Do nothing? I like the sound of that!
There are many a post written on how to get a brand new site indexed in Google, including a couple at Traffic Generation Cafe.
“Do these X number of things and your site will be indexed in as quickly as 24 hours!”
Then I read this post on Dori Friend’s blog and almost fell off my chair.
Turns out that what you need to do to get your site indexed in Google is NOTHING!
Dori happened to spend some time with a couple of brainiacs from Google indexing team (how lucky is that!) and, when she questioned them on indexing techniques, their answer was:
“No need to do anything, we do it automatically for .com and some other extensions - we track .com registrations, so once they are registered, we know it.”
So Google will know your site exists without any single outside link leading to it, that simple.
What Does It Mean to Your Site?
Now we know that Google knows you are there without any help from you.
However, they do need help discovering other pages on your blog - you need to make sure that every single post you publish gets into Google’s index.
Here are some simple steps to take to achieve that:
- Ping your posts. WordPress will do that automatically for you; however, there are a couple of tricks you need to know about. Read this post to learn more: How to Avoid Being “Pinged” as a Spammer
- Use social media. This should be a no brainer - the minute you publish a post, you need to get into a habit of sharing it throughout your social media networks.
- Social Bookmarking. This is another great and easy way to build some links and get discovered.
- Deep linking. This is a very important step that will not only help your posts to get indexed, but also will help them to get better rankings on Google.
What About Getting Ranked on Google?
All the steps I listed above will certainly help your posts to get discovered by the search engines and might even bring you some traffic or reduce your bounce rate, like when you do deep linking.
However, they won’t help you to get ranked highly for your targeted keywords (and I hope you know what keywords you need to go for by now - that’s the corner stone of your SEO strategy. If you don’t, get Market Samurai right now and start getting targeted SEO traffic sooner rather than later or never.)
That’s where one way link building comes into play and we’ll be talking more about that next week.
Marketing Takeaway
If you want to get your site indexed, do nothing.
If you want your inner pages to be indexed, make sure to take some simple steps by sharing your post with the world.
If you want to actually start getting quality SEO traffic, learn more about link building.
And the best way to get there is by reading my absolutely free SEO report - make sure you get your copy right now. Now that’s simple SEO!
Thoughts? Comment to show me that you’re alive!
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{ 141 comments… read them below or add one }
That’s good to know we get our .com sites automatically indexed. I recently read that .org and .net are the next easiest sites to get ranked. Does this mean we need to work a lot harder to get noticed with .us, .co etc?
I am also wondering why comment luv can’t seem to find a feed for some of my blogs.
Thanks for any help with that.
Sye Rodriguez invites you to read: Natural Health Resources
Truthfully, any site can be easily ranked, Sye - a few links, some social bookmarking, tweets, and you should be set.
As far as CL link is concerned, might it be because you are linking to the site instead of the blog? I don’t know how you site is set up…
However, you can always send an email to Andy Bailey if this is a concern.
Before a couple of years, every time I created a new website, I used to manually submit them to google search engine. This is essentially not required. These days, whenever I make the first post on my new blog, I digg them. The website gets indexed generally within a day.
Cheolsu invites you to read: Top 100 Facebook Status Updates
I agree all the sites I have made index automatically, some faster than others. All you have to do is write good content and Google will come.
Robert invites you to read: Day 28 P90x Workout
Hi Anna:
Wow this is such a great post and I absolutely love the way you explained it. You know I so agree with you about getting sites indexed in 24 hours nothing need done. I have about 9 WP blogs and the minute I install them, its like Google and other search engines will be watching me do the installation. In just 24 hours you can find the sites on Google if you search for it. I think a lot of people especially newbies confuse getting ranked and getting indexed. Great job with this post.
Liz K : Success From Home Trainining invites you to read: 6 Types Of People to Avoid In Your Direct Sales Marketing Business
Thank you, Liz. I have noticed the same and I believe you have a point when you say that newbies confuse the two. If only you got ranked right away! LOL!
This chimes in with what I heard ages ago that google owns enom. Not sure that it does but it is a domain registrar and partners with enom and godaddy. It has access to a lot of domain data.
It puzzled me that the googlebot used to turn up so soon after starting a new site when I had removed the ping list! I reckoned after that I had a sitemap and that pinged google with every post.
Alex invites you to read: Chocolate Allergy and Intolerance
Sometimes, things are a lot simpler than we think, aren’t they?
So if we are covered by the .com extentions and do not have to do anything.
What about other domains ending in co.uk, .org, .tv, .me etc……
Craig
Craig Sowerby invites you to read: Auto BackLinks From Your Own Blog
Don’t know for sure either way, Craig.
