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Every business owner strives to make it on the first page of Google. Ideally, they want to be positioned at the top of the first page. Generally, it doesn’t matter if you operate a brick and mortar location or an eCommerce storefront because visibility is vital to the success of a company.
Getting on the first page of Google is no easy task. There are things you’ll need to do on the back end of your WordPress website as well as on the marketing front to ensure that Google search crawlers index your site.
We are going to explore some tips you can use to ensure that your website has the best chance of getting indexed by Google.
1. Use a Quality Hosting Platform
Google’s crawlers are going to determine whether your website is up to snuff and deserves to be on the front page of their search results. Website’s that disconnect from the server, suffer from slow load times, or have frequent errors are a big red flag for the bots that will initially determine the quality of your website.
A quality website host will ensure that your website is running smoothly and efficiently on the backend. As a result, when the crawlers make it to your page, they will view your site as stable and reliable.
That’s a great start! But what else can you do to improve the odds that you’ll get indexed quickly?
2. Create Excellent Content
Most websites feature a blog where the brand will share insights and thoughts on the space where they operate. For example, cooking websites have recipe based content, marketers use valuable information about branding content, and so forth.
Creating great content means making something that both your readers and the search crawlers will find relevant. In the eyes of your readers, it’s about engaging and exciting content. In the eyes of the crawlers, it’s all about relevancy.
Think about how your blog content relates to your niche and make sure you’re injecting keywords you want to rank for in your titles, content, and URLs where applicable. Remember, keyword stuffing is frowned upon, but you have to use the right words if you want to get indexed in the right corner of Google.
3. Establish Quality Links
Link building is another critical factor to consider when building your website. There are plenty of different ways to get more backlinks to your site. Some of the most common methods include applying for guest post positions, looking for influencers on social media, or even developing business partnerships with other companies in the same space.
Google’s crawlers see links as proof that your website is providing valuable content and contributing to the community. If they see other reputable websites linking back to your site, that’s a massive sign that what you’re discussing matters and is relevant to the community.
4. Use Google Analytics
Google Analytics is an excellent way to track the statistics of your website in real time. You’ll be able to see your unique page views, bounce rate, links, and more all from this handy tool. You can even install a plugin on your WordPress website called MonsterInsights and get direct access to your analytics information directly from the back end of your site.
When you sign up for Google Analytics, you’re sending a notification to Google that you have a website and it’s worth crawling. This will encourage the crawlers to hit your site faster, ensuring that you’re indexed quickly.
5. Share Content Often
If you’re not already scheduling social media posts on your social business pages, now is a good time to start. One of the critical factors that go into determining how high your site will rank once indexed depends on social interactions.
YouTube–which is owned by Google– is an excellent example of this practice. If a video gets a ton of dislikes, it can still push that video ahead of others with an equal amount of likes. The crawlers have a hard time deciding between “good” engagement and “bad” engagement, so it classifies it under one category.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should go out of your way to create content that your audience doesn’t like. It does mean that you should make and share content that will get people talking. If more people are talking about your posts or company, this sends a positive sign to Google that you’re relevant enough to appear in the top results.
6. Create a Sitemap
A sitemap, as the name implies, is a map of all of the content on your website. When a crawler has access to your sitemap, it can determine what’s new, what has changed, and how this will affect where you’re indexed.
There are plenty of plugins out there available to help you build a useful sitemap for the Google crawlers. One of the best plugins to use creating a sitemap is Yoast SEO. This plugin helps you manage your SEO, gives you tips on how to improve readability, and of course, makes a sitemap for Google.
7. Manually Submit Your Website
Did you know you can manually send your site to Google to speed up the indexing process? Google Webmaster tools offer a whole host of features that you can use to improve the index position of your site.
You’ll have access to Google’s assumptions about your website and learn how to improve and refine the indexing process. It’s also possible to manually send your sitemap to Google, which prompts the crawlers to hit your website.
Google Webmaster tools are free, and we recommend that every business owner uses this toolset to improve their indexing position with the information provided by Google.
Getting your website to the top page of Google requires plenty of hard work and creativity. You have to learn to blend your technical skills with your creative writing and marketing team to appear on Google in all the right places. As your website builds links and traction, you’ll find that it gets easier to rank the longer you’re around and the harder you work to improve your rank. It may seem like a slow process, but all the organic traffic you’ll receive while sitting at that top spot will make your hard work worth it.
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