You’ve put a lot of time and effort into building your website.
But how do you know if all that time and effort is actually paying off?
And when will you start getting that organic traffic?
One of the best ways to measure the success of your website is to check if it’s being indexed by Google.
Keep reading to learn how to check if your website is indexed and what you can do if it isn’t.
2 Easy Ways To Check If Your Website Is Indexed
One surefire way to tell if your website is indexed is to do a simple Google search.
Google:
site:[your domain name] (without the brackets)
And hit enter.
If your site appears in the search results, that means it’s been indexed by Google.
If you want to check if a specific page or post has been indexed simply copy and paste the URL into the search box.
Another way to check for indexed pages is to use Google Search Console – a handy tool that lets you see exactly how many clicks and impressions your website is getting in search.
If you have not done so already, you will need to add and verify your website/property in Search Console. Once you’re verified, select your website from the property dropdown menu at the top left.
Then, click on ‘Google Index’ from the sidebar on the left-hand side.
From here, you can click on ‘Index Status’ to see how many of your website’s pages are currently being indexed by Google.
Here’s a click-by-click video tutorial to help you out:
What Do You Do If Your Website Isn’t Indexed?
If you’ve checked and found that your website isn’t being indexed, don’t panic! There are a few steps you can take to remedy the situation.
The first step is to check for any indexation errors using Google Search Console.
To do this, go back to the sidebar on the left-hand side and click on ‘Crawl.’
Then, click on ‘Crawl Errors.’
Here, you’ll be able to see any specific crawl errors that are preventing Google from indexing your website correctly. Once you’ve fixed these errors, resubmit your sitemap using Search Console. A sitemap is an XML file that contains all of the URLs on your website.
Submitting a sitemap will help Google crawl and index new content on your site more quicker and easier.
How To Get Your Website Indexed Faster
If you’re anything like me then you want Google to find your website’s new content and index it as soon as possible.
After all, the sooner Google knows your site exists, the sooner people will be able to find it.
Unfortunately, getting Google to index your site can sometimes be a slow process (especially when your site is new) but there are a few things you can do to speed things up.
1. Submit Your URLs
Submitting your URLs to Google via Search Console every time you hit publish on a new piece of content is how you give Google a little nudge and say:
“Hey! There’s new content on my website, come and take a look!”
Once you’ve got Search Console set up, tap URL inspection in the side menu and paste your URL in. Let Google do its thing for a minute and it’ll tell you if that particular page or post has been indexed or not.
From there you can either request it to be indexed or ask Google to check it again.
2. Build Quality Backlinks
Backlinks are links from other websites that point back to yours. They help improve your search ranking and can also help Google find and index your site faster.
The best way to get quality backlinks is by creating great content that other people will want to link to. But you can also reach out to other webmasters and ask them if they’ll link to your site.
Just make sure you’re only reaching out to relevant, high-quality websites. Otherwise, you could actually hurt your search ranking instead of helping it.
3. Add Your Site to Google My Business
If you have a physical location or service area, you should definitely add your business information to Google My Business.
This tells Google that your business is real and provides them with important information like your address, hours of operation, and phone number.
Adding this information can help improve your local search ranking and may also help Google index your site faster because they’ll have more confidence that it’s a legitimate business website.
If Google Hasn’t Indexed Your Website Yet
We’ve all been there…
You create a new website and it can take Google months to index your site.
But hopefully, the tips I’ve given you here can help speed that process up.
Read this post if your website is indexed but not showing up in search results.
Other than that, once you’ve done all you can, simply focus on adding more content sure in the knowledge Google will find your website at some point and all your effort WILL be rewarded!