However, it’s never that difficult to index any site if you throw a few links at it…
I my experience, you can get your page get indexed immediately by pinging Google, as well as getting backlinks into that specific page. Ive been doing it since, and it works for me. Also i noticed that Google is indexing your pages in proportion to the frequency of your posts. The more frequent you post on your website, the more frequent Google crawls your site. Maybe this is the reason they said that - “No need to do anything, we do it automatically”.
Mark invites you to read: Fundamentals Of How To Make Money Online
Hi Ana,
Any idea on how to get a sub domain indexed?
I have not been able to get the following sub domain indexed.
http://measuredmarketingmethod.profitworks.ca/
It’s actually indexed, Chris.
It is! It was not last time I check but now it is coming up on page 1 rank #4 for measured marketing method…..now I just need to work at getting it to #1.
Does google sometimes have a delay or why did it not get indexed right away?
Their indexing time varies, as everything else they do. LOL
This is great news and it confirms what many around were saying. I did actually noticed how I once uploaded a page for a test and within the next couple of hours it had already been indexed. Granted, the blog had already been out for a while and was quite strong but it still surprised me to see the page indexed so quickly. When that happened i thought to myself “could it be?” but just one random example doesn’t count as concrete evidence.
Now, hearing from these people is whole different story. Sit back and relax, people. Save your energy for what’s to come!
Once you have an authority blog, it’s definitely much easier to get your posts indexed right after they are published, Rod.
For instance, Google crawls my blog every day and, of course, quickly discovers all the new info.
Surely, yes. I just didn’t really know for sure. This article confirms it! Thanks for your reply
I think that Yahoo and Bing are trying hard to compete. They’ve been indexing my blog faster than Google.
Dianne invites you to read: Does the Google +1 Button Affect Search Results or Search Rankings?
On another note, the fonts in the replies seem to be much bigger than those in the normal comments. On purpose?
Definitely not - a glitch in the system I need to fix.
Ok, it’s good that Google know every .com website but what about more rare domain zones?
For example .at or .ua. Is it the best way to mention it on Twitter?
Alex invites you to read: The Trend is Your Friend! About Forex Trend Analysis
Either way, it’s not difficult to get a site indexed, Alex - whatever the extension. Mentioning it in social circles, pinging it will all eventually work.
Google will index a said (new) blog given time; thats not a doubt. Especially as now they can track new registrations.
One quick fireway I have found though (within minutes to a max of a few hrs) to get a new post / page indexed is tweeting it. Nice and simple
Arfan invites you to read: The OFT publishes new mental capacity guidance
Yes, that’s what they do. Tweeting it is a great idea too.
Hi Ana,
Another great post! I am surprised, but then again, I’m not surprised. I guess it makes sense that Google would know you are there, but I always thought that you had to do something to get their attention! I guess my fears are calmed. I have been pinging my new content, using twitter as my social media, deep-linking, as well as leaving comments that link to specific pages on my site, but I have not done much social bookmarking. Do you think this is very important? Actually, I’m ashamed to admit, I don’t really know how to social bookmark. :0 I mean, I know what social bookmarking is, per se, but I don’t know how the best way to go about getting people to bookmark your site.
Thanks for your input and advice!
~Pianolessongirl,
Dakota
Dakota invites you to read: No Posts Were Found!
We all have to start somewhere, Dakota!
Social bookmarking won’t bring you much traffic and the links it creates are not of very high quality.
So if you don’t do it, it’s OK. If you do it, it’s an added bonus.
You’ll also learn more about social bookmarking in this post:
https://trafficgenerationcafe.online/traffic-generation-blog-post/
I knew this, despite service like Attracta telling me otherwise. Bing and Yahoo know about me but they seem . . . less enthusiastic.
AstroGremlin invites you to read: Leave More Comments with Dragon Power
Yes, indeed. I am not surprised that Google index all sites .com without a push from us. I have had some sites indexed with which I never really did anything at all. The most important thing is making sure all the pages of the site are indexed, that’s right.
Sylviane Nuccio invites you to read: Ebook Creation Guide
Just let Google index your site let them notice you. The only help that you can do for your site to get noticed by Google is to share it to the public so the public will be aware that your page do exist.
Noel Addison invites you to read: Selling Ice Cubes to Eskimos
Hi Ana
I did not new that either. However my domain is not a .com domain. However even that Google know about a new site as soon it is registered I still think that all the techniques that we are used to use might still be valuable (XML sitemaps, pings, link building). Thank you Ana for another insightful post.
Thomas invites you to read: My Google Analytics Stats for Q3 2011
I definitely wouldn’t discard sitemaps, link building, pinging, etc, Thomas - we still need to do all that to get our site ranked on Google.
Haha, that is really amazing that it is that simple. I was under the impression that you had to do all sorts of things like keep writing article after article on an hourly basis and what not. I wish I knew people in Google too!
