We all spend a lot of time, effort, and resources on building web pages for our business. As a web designer and conversion rate strategist, I know the impact of a well-thought-out, designed, and developed webpage. It can have an incredible impact on traffic and conversions. We’re not creating webpages for the sake of creation. Although many of us find it fun and exciting, it serves a greater purpose which is to share your organization’s offer, whether that is products or services, with the world and specifically your target audience.
Imagine, or maybe you have experienced, the frustration of building out exactly what you want on a web page, putting in all the content, design, and images only to realize it is not showing up on Google search. Say what?!?! Google how could you let me down like that? I thought we were pals?
Options to consider
Before you write off Google, which we all know is currently impossible unless we live under a rock (which seems appealing at times), let’s ask some questions:
- Is the page part of a brand new website that you just launched, like a few hours or days ago? It likely just needs a bit more time to find the page. You can get a jump start by submitting your site map to Google.
- Does your web page have referring domains linking back to it? Internal links too? Are the keywords scattered throughout your page, in the headings, titles, etc? Although Google’s algorithm is constantly changing, keywords and links remain a priority. This could be another factor in why your webpage is missing. This is drifting into the world of SEO, which is a whole other topic. Read our article about that here.
- Does the page contain a significant amount of duplicate content that is already showing somewhere else on your website? If the same content is located in multiple locations on your website, search engines have to decide which page they’re going to rank. Make sure the content on each page of your website is distinct and has a unique content topic.
- Has your new web page been indexed or crawled by Google? Thankfully this isn’t a complicated fix. First, make sure you haven’t set the page to “no index”. You will see this option if you use a plugin like Yoast SEO. If the page isn’t flagged as “no index”, keep reading below for steps to request Google to index your page.
How to request indexing in Google Search Console:
1. Log into your Google Search Console account. If you don’t already have one, you can create a free account and add your website property. Read this article for the how to get started with Google Search Console.
2. Open the page on your website that isn’t displaying in Google search results. Once you’ve open the page in your browser, copy the URL’s link.
3. Open Google Search Console in a different tab in your browser. Navigate to your website’s property in Google Search Console.
4. Paste the URL of the web page into the field at the top of the screen that says “Inspect any URL…” and hit “Enter” or “Return” on your keyboard.
5. Google will check to see if this web page is indexed. You can read further details below about why the page wasn’t indexed. If it has been crawled but not indexed, then Google knows it exists but has decided not to display it in Google search results.
6. To request Google to display it in relevant search results, select “Request Indexing” and Google will add it to the queue.
7. Once Google has added your page to the index queue, select “Got It”.
A visual, step-by-step guide:
It is good practice if you have a blog on your website or pages you regularly update to make these steps a regular part of your posting rhythm. You can go back into Google Search Console over the next few days to see if and when Google decides to index it by following the steps above. Hooray! Now sit back and enjoy that cup of coffee, you got that box checked off of your list!
So why do we need to do this anyway? Can’t Google do it all?! Well there are a lot of new websites and webpages that go live each day on the world wide web. Really, A WHOLE LOT! According to Siteefy’s article, three new websites are created every second and 175 websites are created every minute. Wowza! Although we all think Google knows or can find all the answers, sometimes it can use a hand cause that is a lot of new websites every minute, hour, day, etc. 🤯
Let’s partner together
Do you want help with your website from an expert who finds it fun to talk about things like indexing webpages?? We offer web design & development and conversion rate optimization services. Schedule a discovery call! We’d love to chat about your website needs and how we can help!
