You may have often wondered, from the perspective of a business owner or even an everyday user, how long does it take Google to index a new page?
Up to this point, a dirty secret remains part of Google’s search algorithm, even after countless updates: There is no quantifiable guarantee for how quickly Google scrapes and indexes your pages.
That likely isn’t what you wanted to hear about Google’s search algorithm. Since December 2000, when the Google Toolbar launched with the new Toolbar PageRank, the nearly 16 years that followed led to no clear answers on when new content would finally appear in Google’s search results.
The only truthful answer you’ll get on this topic is, sadly, this: It can takes days, or months, or, in rare cases, it doesn’t happen at all.
Lets first understand how Search Engines work
For this subject and at a very high level, it’s important to understand that search engines use “spiders” to crawl the web. These “spiders” (which are really small chunks of computer code) look for what’s new on the web and figure out what is it about (they do this through very complex algorithms).
Nowadays “spiders” are really smart and will look for, and accurately identify, overall User Experience and intentions behind a user’s search (aka. User’s Intent).
This means that search engines will look for the closest to perfect match between user’s intent and landing page (and website’s overall) user experience.
Sorting the pages by their content (and other factors) is how the INDEX is created. When a search query is made, search engines rank the results based on over 200 factors, of which fresh content, site and page quality, user context are part of, to provide the best possible results for that user and that query.
Google’s How Search Works page provides a fun, interactive and simple way to explain it.
The first step to index when creating a new website or a new page you will need to submit it to Google’s spiders so it can be crawled, understood and indexed. Get your content on Google.
Really understanding SEO is a craft and well performed can increase results dramatically but poorly implemented can make you take really big hits on your online business.
Now that you understand Search Engines basic functionality, lets get back to how you can make Google speed up the indexing process.
Here’s what you can control
What is clear, is that there are ways to improve the chances of a page getting indexed faster, and at a higher rank. The tactics to achieve one or the other are, in fact, exactly the same.
Google’s search algorithm prioritizes what it sees as the best content, and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the process of deducing how the algorithm decides what is best. The best SEO tactics will get your pages on Google faster, with a higher search rank to match.
Focus on the proven SEO tactics
Here are a few SEO approaches that are proven to catch Google’s eye:
Submit your Sitemap to Google Search Console.
You must have heard about this but with its previous name “Google Webmaster Tools”. Google Search Console allows Webmasters to check and control indexing status and to optimize visibility of their websites. This is an easy first step, known to get your full sitemap on Google’s radar and lead to faster indexing. Follow this guide to learn how to submit a sitemap to Google Search Console.
This SEM Rush post, where they present 10 Awesome Visual, Proven Sitemap Generator Tools, that will help you out with this task. Visual sitemaps, will also help you “visualize” your whole site and take action upon it, like deciding what to leave out with Robot.txt.
Use Robots.txt
You should consider using Robots.txt exclusion protocol that indicates search engines which pages of your sites should NOT be crawled (excluded). With Robot.txt you can make a search engine crawl your site faster, as the crawlers will not be using your crawl budget (the maximum number of pages Google crawls on a website) with unnecessary pages. You can use them as well to keep any “duplicate content” you might have (for a variety of reasons) safe from penalties.
Get as many backlinks to your site as possible.
This is the backbone of all SEO. Google’s search algorithm considers pages with many outside hyperlinks leading back to them worthy of higher ranking over pages that are more like lonely islands, without backlinks to connect them to the larger internet. But stay away from following a dodgy link-building strategy. With Penguin 4.0, now more than every, Google is in the hunt for inorganic links.
Leverage social media as much as possible.
Get people talking. Engage with the online community. And get as many links to your content out there as possible while doing so. Large social media presences correlate heavily with faster indexing and higher search ranking.
Make good use of your Blog.
You might now it by now, but NetSuite SuiteCommerce does not support a native blog functionality. You need to customize your SuiteCommerce website for it to include a blog within the same site domain.
The results of doing it are worth the effort given the importance effective content marketing has gained in main digital marketing initiatives. Neil Patel, a top industry influencer says: “Blogs are hard-working SEO machines”.
Link your new page from older and already ranked pages.
When you create a new page, even if it’s a campaign specific landing page, make sure it’s linked from other pages in your site, and make sure that these are relevant. Try not to keep isolated pages, with no links from your site to it.
Pro Tip – Make sure you submit the www. and non-www. versions to Google Search Console.
By following these basic tips, and building up a targeted SEO plan for your business, you can confront the intangible of Google’s search algorithm with the right data to make sure it notices your content. If you’re interested in leveraging SEO to get more clicks from the right users, and get your content indexed as quickly as possible, contact us to learn more.