-Jean
Jean invites you to read: The risks of driving on worn tires
Well, they know you and that’s all that matters, it would seem!
Hi Ana,
Thanks for passing on some useful info for those starting out with a new domain. Very useful to understand the modern and changing ways that Google works.
Also, I’d like to endorse your free SEO Report to the Traffic Generation Cafe readers. I’ve personally got some great results from following the strategies that you outline in that report, so I thank you for that.
Wayne Lambert invites you to read: Transformational Vocabulary to Change Your Business
Thank you, Wayne for your comment and for the endorsement.
Hi Ana,
Yes, Google has been saying that for years, just build a site and wait for us. IMO, perhaps this works sometimes, but I find that a link from another site with some PR does the job better.
You mentioned the ping spamming above with Wordpress that is correct and I have been using a ping optimizer from day one. But, what about plugins that are pinging Google for backlinks they “haven’t discovered” yet? Some of them ping a couple of times a day. Is this bad news for the user???
Gustav invites you to read: The Classical Guitar
Throwing some links at a site never hurts; especially, since that’s what we have to do to get ranked.
Pinging: are you talking about other people pinging their comment links for instance, Gustav?
Hi Ana,
I actually figured this out when I set up my latest site back in May. I didn’t even wordpress installed yet and the domain was already indexed.
As far as posts go, I just submit new posts to a few social bookmarking sites and they’re usually indexed within a few hours.
Yes, that’s how it works. Social bookmarking is great for that.
Thanks for your tips, Ana.
As you know, I just put together a website/blog for my upcoming franchise book.
It’s easy to get it indexed, for sure.
Hard to get it noticed quickly, though.
The Franchise King®
Joel Libava invites you to read: Weekend Franchise Research
We definitely have to work much harder at getting noticed, Joel! Survival of the fittest…
You know what, many people, even after learning that they don’t have to do anything to get indexed, will still be restless and will do anything for a quicker indexing — what do you think?
Ali invites you to read: Bloggers! Avoid What Yahoo Did If You Want Your Blog to Plug Away
I think that getting a site index is not difficult whether you do anything or just wait, Ali.
However, if you want your site to be RANKED, you definitely need to start doing link building and the sooner the better. Once you start doing link building, of course Google will index your site even faster.
In the end, does it matter if it happens in 24 hours or 3 days? Not to me.
Hey Ana,
I have found out that a great way to get a new blog indexed is to simply link to it from a site that Google crawls frequently. For example, I use my signature link in WarriorForum and it always works like magic. In most cases, the new site gets indexed in a few hours.
Satrap invites you to read: 53 Ways To Make Money Online
Great tip, Satrap!
Ana,
Good post, I would like to share my experience, as per your post Google indexing is nothing and page ranking and SERR ranking is all about link building and some other factors.
Actually when I start one of my new tech blog, I have not indexed on Google and what I did was created a lot of backlinks. With in one month I have reached PR1 for that blog. When I was a novice blogger what I did that have indexed my site on Google and later I realized the fact.
Indexing is definitely just the first step - it’s SEO rankings that most of us are working for and without link building that’s not going to happen.
Hi Ana
I received part of your blog post through an email from you, and thought “arrh light bulb moment” that’s why a few of my sites that are waiting for content are indexed on lower pages. I didn’t know that. So I just had to share the info to all who come to me. Thanks Ana your a star!
John Hagan invites you to read: Did you know this about Google?
You are very welcome, John.
Saw your post, by the way; thanks for the mention!
I think Google itself is getting a lot better at finding new sites too. I remember years ago with my first blog it took about 3 weeks for me to see it indexed. Recently I started another niche blog and found it listed within a couple of days, and posts on my blog are almost always listed in under an hour.
All of this while following the “do nothing” method.
Blog Traffic, though, as you pointed out…takes some effort!
Steve invites you to read: 7 Actions that Increase Blog Traffic by 25.3% [Traffic & Conversion #1]
It would seem that way, Scott and it makes things so much simpler. Now to find a magic trick to get traffic without any effort.
I’m a big believer in getting your bounce rate down. Matt Cutts has stated publicly before that bounce rate doesn’t matter, but I bet that it does now.
Social and behavioral metrics will eventually be included more and more.
There is way too much data in there not to be mined…:)
Mark
Mark invites you to read: Exposed! One Way Black Hats Are Ripping Your Content!
That’s why so many bloggers don’t bother with SEO, Mark - it constantly changes to the point where you never know what’s coming next.
Yes Ana, I knew it.
The most important thing I suggest my clients, however, is to send an ‘XML-site map’ to google, what is not complicated, as only then it is really guaranteed, that Google knows ALL pages of your site !
