ensure that it allows Google or Bing to index it after crawls. Noindex tags prevent your site from appearing in the search engine directory and will significantly reduce online traffic toward your site. A professional digital marketing specialist can help you identify a Noindex tag if you aren’t sure where to find it.
Rankings
After your website enters the search engine index, Google will compare it to other relevant content and rank it accordingly. These rankings may change daily, weekly, or monthly, depending on how popular a search query is among users.
It can take time to climb the index ranking system if your website is relatively new. The highest-ranking sites typically have a large body of SEO content — landing pages, blogs, backlinks, etc. — earning hundreds or thousands of views a day.
You may be able to compete with local or national businesses by injecting high-performing keywords into your text or formatting your web design to be more user-friendly.
How Indexing Helps Your Business
Few online users search past the first page of Google when shopping for a product or service. Hence, you should try to rank your website as high as possible to earn leads and build brand awareness. Indexing in SEO can help you reach new audiences, promote products to targeted demographics, and give existing customers fast access to your online resources.
Ways You Can Speed Up the Indexing Process
You may publish content you need Google to index as soon as possible. You can hasten the process with two strategies.
XML Sitemaps
XML sitemaps are tools that make it easier for crawlers to scan your website — inevitably speeding up the indexing process.
Simply put, an XML sitemap outlines every published page on your site, including details about the content and update history. You can directly submit your current sitemap to Google through the Search Console feature (or use Bing Webmasters Tools to index through Bing). This action will send a message to Googlebots to begin scanning your page.
You may see results within three to fourteen days if your website is crawlable and indexable.
Google Requests
Suppose you already manage a website known to Google. In this case, you can navigate to the Search Console feature and manually request an index.
Input the corresponding domain into the search box and submit it for approval. This method provides near-immediate results, sometimes indexing in SEO within minutes.
However, depending on your SEO score, Google may not rank you high until you demonstrate improvements.
Improving Your Website’s Crawlability
You can improve your website’s crawlability for indexing by paying close attention to your content and metadata.
First, ensure that your content is 100% original. If you use information from other sources, cite them and hyperlink the information to credible, authoritative sites. This practice helps Googlebots find and translate your website quickly.
Earning backlinks from other companies may also help web crawlers read your content more accurately, increasing your ranking in the search engine.
Lastly, improve the loading speed of your website so crawlers can use fewer resources to scan your pages. A web design specialist can give you tips to improve performance speed.
Let Results Digital Boost Your Ranking in the Google Search Engine
Even if you manage a new website, indexing in SEO can significantly boost traffic toward your business in just days. Don’t worry if you don’t have the time or resources to implement an effective SEO strategy on your own. Professional consultants are here to help.
Contact Results Digital online or call (281) 975-2086 to schedule an in-depth SEO services consultation.
