How To Submit Your URL To Google For Better Indexing: A Step-By-Step Guide

Submit a URL to Google: What, Why and When

Before getting into the details of how to submit a URL to Google, let’s make sure we are on the same page about several important concepts.

What is “submitting a URL”?

URL submission is the action of submitting or declaring your URL to a search engine for indexing.

Why do I need to submit my URL and website to Google?

URL submission notifies Google’s web crawler bot of newly published content. The bot then will return to read and proceed indexing the new content.

Therefore, submit the URL to Google as soon as your new content is fresh out of the oven, or it is under the risk of idea theft.

What is Indexing?

Indexing is the process in which Googlebot (and other search engine bots) update, crawl and index web pages and their content.

The indexing results help Google evaluate, record and compare your site’s new content with others’, finally deciding on your rankings on SERPs.

In short, the importance of indexing can’t be emphasized enough. Neglect it and you risk missing the right time to present effective content to users, or even worse, losing your copyright.

Why do we need to submit URLs to Google?

There are many reasons why an URL is not indexed, one of which is that the website’s on page elements are not optimized.

Since slow or intermittent indexing does certain harm to your site, once this happens, send a request directly to Googlebot to “urge” them to speed up.

This action is meant to “urge” them to speed up the crawling and indexing process. When the bots detect your new content, they will complete an update and send new data to the search engines.

When is the best time to submit my website to Google?

As soon as you launch your website for the first time or change to a new domain name, you need to submit your website to Google.

When to submit your URL to Google

If your site has been operating for some time and already indexed by Google, there is no need to submit the whole site. However, every time you add something new, remember to report to Google for timely updates.

5 Ways to Submit a URL to Google

There are 5 common ways to submit your URLs to Google for faster indexing.

5 ways to submit your URL to Google

Let’s take a closer look at each URL submission method.

Submit an URL to Google Search Console

Google Search Console is considered the most basic tool that SEO practitioners use to submit new content URL links to Google. You just need to complete 3 steps:

• Step 1: In the Inspect URL textbox, paste the URL to be indexed and tap Enter.
• Step 2: Wait for Google to show up the new interface. Choose “Inspect Available URLs” to continue the inspection, or “Request Indexing” to submit your request immediately.
• Step 3: If you selected “Inspect Available URLs” in Step 2, wait for the results, then choose “Submit Request”.

Apply this process when your website has a newly published URL or a change that needs to be updated.

However, Google Search Console has a limit on the number of submissions per day, and submitting multiple requests does not accelerate the indexing process.

Submit an URL via Indexing tools

If you don’t like the limitation rule of Google Search Console, you can use other indexing tools to submit URLs faster such as Lar Index, Elite Link Indexer and Instantlinkindexer.

After several simple steps, you can submit a series of URLs to Google for indexing. However, each tool of these comes with pros and cons. Use your good judgment when using them, or get help from a professional SEO service provider.

Submit an URL via a bot/spider/crawler

Google uses bots i.e. spiders or crawlers to crawl data on the Internet. When encountering a Dofollow link, the bot will follow that link to collect data.

This process opens up a new door for faster (and free!) indexing: placing the URL to be indexed on a website with a fast indexing speed.

However, to keep this door open for a long time, put your good effort in link building, specifically the anchor text and content relevancy.

Submit the whole website using sitemap

The action of updating the sitemap signals clearly that the website has changed, and you are telling Google your site needs to be crawled.

Submit your website URL with the sitemap to Google

To submit your whole website using sitemap, follow 3 steps:

• Step 1: Open the SEO Quake plugin and select Diagnosis when entering the website homepage.
• Step 2: Scroll down to the bottom, find the XML Sitemaps section, copy the sitemap link and paste it into Google Search to find the exact sitemap link of the website.
• Step 3: Go to Google Search Console, paste your sitemap link in the Enter URL box, then click Submit.

Use Google News for faster indexing

In the process of submitting your articles to the News section of SERPs, using Google News also helps accelerate indexing speed.

There are 4 steps to sign up your website for Google News:

• Step 1: Access Google Publisher Center website
• Step 2: Select Add Publication
• Step 3: Fill in necessary information
• Step 4: Select Publish and wait for Google to approve

You have learned 5 effective ways to increase the indexing speed of your websites and URLs. But is there any way to get indexed “automatically”, in other words, without you actively submitting the request?

How to Facilitate “Auto” Indexing?

Even without the use of Google Search Console or an indexing tool, your URLs can still be indexed after a short while.

Update your content regularly

Planning for regular content updates over a quarter is much better than a surge of content in a week and nothing for the rest of the month. This practice is a signal to Google that your website is active and frequently publishes new content.

Submit your URL to Google and keep the content fresh

As a result, the bot will crawl with higher frequency and prioritize indexing for your site.

Submit the sitemap including images and videos

This action helps Googlebot access video and image links on your website, hence increasing the likelihood of your URLs being crawled and indexed.

Boost website traffic

The more traffic you have, the more often search engine bots will crawl your site. Therefore, “auto” indexing will fly to your side (and site) when your keywords are ranked at the top or  your page welcomes more visitors from an online community you facilitate.

Invest in website authority

Website authority is the key to win in the race of getting indexed. To this end, link building, specifically backlinks, plays an important role.

Submit your URL to Google and raise your website authority

With increased authority and regular content updates, your site definitely will attract more traffic just like the old saying, “Good wine needs no bush”.

How to Check Google Indexing Status?

If you are not sure whether an URL or a website has been indexed by Google, try:

• For an URL: Go to Google and enter the URL you want to check. If the results return the exact content you published, the indexing process went smoothly.
• For a website: Go to Google and enter site:domain to check. As long as there are results returned, everything is going according to your expectation. However, if you have just submitted your site for indexing, there is a high chance that the process is not completed. In this case, be patient and wait for the good news.