And .. it is more important to know the keywords which a client or interested party would type in - which are not necessarily the ones which YOU think are useful !! - such a descriptions of your product instead of the purposes, etc., one can use it for.
Some results of my own page can be found here >> http://www.marketing-und-vertrieb-international.com/en/success-in-the-internet.htm
IMHO, it is always important to talk to clients to see what they would be looking for to find you and/or to change or add to the wording of your site in order to get a better rank.
Michael - International marketing and sales consultant from Germany
Michael Richter invites you to read: ROR Sitemap for http://www.marketing-und-vertrieb-international.com/
A site map is definitely a must-do for any website, Michael; I completely agree.
And no one would argue with the fact that any effective SEO starts with keyword research.
I think I have experienced that, When I started my first blog, I kept in online for few days and was getting it ready for launch. I didn’t notify Google, I didn’t do anything to mark an existence of that blog but was stunned when I saw my first visitor from Google. They got the details somehow, now its clear how…
Sanjeev invites you to read: How to Create a Professional Facebook Page in 5 min
Glad I could clear that up for you, Sanjeev!
Hi Ana,
Wow, Google does this for us? I didn’t know that. I think that my main problem, if I can call it a problem, is deep linking. I haven’t been focusing on that at all. And after reading several of your posts, the last one being a guest post, I decided to start going through all my posts and add links to other posts on my blog. But so far, I haven’t done a thing about it
It takes a lot of time, but it’s important. What I’ve been thinking about as well is that there’s probably a wordpress plugin that could help me link between posts (like the related posts plugin), but it will probably not be the same at all. Do you have any experience with a plugin that could do the deep linking for you (inside a post)?
- Jens
Jens P. Berget invites you to read: Promote Yourself By Using a Different Approach
No excuses, Jens - since deep linking is entirely under your control, it’s the easiest strategy to improve your bounce rate, readership, and even Google rankings!
Yes, there are plugins that do deep linking within posts. I’ve tried several of them in the past, but they started acting in a weird way at one point or another and I had to disable them.
Once I disabled them, all my deep links were gone and I had to start from scratch. That’s what you get when you rely on plugins…
Thanks for sharing about the indexing of pages. I need to work on deep linking as you suggest. I am on the road right now and should have my new home in California set up soon. Looking forward to learning more tips about the search engines as that is your specialty. Have a blessed weekend!
Danielle Parsons invites you to read: How to End Lifestyle Diseases
All the best with the move, Danielle and enjoy your new home!
Heard about this a little while back, Ana.
I read somewhere that Dot com sites get indexed ASAP. As far as indexing in general, many people(Including myself) would often hear that you had to follow a bunch of procedures to get indexed faster.
Some of those methods were up front, other methods being offered on a number of sites and also through you-tube, seemed a bit on the dodgy side.
As far as page(post) indexing, getting on first page for not too competitive(Low traffic) keyword phrases, can happen very quickly at times.
Daniel invites you to read: Improve Your Website Ranking
Getting ranked for even better keywords is much easier once you have an authority domain, Daniel - some of my posts show up on the first page within hours of publishing.
Good Point, Ana.
And congratulations on achieving this.
Hey! I have seen your site(Posts/pages) up there on page one for some very high quality(traffic) Keyword search terms.
Well done!
Daniel invites you to read: Improve Your Website Ranking
I always launch a new domain by linking it up to my existing sites. This always ensures fast indexing. I think of it as a vouch to get into the VIP line! Links are like popularity votes, no?
I suppose if it’s your very first site, you could create a blog at blogspot or wordpress.com and send some better-than-nothing back links to it. A lot of paid linking services do exactly that with their ‘web 2.0′ packages.
Absolutely, Alan. Ideally you should go with WP for the plugins and other tools.
Good to have this confirmed Ana. Would have been a worry as I did absolutely nothing to have my site my registered. Thank you.
Marya | Writing Happiness invites you to read: People do Not Follow Blogs; They Follow Other People
Hanging out with the Google folks??? How cool would that be?
Thanks for passing along the info!
Larry Lourcey invites you to read: The Fatal Flaw Of Photography Websites
I wish it were me… LOL
Oh well, Ana just told me that Google (the Big G) knew about my site immediately I registered it but still yet I have to promote it.
1 thing I suck at though I’m trying really hard now to improve is deep linking.
I think I’m 50% percent in the rest. #half smile.
What do you think about that?
Chukwuka Okwukwe Chukwuka invites you to read: 3 Reasons Why You Cringe In Fear When Setting Your Dream Goal
Well, you still have to promote your blog to find readership, Chukwuka - unfortunately (or fortunately), Google doesn’t just rank us for some juicy keywords the minute they index us. LOL
Deep linking: this should be the easiest part of your blog promotion since it’s entirely under your control!
