During a recent Q&A during Google SEO office hours, a concerned website owner asked about the slow indexing of his 16,000 page site.
Gary Illyes, a member of the Google Search Relations team, provided a comprehensive response to the query, addressing the factors that influence indexing speed.
Quality and popularity are important in indexing
Illyes explained that indexing speed depends on several factors, the most crucial being the quality of the place and his popularity on the internet
Illyes suggested that website owners ensure their content is of the highest quality possible to increase indexing speed.
High-quality content is essential, as Google’s algorithms prioritize it when determining indexation priority. However, the definition of high-quality content extends beyond the simple text of individual articles.
According to Google’s John Mueller, content quality encompasses the entire website, including its design, layout, image integration, and page speed.
These elements contribute to a positive user experience and are key factors that Google considers when evaluating quality
Use social media to increase popularity
Illyes also recommended leveraging social media promotions to drive engagement and discussion about the website.
“How quickly a site is indexed depends on a lot of things, but the most important is the quality of the site, followed by its popularity on the Internet. Once you make sure that your content is of the highest quality that you can do, try doing some social media promotions maybe to get people talking about your site. That will probably help.”
Increasing a site’s popularity and online visibility makes it more likely that Google will prioritize indexing it.
Although Illyes does not mention it explicitly, the role of backlinks should not be overlooked here.
Backlinks, links from external websites to your site, contribute to faster indexing and improved search engine rankings.
When high-quality, authoritative websites link to your content, it acts as an endorsement, telling search engines that your website is trustworthy and contains valuable content.
Backlinks also generate referral traffic, increase brand awareness, and contribute to your website’s credibility and trustworthiness.
This approach increases indexing speed and can improve the website’s overall search engine ranking.
Technical SEO: Optimizing for indexing efficiency
In addition to improving the quality and popularity of a website’s content, several technical aspects affect indexing speed and search engine ranking.
Technical SEO refers to optimizing the structure, code and page speed of a website to meet the crawling and indexing requirements of search engines. It plays a vital role in improving the visibility of a website and making it easier for search engines to index the content.
When it comes to indexing, here are some technicalities to consider:
Site structure: A logical site structure is essential for users and search engines. It helps visitors navigate the website and helps search engines find and index content.
Internal links: Internal links play a crucial role in guiding search engine crawlers to discover new pages and distribute PageRank, which affects a page’s quality assessment.
URL optimization: Optimizing URL structures to be clear and descriptive improves user experience and improves search engine understanding of page content.
To sum up
Website owners can speed up the indexing process and improve their search engine rankings by creating high-quality content and using social media and link building to increase site visibility.
source: Google
Featured image generated by the author via Midjourney.
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