Getting Indexed

Mary Allen and Tim Heilman, owners of Accord Logistics Solutions, have a brand new website. They had a website some time ago, shut it down because it didn’t seem to be working for them, and just launched their new one last week.

Their site has been indexed by Google.

What does that mean?

Search engines like Google don’t zoom around the internet looking for what you want each time you make a query. Instead, they crawl around the web all the time indexing the new stuff. When you search for something, they look at what they’ve already indexed.

If you’re not indexed, you will never be shown to a searcher.

How can you tell if you’ve been indexed? Do a site search.Type in “site:” followed by your site’s web address, as we’ve done here:

 

Look at the number of results. If all your pages show up, your site has been indexed. If you see only your “About Us” page or something like that, give us a call at 479.966.9761 and we’ll help you figure out what’s wrong.

We’ve seen websites that have been up for years without being indexed, and we’ve heard of new sites requiring several weeks before they get indexed. So why did the ALS site get indexed quickly, and how can you make sure your site gets the same results?

• Original content By far the most common reason we’ve seen for a site’s not being indexed by Google is duplicate content. If you have nothing but manufacturer’s descriptions of products or reposted content, Google won’t bother. Search engines want to show searchers multiple options, not the same thing at lots of places.
• Enough content Sometimes there just isn’t enough content for Google to think your site is worth indexing. Get blogging, write some great article pages, and your problem will be solved.
• Clean code and snappy servers Occasionally we hear of sites that don’t get fully indexed because of some tech troubles. If you think this might be your problem, go ahead and try Google Webmaster Tools (see it in the screen shot above?). Once you register and verify your site, you can ask the tools to “Fetch as Googlebot” and see if there are problems that are keeping Google from indexing you fully. You can also upload your site map to help Google out.

If your site is not indexed, it essentially doesn’t exist as far as the search engines are concerned. It’s worth checkign.