What seems to be the problem?
The problem seems to be that I neglect it though not knowingly. I’m already fixing that.
Chukwuka Okwukwe Chukwuka invites you to read: Wake Up Call To The Time Factor | The Secret Behind The Ticking Clock
Hi! Thanks. I kind of wondered. It seems sensible for Google to do that. I mean, after all, new businesses get printed in The Business Journal and other publishers.
Here’s a warning when you’re getting a website, from what happened to me.
Google shows McAffee gave my brand-new-to-me blog a “YELLOW” — I bought an existing domain name, http://listbuildingfortraffic.com and loaded up Word Press, set it up and posted one post … all without realizing that McAffee essentially blacklisted me.
While I do show up in some searches, it’s with a yellow caution. If I go to my site, McAffee gives a big “WHOA!” instead of letting even me go to my site.
Discovered there’s a **2009** review that says I send spam… even though I just bought the domain last month, September 2011! The McAffee contact for re-evaluation addresses fail with messages every few hours.
Seems anyone anytime can throw your blog away by putting a permanent comment. Guess we need to be ready to get a new address!
Cynthia Ann Leighton invites you to read: List Building – Your Main Topic
Oh no! I am so sorry to hear that, Cynthia. There must be another way to contact them. Please keep us posted.
Thanks, Ana. Yes, I will keep you posted! What happens to one of us can happen to each of us at any time. Your blog’s already proven valuable in getting the word out about changes.
Maybe another member of the community knows a way to be re-evaluated?
So far, while there are ways listed, nothing seems to work. Maybe McAffee’s too busy?
Realizing not everyone uses McAffe, I’ve decided to keep the name for now and go forward this week after all. With hope to resolve with McAffee!
Thanks, Ana. And -
Thanks for Traffic Generation Cafe! I’m a new member of your community here as a reader. Find your blog to be useful, humorous and absolutely fabulous.
Cynthia Ann Leighton invites you to read: List Building – Your Main Topic
Well, welcome to Traffic Generation Cafe then, Cynthia!
Re: McAffee - I use Mac, so I don’t use it and I am sure there are plenty of readers who don’t use it for their PCs either.
Thanks, Ana. You’re right.
I’ll take this as a lesson going forward — to go forward!
As in keep keeping on through whatever glitches arise rather than freeze.
Deal with glitches when it becomes possible to do so…
Cynthia Ann Leighton invites you to read: List Building – Your Main Topic
Another good post Ana. Yea you don’t have to do much to get indexed on Google if you working with Wordpress, I had a couple of Blogs that I Installed Wordpress with just the home page and they got indexed in 24 hours. To find out if your Blog is indexed just Google the domain.com
Now, the deep linking part… I just learned with you lol.
Thanks.
Gonzalo
Gonzalo Chagas invites you to read: Optimizing an Internet Site
Good point about how to learn whether your site is indexed, Gonzalo - I am sure there are plenty of newbies out there who have no idea.
This doesn’t really surprise me. I have never had trouble getting a new site indexed and now I know why.
Great tips for getting other posts indexed . Simple yet it works.
Tiffany invites you to read: If You Think Can’t… A Post on Mindset
Hi Ana,
I’ll get right on it….all done. Turns out doing nothing is what I do best.
Thanks for the easiest assignment ever!
Lou
Lou Barba invites you to read: Better Early Than Never…Late Is Good, Too
“Do nothing” doesn’t come up on my blog a whole lot, huh, Lou? LOL
Hi Ana,
thanks for sharing your insights. How cool is that ? Good that I chose a .com-domain for my German blog as well
and I didn’t do anything special either to notify Google of its existence.
Take care
Oliver
Oliver Tausend invites you to read: Network Marketing Legend Michael Dlouhy – Why You Should Care About ‘Success In 10 Steps’
Yet another good reason to get a .com, Oliver!
As always, great to see you around.
Hmm, this is very interesting and quite new to me. Did not know about the automatic indexing of sites by Mr. G., specially for .com extensions. Good to know. BTW, how about on “other” engines like Bing? I mean they don’t have the same importance to that of Google but it would also be interesting to know how they “operate”
DiTesco invites you to read: How To And Why Should You, Install WordPress In Your Computer
Since no one seems to care what those search engines think of our websites, it’s not easy to find any kind of viable info on that. LOL
This is not true. Just because a site is registered, sure Google may know it exists, but it doesn’t mean it will be automatically indexed. It is a matter of time before it gets indexed on its own, however, without a single backlink pointing to it. But it can take weeks if you do nothing.
