You’ve just launched a new site and you can’t wait to get eyes on it. You head straight to Google to see where it stacks up in results, search your domain — and there’s zero trace of it. This may seem like a huge mistake, but it’s actually completely normal. Because here’s the truth: SEO doesn’t happen right away. It’s a process and it starts with search engines indexing (aka finding) your site. Search engine bots are always crawling the web looking for new content but this takes time, sometimes a few days and sometimes months. Luckily there are a few ways to speed up the process. Here are some tips for getting search engines to index your site fast.
1. Create a sitemap and submit it.
What’s a sitemap? It’s a file on the back end of your site that lists all your site’s pages and shows how you’ve organized your content. Having a sitemap isn’t required for search engines to find you online, but it can help them learn to crawl your site better. Once you have one, you can submit it to Google using their Search Console Sitemaps tool. For details on building and submitting sitemaps, check out this Search Console Help article.
2. Submit your URL.
An easy way to make search engines more likely to notice your site is to submit your URL directly to them. To submit yours to Google, visit their URL Submission page. Just type in your URL and submit your request. Google doesn’t guarantee when exactly submitted URLs will be indexed, but it certainly doesn’t hurt your chance that they’ll do it sooner rather than later.
3. Set up your Google Analytics.
Not only is Google Analytics super valuable for telling you key information about your site’s performance, but it also puts you on Google’s radar. Consider it like giving them a heads up that your new site is live. If you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, sign up and give Google another cue to get crawling.
4. Link to your site on social media.
One way for search engines to find your site is through organic links. Basically, the more connections to your site that exist online, the more likely web crawlers are to notice you. The perfect place to add those connections is on social media. Make sure each of your profiles includes a link to your site, and get some buzz going about your site’s launch by sharing the link with followers.
5. Create and share content.
Another way to draw crawlers to your site is to create and share valuable content. For example, updating your blog with keyword-rich posts creates content search engines care about. And when you share that content on social media, you create more links to your site — great ways to get their attention and show them you’re a quality search result contender.
Still want search engines to show you more love? Another option is to pay to play. Purchasing ad space on search engines is called SEM (search engine marketing) and it’s a guaranteed way to have a presence there. If you’re considering SEM, weigh the cost versus the rewards to see if it makes sense for you.
If you want your site to stand out in search results, we can help. We’re experts on SEO best practices and we build sites search engines love. Call 844-207-9038 or email hello@mopro.com to learn more.