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Originally Posted On: How to Get Your Site Indexed by Search Engines | Otaliems Academy

Getting indexed by search engines is a great way to grow your organic traffic for your website.

Unlike other forms of digital advertising, getting indexed by Google is something that pays dividends for a long time. You do it once and can reap the rewards for the foreseeable future—so long as you keep tabs and make adjustments if necessary.

But how exactly does one get their content indexed by search engines?

Fortunately, there are some things you can do to increase the likelihood of it happening. We’ll go over some popular ones—but first, let’s look at why getting indexed matters.

Indexing is the process search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing use to organize information. Think of it like creating one large virtual encyclopedia.

When a web page or blog article gets indexed, search engines are able to deliver information much quicker to users. Instead of having to file through each individual web page and understand it, indexing allows a search engine to quickly learn what your page is about. They then take that information and apply it to their search algorithms.

This is useful for anyone that’s a content creator, business owner, blogger, or personal brand. Making it so your content can easily be indexed makes it more likely to appear at the top of search results.

Seeing as 32 percent of people click on the first result Google gives them, this is a big deal. Depending on the density of the keyword, you could potentially increase the number of people visiting your website by the hundreds or even thousands.

Now, let’s talk about ways you can make this happen.

Google Search Console is a free tool that tracks analytics for your website. It doesn’t matter what type of website you run or what your business provides—you should have this set up for your website.

Not sure if you have this setup? Here’s an easy way to check:

• Go to Google.com
• Type “site:yourwebsite.com” into the browser
• Look at the top left-hand corner of the search results

There should be a number of pages that Google has indexed for its search engines. If that number is zero or no results are found, your web pages aren’t being indexed.

Start there—and regularly check to make sure new content is being indexed as well. If it isn’t, the Webmaster Tools is a useful resource.

Being an authority figure matters more than any other thing to search engines like Google. Their goal is to provide the best information as quickly as possible to searchers. If your website is confusing or not delivering results for searchers, they won’t index your pages as often.

In fact, Google outlined this in their information on how to get indexed as far back as 2007. They go so far as to say “if your site isn’t being indexed regularly, take that as a hint that you aren’t seen as an authority figure on your website’s topic.”

To increase authority, start by deleting any low-value or irrelevant pages. If you have old blog posts that don’t relate to your brand anymore, get rid of them or put them on another site that’s more relevant.

Going forward, aim to create the best content you possibly can draw from other authoritative, high-ranking sources. Your content marketing strategy should be closely aligned to one or two keywords that outline what your website does or what subject it’s about.

If you’re trying to get indexed by search engines, consistency also matters. However, there’s a balancing act you must achieve. If you don’t, you could do more harm than good.

Since you still need to worry about quality, it’s better to post great content once or twice a week as opposed to bad content every day. “Dead” pages have little change of search engine index by Google or Bing.

If you rush to create content and six out of seven of your posts each week contain little value for readers, that’s bad. Google will notice things like the high bounce rate and see that your site is hit-or-miss. Chances are, it will affect even your quality pages.

As you design your content marketing strategy, aim for balance. How many pieces of content can you deliver per week without sacrificing quality?

There are many components to search engine indexing and crawling.

A list of things you might want to look into include:

• XML sitemaps
• Fixing nofollow internal links
• Beefing up your power internal links
• Including pages in your sitemaps
• Removing crawl blocks

…And that’s just the start of it. The process is a wormhole. It’s totally learnable, but does take time and effort that you could be spending on your business.

Fortunately, SEO experts are willing and able to do this type of work. They can usually audit and fix the problems holding your site back from indexing in a fraction of the time. So if you’re busy or simply don’t want to learn it, there are options out there for you, too.

Getting indexed by search engines mattered fifteen years ago, and it still matters today. Making it easy for Google and other search engines to go through and understand what your pages about give your business a significant boost.

This boost can lead to more organic traffic, better leads, and an increase in brand awareness. Whatever your goal is in terms of digital visibility, search engine indexing can help.

Book me to learn more about how I can help upgrade your SEO and search indexing. Good luck!