This is the same if you are creating a new website on a subdomain of wordpress.com, blogger.com, weebly.com site as well. If you are creating pages on these sites for the purposes of link building, you will want those your domain.wordpress.com site to be indexed ASAP.
If you can’t wait 2-4 weeks for your new site to get indexed, see my post below on ways to get a site indexed fast.
Lorna Li invites you to read: 10 Ways to Get a Website Indexed Fast
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, Lorna.
The source I relied upon for this info has tested it out. Have you had a chance to test your assumptions?
Yes, I test my assumptions all the time.
I do link building professionally. I’ve created sites for the purpose of pointing back links to target pages. for the link to have any value, the page has to be indexed. And some sites take more arsenal (Tweeting, Pinging, FB Liking, emailing the URL back and forth) to get indexed than others.
I’ve created websites with hundreds of pages, and not a single backlink. They got indexed all on their own after a couple of weeks.
In fact, I just launched a site - it’s registered, it’s hosted, and it isn’t indexed at all.
Google this URL http://www.changemakerbusinesscoaching.com/
It doesn’t show up.
Although it may after this comment gets posted : )
Cheers,
Lorna
Lorna Li invites you to read: 10 Ways to Get a Website Indexed Fast
I don’t see anything in your comment that says that .com sites don’t get indexed on their own, Lorna - you are just saying that it might not happen as quickly as a couple of days.
Now let’s see if we can get this new site of yours indexed… LOL
In my quick scan, I interpreted your post as “Do nothing and your site will be automatically indexed”. My objection was, not “your site will never be indexed” but more, how fast is automatic? Yes, get a site up, do nothing, after a while - “while” being relative, it will most likely be indexed. For a client, 4 weeks is way to long to wait for a site to get indexed. I have waited that long for wordpress.com subdomains I pinged / Tweeted the heck out of. For a serial blogger building a long term web empire, and getting sites up for “seasoning” it may not matter : )
Lorna Li invites you to read: 10 Ways to Get a Website Indexed Fast
Great to know! I have a .com but for some reason it hasnt ranked yet and i’ve done the backlinking and submitting to alexa, yahoo and other directories and still nothing… very strange. or maybe I’m just impatient LOL thanks for a great post!
Lorain invites you to read: Purple Starlight
Are we talking about ranking or indexing, Lorain?
Getting a new site indexed for the first time has been very simple for a long time. Like one of the other comments above, just a twitter post can make it happen or other things, like directory listings, an article published, a press release etc. The best way though has been setting up a Google Webmaster account.
I think from some of the comments here that some people are confused about indexing for the first time, and indexing new pages or blog post, on an existing site. To get new pages indexed quickly, or re-crawled in the case of an updated page on your site, your best method is Google Webmaster tools. Google published a really good blog post on this back in August: http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2011/08/submit-urls-to-google-with-fetch-as.html
Great advice. Thank you for sharing, Tom.
Thanks Ana!
I’m a brand new reader of yours, this is my first time commenting on your Blog (I think… lol!)
As a Blogger, I’m still in the ummm, hmmm, let’s say, “Advanced Newbie” Stage. That being said,
I’ve always felt that Google knows WAY more than even they admit to.
As far as getting indexed, I’ve never had any problem with it. I know some people (I hesitate to use the word “Guru’s”), make money on teaching how to get indexed… Total waste in my eye’s.
I usually bookmark my blogs AND posts (separately) and then I’ll “Ping” my the post and at least one bookmark. I do this by habit / normal routine and never have a problem getting indexed.
Thanks for asking for my opinion in your email!
Gary Anderson II
aka- GanderCo
Gary Anderson II invites you to read: Encouragement Success And Fulfillment
Hi Gary. Thank you for your comment - it is nice to meet you here.
Wow! I’m impressed!
The email that was sent to me to notify me that you responded to my blog comment was amazing! I actually read it… not just scanning it!
I see there is tremendous value to learn from you. I will be watching you closely. Well, ummm, I mean I’ll be watching “Traffic Generation Cafe”
Thanks again Ana!
Gary Anderson II
aka- GanderCo
Gary Anderson II invites you to read: Encouragement Success And Fulfillment
Always good to hear someone actually reads my emails, Gary. LOL
After all I have done to get there, I didn’t need to do any of it! I have ranked as high as #2 on Google searches, so I feel my efforts were not wasted anyway. Thanks Anna, as always you taught me something again…
Connie
Connie Krohn invites you to read: New Pumpkin Print Long Sleeved Top
Indexing is just the first step, Connie.
We still need to do link building, as well as on-page optimization, to actually get ranked for our desired keywords; so no effort was wasted on your part!
It doesnt surprise me, its an easy task for a company like Google who want to keep ahead.
Is a good fact to know though but you cant rely on it.
Thanks
Craig
What’s true today might not be true tomorrow.
