Getting your web pages indexed is the lifeblood of getting your pages ranking on Google search. Google will have to scan your page, then decide if it is worthy of being shown in their search results.
They have a pretty good system for keeping spam off the internet, and if you play by the rules, you will get a fair chance to rank for the keywords you desire.
Keep reading to learn about indexing and how you can guarantee your content will be added to Google’s database.
What Is Indexing?
Indexing is the process of adding your web page to Google’s database of live web pages, which are then shown in search results if the right keywords are used.
Think about web pages in Google’s index like a file on your computer. If you wanted to search for it, you would most likely type in the file name of the file you are looking for.
Google’s index is no different.
The only exception is that Google has a very strict filtering process. Because they need to scan billions of web pages, they need to quickly figure out of a web page should be indexed or not. To do this, they have a simple scoring system that isn’t publicly explained.
How to Make Sure Your Pages Get Indexed
If you follow Google’s guidelines, you should have no issues with getting your pages indexed. Their main priority is to connect their users with the most relevant content related to their search query.
Above All Else, Google Favors Relevance
Being relevant is easier than you think. You must simply have written content on your website. If your website has cookie recipes, then people looking for cookie recipes will find you. If your cookie recipe talks about politics or bike riding, then you start to become less relevant towards cookie recipes. Get it?
You can improve your site’s relevance by exercising SEO best practices for on-page optimization.
Don’t Spam
After relevance, they start to disqualify websites that exercise spammy practices. To be considered a spammy web page, you would have to almost intentionally create spammy content.
Here are just a few examples of spam:
- Pages that redirect users to other web pages.
- Pages that are overly monetized and offer very little value to the reader.
- Pages that use hidden content to trick the search engine into thinking the page is relevant for particular search queries.
Use Internal Linking Liberally
The use of internal links is a godsend for getting pages discovered. Web pages that get tons of traffic from Google search will consistently give good data to feed their algorithm. They use these web pages as a trusted source for good data.
If you have web pages that receive a fair amount of traffic from Google search, you should be adding links on these pages. Google will follow these links and discover any web pages they are leading to. If you have pages that are having trouble being indexed, internal links from well-ranked pages will get those pages found.
Promote Your New Pages Across The Web
Promoting your new pages should be part of your process already. By sharing your newest posts on social media and forums, you are sending all sorts of signals to those pages. Google has a sophisticated way of tracking these signals which they will add to their consideration for their indexing queue.