What Slows Down Indexing Speed?

Sometimes it takes too long or is even unable to index an URL or a website. Here are 8 common reasons why this happens.

Unclear website structure

Imagine a book with content arranged illogically. It’s no wonder that you can’t speed read it. Similarly, the way you structure your site does affect indexing speed. Also, on page SEO techniques can help speed up the process.

Low site traffic

In the “eyes” of bots, a website with low traffic means insufficient content to meet users’ needs. It’s just another way to say, “This site is not that important so let’s deprioritize its indexing”.

Submit your URL link to Google while maintaining site traffic

Low domain age

There are more than 200 website factors evaluated by Google for ranking purposes. Therefore, long-standing sites have a much higher chance to meet more criteria, hence enjoying a much faster indexing speed.

Obsolete or duplicated content

Not only can this make URLs non-indexable but also put your site under the risk of being penalized by Google. To manage this, conduct regular SEO audits to remove duplicated content.

Slow page loading speed

To users, low page speed is a good reason for clicking back and not returning. To SEO practitioners, this is translated into low traffic and high bounce rate. To Googlebot, this is another challenge to their productivity. In summary, once your site can load faster, everything will be improved.

Irrelevant internal linking

Placing irrelevant internal links will slow down the indexing speed. Therefore, ensure your links are put at the right place and do provide additional value to the users once clicked.

Low website authority

Your website’s “strength” can affect the time taken to index new URLs. Long-standing sites with high reputation and appreciation from users are of course in the priority list.

No submission

If your website is not indexed, it’s possible that you have not declared its existence to Google. Refer to the section “5 Way to Submit a URL to Google” to get it done as soon as possible.

How to Fix: URL Submitted But Not Indexed

If you have submitted your URLs but somehow they are still not indexed, go through each of these 3 cases to solve this problem.

Submit your URL to Google and make sure they are indexed

Case 1: Your site contains the “Noindex” tag

Using the “Noindex” tag means you are notifying Google and other search engines that “this page does not need to be indexed”. To fix it, open the HTML code, search for one of the following codes and remove them:

• <meta name = “googlebot” content = “noindex”>
• <meta name = “robots” content = “noindex”>, x-robots-tag: noindex

Case 2: Googlebot is blocked by the robots.txt file

The robots.txt file allows or limits search engines’ crawling hence indexing action. Check your robots.txt file and adjust it to make sure you are not blocking the bots from crawling your site or URLs.

Case 3: The website is under a penalty from Google

As long as you do not violate Google’s webmaster guidelines, it is virtually impossible to get a penalty. However, once Google issues a penalty, it takes time and effort for the website to recover and be added to the indexing queue once again.

Tactics to Boost Indexing Speed by Submitting URLs

Together with URL submission, take note of these tips to increase the indexing speed:

• Use high quality dofollow backlinks
• Build relevant internal links
• Share your content on social networks
• Use “Nofollow” and “Noindex” tags for unnecessary pages
• Promote your content with Google Ads

Submit your URL to Google with certain tactics

Use high quality dofollow backlinks

Try to earn backlinks from websites with high DR (Domain Rating) and rankings because they are frequently visited and indexed by Googlebot. Done right and you can kill four birds with one stone: increasing site authority, traffic, SEO effectiveness and indexing speed.

Build relevant internal links

To increase the chance of Googlebot visiting your new post, place relevant internal links in a high-traffic, high-ranking content to lead to this new piece. As the bot has a habit of visiting “famous” pages first, putting the right internal links there will increase the likelihood and indexing speed for the new page.

Share your content on social networks

The more people visit a URL, the faster that URL will get indexed. Therefore, after publishing new content on your website, share it on social networks. You can do some tweaking to turn it into a useful post to social media users or pique their interest to click and read the original piece.

Use “Nofollow” and “Noindex” tags for unnecessary pages

Google allows a limited number of crawled URLs per month per site, so don’t try to submit every link. Newly published or updated content should be on the priority list. The rest must be reviewed with care.

Once you have identified the pages that don’t need to be indexed, use the “Nofollow” and “Noindex” tags to mark them.

Promote your content with Google Ads

Using Google Ads for new posts is a sure way to get your links indexed quickly, because Google has to “read” them before putting them on ads.

Submit an URL to Google: FAQs

We have covered a lot of tips and practices about getting your page and URL indexed. Let’s review some most frequently asked questions about URL submission.

I have submitted many times, why is my URL not indexed?

There are two main reasons. The first is your URL is still in the queue, so you only need to be patient, because submitting multiple times doesn’t make it faster. The second is there are some problems on your site, such as low loading speed, the robots.txt file blocking Googlebot, etc. Refer to the section “How to Fix: URL Submitted But Not Indexed” for detailed instructions.

I submitted my sitemap but it says “couldn’t fetch”, what should I do?

First, try re-submitting a few more times. If the situation doesn’t improve, contact the hosting provider for troubleshooting.

Why is the indexing speed slow?

There are 3 main reasons: your content is not updated regularly, your site has no traffic, and the URL is located so deep in the website structure that Googlebot can’t find it.

Which tools are the best for website indexing?

Each tool has its own perks and quirks, no two tools are the same. Depending on your needs, try some of the tools introduced above. If you are still unsure, consider getting help from a third party expert.

Related insights: Schema markup can help search engines understand the content of your web pages.

Final Thoughts

Congratulations! You have reached the end of this article. We hope you have a good time learning all the necessary information on how to submit your URL to Google and make sure your link is indexed with accuracy and speed.

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