Hi Ana,
Nice finding.. It means if you have .com blog then by doing a deep linking you can easily indexed your whole blog. So deep linking will play vital role again for indexing.
Riya invites you to read: HostGator Coupon Code
Definitely so, Riya.
Good practice for the sake of both the search engines and the readers.
That’s really great, but if you a own a blog except .com domain then you need to put your effort to get it indexed. Right Ana?
Aarti | Seo Services invites you to read: SEO Company
I don’t really know what they meant by “some other extensions”, Aarti.
However, as SEOs we very well know that once you put up any website, link building comes next; and with link building comes indexing whatever the extension.
Interesting findings, Ana. Thanks for sharing.
Mavis
Mavis Nong | Online Business Success invites you to read: 25 Marketing Strategies Guaranteed to Generate Leads For Your Business
You are very welcome, Mavis - thanks for coming by!
{peeks up from 10-foot wall of Internet Marketing e-books} … erm? Really?
Who’d have thunk it? If you take the old-school gurus at their words, your new domain is nothing without Domain dingus Dominator and ten e-books on how to tweak it to keep your hat just a tad bit dingy grey.
Seriously, I still have it ingrained in my mind that you have to submit a site-map, but NOT a Google Sitemap, you have to write 10 posts, but not all at once…sigh.
The first time a blogger bragged about showing up on Google results within 14 seconds of hitting submit, I fake-sneezed into my hand, saying “Buhsneeeet!”
I guess I don’t worry about it too much, since I haven’t created a new domain in a while (except to redirect to my blog.)
Thanks for setting the record straight, Ana.
Cheers,
Mitch
Mitchell Allen invites you to read: Is Your Boss a Bozo?
Just makes me wonder how many more things Google keeps us in the dark about, huh Mitch?
I am with you - I am not working on any new domains, but it’s helpful to know if we ever decide to jump onto the niche site bandwagon.
Plus, it’s good to know yet another good reason to stick with .com domains!
LOL!!! LOLLL!!!!!!!! Mitch, you are too funny!
As Shaun mentioned above, submitting a sitemap and paying attention to what pages are indexed makes all this happen somewhat faster than doing absolutely nothing at all.
For people who can’t be bothered, make sure to write a lot of relevant articles (like, a lot), and make sure to interlink on your own site. From experience, Google likes this and will keep your site up to date in the index, without you having to do anything at all. Just make to write a lot, and write the good stuff, no crap.
Dave Doolin invites you to read: Content Curation is it Real or Just Another Sleazy Marketing Ploy?
In other words, do the things you should be doing anyway, and there won’t be any worries about not being indexed - I definitely agree, Dave.
Pleasure to see you around!
Thanks, as always, for your information, Ana. Your email newsletter is one of the few that I have not un-subscribed from. I was spending way too much time reading and not enough doing.
I discovered the indexing thing quite by accident, but was pleasantly surprised that they discover us without any effort on our part.
Did you know they have discontinued ‘pagerank’? I use SEO Quake and Traffic Travis (free, can’t afford the paid stuff yet) a good bit, and noticed just the other night that all ‘pagerank’ info was missing. I Googled it, and found several forum threads and articles saying they were doing away with it. What do you know about it?
Barry Ford invites you to read: Nearly 2/3 of Americans Want Obama to Back Israel
Thanks for sticking with me, Barry - I am honored.
I do know what you mean about reading and learning too much and not doing enough!
Pagerank: to the best of my knowledge, Google updated the URL which is used to query the PR and it caused all plugins, toolbars and websites to stop reporting the number.
If that’s what it is, it’ll take a couple of days to catch up, but everything should be back to “normal” soon.
PS Don’t worry about my name - happens. LOL
Didn’t know this but it will not happen in 24h, I know that from my own experience. Maybe 2 weeks from domain purchase.
I don’t think Google follows any kind of deadlines for this. LOL
As long as they do it though, it’s good news to us.
Hi Ana,
Who would of thunked it? That is why I want to thank you for keeping me in the know of what is going on with Google because I would have kept on believing that we have to jump through hoops to get our site indexed by Google.
I noticed that you switched your sidebar to the left again. Does this work better for you? Just Curious. Wow, under 10 k on Alexa, Congrats. My traffic has totally increased yet my Alexa is going up instead of down.
Justin | Mazzastick invites you to read: The Moon Is A Death Star
Thanks, Justin.
Yes, I tested the sidebar on the right for a month and my sidebar opt-in rate went down about 80%.
Of course, I also added a feature box to my home page and that might’ve caused the drop; however, 80%?
I am still testing…
Alexa ranking: your higher Alexa ranking might be due to the fact that you are getting more traffic from different countries that are not as well-tracked by Alexa. Just a guess.
