Loading...
Loading

Tips For Making Sure Your Website Is Well-Indexed

2020-06-12by Adrian Johansen

The purpose of having a website is to get traffic so you can boost your brand and improve your sales. Unfortunately, if no one can find you, those goals will never be met! That’s why it’s so important to ensure that Google can index and read your website easily.

 

When Google’s bots crawl your website, they gather information about what your website covers, how fresh the information is, and how authoritative and trustworthy you are. These steps allow Google to serve up your website as a relevant result when your prospects search for information.

 

How do you make sure your website is well-indexed? Here are the tips you need.

What Does it Mean to Have Your Site Crawled?

When you create a website, you need Google to index it to determine how and when it will be shown to searchers. The automated programs that browse the web for content to index are called “bots” or “crawlers.” These software programs add information to Google’s index so that the most relevant information is served up in response to every Google search.

 

Ensuring that your website is appropriately structured is the best way to help Google index your information correctly. You can use tags and other search engine optimization (SEO) strategies to communicate the topic and focus of your site.

Use HTML to Maximize Crawling

HTML is the coding language that is best for building websites. Google has gotten better at crawling Flash, XML, and Javascript, but it still has a long way to go. Other search engines are even further behind on these languages.

 

Instead, focus on HTML. That way, you’ll be sure to be indexed correctly no matter what search engine your prospects are using to find information.

Fix All Broken and Redirected Pages

Any page that creates a 400-based or 500-based error code (like 404 or 503, for instance) not only hurts the ability of search engines to understand your site, but they also hurt the experience of your prospects when they visit you!

 

Make sure you utilize a website audit tool that will help you identify these types of errors. At the same time, you can catch broken links and other problems. You should also take care of your sitemap and make sure it’s up-to-date with changes so that bots can easily understand where your internal links lead.

Use Search Engine Optimization Techniques

Once the technical aspects of your website are in order, it’s time to focus on the content. SEO strategies that will help drive traffic and show search engines what keywords are most relevant to your offers. This helps ensure your website shows up when prospects are looking for information, products, and services that you offer.

Maximize Your Tags

A big part of SEO involves the tags that provide summaries of your content. For instance, the Title Tag tells search engines the title of a blog post, and the Meta Description gives a short summary of what the post is about.

 

Here are the best practices for tags:

 

  • Title Tag: Between 50-60 characters with keywords near the beginning
  • Meta Description: Around 160 characters that include keywords and encourages clicks
  • Image Tags: Name image with keywords and provide image height and width


Use the Right Keywords

Keywords should be placed strategically throughout your blog content and web pages. You can do research to determine what relevant terms receive the most search traffic. You should also ensure that you choose keywords that aren’t too competitive, or you’ll struggle to rank on page one.

 

Long-tail keywords, which have three or more words in them, are an excellent choice. They may have lower search volumes but they are also less competitive. Long-tail keywords are also more specific and often have higher conversion rates.

 

Finally, be sure to include local keywords. These phrases include your city, neighborhood, or even the street you’re on. That way, when searchers look for your product or service in their area, you’ll be much more likely to rank highly.

Troubleshooting: Why Am I Not Getting Indexed?

If you’re struggling to get your website indexed, there are a few things that could be going wrong. When you troubleshoot these issues, you’ll probably solve the problem and be indexed shortly.

 

If your website is new, keep in mind that there is no set timeline to determine how quickly your website will be crawled. It can vary anywhere from four days to four weeks. It’s vital to be patient and continue your other marketing efforts.

 

If your pages have irrelevant content, keywords stuffed in unnaturally, or content copied from another website, Google may decide not to index that page. You need to avoid breaking the rules of SEO, which are commonly called “using black-hat techniques.

 

Finally, if you’re in an industry that has a lot of online content, it may take a while before your webpages are discovered. Be sure you’re providing relevant, helpful information that has a unique angle.

Get Indexed Quickly Using These Tips

When your website has the right behind-the-scenes technical information and great SEO, you’ve positioned your site to be indexed quickly. Once you are, prospects can find you and you can start growing. Get started today!

news Buffer
Author

Leave a Comment