I’ve found the fastest way to get new pages or posts indexed on Google is to submit sitemaps using Google’s webmaster tools. They typically index new pages within a day or two of being submitted.
Shaun Hensher invites you to read: Graphic Design Portfolio
With all due respect, Shaun: have you actually read the post?
It says that Google indexes .com automatically.
From my understanding, Google only indexes top-level domains that way. They index pages by crawling your site periodically, but that can take time. Sitemaps alert them immediately to new pages.
Shaun Hensher invites you to read: The New Heineken Logo
Thanks for the explanation, Shaun - it now makes sense what you meant.
Yes, you are right; for those sites that don’t get automatically indexed by Google - whatever the extensions are - sitemaps are a great way to make sure to get indexed.
I’ve always just used Twitter to get sites indexed, one tweet usually will get a site indexed in hours, but maybe it was coincidence? For all the time it takes however, I’ll still be tweeting them!
~Bruce
Bruce invites you to read: Do You Really Understand Inversion Table Benefits?
Definitely so, Bruce - either way you get a backlink and might get some traffic from Twitter.
Hey Ana, Google does find you pretty quickly, however just because they find you doesn’t mean they find you relevant.
Personally, if you build it they will come will only take you so far. The only time I would think that if you build they will come will work for you is if you are in a very small niche with very little competition.
I created a mountain biking blog + ning site for friend. He wanted to show up locally for searches of course. It was rather easy to get him on the first page for his keywords. The reason though is that there is like zero competition for keywords.
The more competition for your niche market the more effort you need to put into getting your site ranked. What good is being indexed if you are on the 12th page of a search.
Indexing while good isn’t that important, what is important is getting ranked. So all of the seo stuff we do we still need to do. When I first started marketing online. I had my hosting company submit my site to hundreds of directories.. I was indexed really really fast, like over night. That in of itself didn’t actually get me the search ranking I was looking for.
It was the article submissions, backlinking etc.. That made all the difference.
~Larry
Larry Rivera invites you to read: Are Your Internet Marketing Strategies Worthless?
Of course, no argument here, Larry - that’s why I said that link building comes next.
Also, indexing is an important first step for any website. If you are not in the index, you are not getting ranked for anything; competition or not.
Hi Ana,
I didn’t know that about Google tracking .com registrations. That’s powerful news that more people should know about. Glad I know now!
Deb Augur invites you to read: The State of the Blogosphere
Me too, Deb!
If you’ve got a top level domain, Google knows you’re out there. I remember many times trying to find, “Submit Site,” then fill out the application forms, but no longer sweat it.
Once again, Ana - great advice. And congrats on breaking 10K on Alexa. You’re becoming quite a formidable force on the Internet.
Steve-Hostirian invites you to read: A Visitor is Knocking at Your Site
Thanks, Steve - it’s nice to be here. LOL
This piece of knowledge definitely makes our lives a whole lot easier.
Thank you Ana for this info. I always thought you had to ping, etc just to get indexed. Now I know all that work I did, did not go to waste but I could have been doing other things.
I will not have to re-look at my SEO strategies.
Again thanks for enlightening us on this!
Barb
Barb Sibbing - For The Love of WordPress invites you to read: WordPress Video Backgrounds
You are very welcome, Barb - it was just as much of an eye-opener for me.
Nice one,
I did not know that. There are people who make money on getting your site indexed. Just shows how careful you need to be. I know my posts are often indexed within hours. Although I have a .co.uk domain. To be honest I actually had never any problem with pages to get indexed. Sure some old ones fall out the index but who cares.
I wonder what other domains they track the registration from.
Nik
Nik invites you to read: Mothercare reveals struggling sales - Business News, Business - The Independent
That’s true, Nik.
Indexing becomes faster and faster as a site grows for sure.
Every once in a while, I somehow still find pages that were never indexed in the past, but as you said - who cares.
Yeps Ana, it’s true that nothing’s really needed to get done to have a site indexed. Personal test results have me seeing sites getting indexed within a couple of days; helps getting ranked usually in the 4th day to 2 weeks.
Of course, always keep a WP blog installed just for good practice (habit).
Well, now you tell me, Daniel… LOL
Yes, having a blog attached to a site can make a big difference; surprised more people don’t know/do it.
Ana,
I wrote a whole post on notifying the search engines of you existence, now it is null. Oh no!! I guess I better update it, with this post.
I learn something new form you all the time!
Looking forward to next week and “one way link building.
~Allie
Allie | Ramblings of a WAHM invites you to read: 10 Amazingly, Astonishingly Brilliant Posts You MUST Read…
I felt the same way, Allie - I have two posts written on the subject and now I might as well delete them. LOL
Oh, well, at least now we know.