During a recent Q&A session during Google SEO office hours, a concerned site owner inquired about the slow indexing of their 16,000-page site.
Gary Illyes, a member of the Google Search Relations team, provided a comprehensive response to the query, addressing the factors affecting indexing speed.
Quality and popularity matter in indexing
Illyes explained that indexing speed depends on several factors, the most important of which is Quality the site and theirs popularity on the Internet.
Illyes recommended site owners to ensure their content is of the highest quality to increase indexing speed.
Quality content is crucial as Google’s algorithms prioritize it when determining indexing priority. However, the definition of quality content goes beyond the mere text of individual articles.
According to Google’s John Mueller, content quality encompasses the entire website, including layout, design, integration of images, and page speed.
These elements contribute to a positive user experience and are key factors that Google considers when ranking quality.
Using social media to increase popularity
Illyes also recommended using social media promotions to encourage engagement and discussion about the site.
“How quickly a website is indexed depends on many factors, but the most important is the quality of the website, followed by its popularity on the Internet. Once you’ve made sure your content is of the highest quality possible, maybe try running some social media promotions to get people talking about your site. That will probably help.”
As a website’s popularity and online visibility increases, the likelihood that Google will prioritize its indexing increases.
Although not specifically mentioned by Illyes, the role of backlinks should not be overlooked here.
Backlinks, i.e. links from external websites to your website, contribute to faster indexing and better search engine rankings.
When quality and reputable websites link to your content, it acts as a recommendation and signals to search engines that your website is reliable and contains valuable content.
Backlinks also generate referral traffic, increase brand awareness, and add to the credibility and trustworthiness of your website.
This approach increases indexing speed and can improve the site’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 a website’s structure, code, and page speed to meet the crawling and indexing needs of search engines. It plays a crucial role in improving a website’s visibility and making it easier for search engines to index the content.
With regard to indexing, the following technical aspects must be taken into account:
- site structure: A logical page structure is essential for users and search engines. It helps visitors navigate the site and assists search engines in locating and indexing content.
- Internal links: Internal links play a crucial role in helping search engine crawlers discover new pages and spread PageRank, which affects a page’s quality score
- URL Optimization: Optimizing URL structures to be clear and descriptive improves user experience and improves search engine understanding of page content.
In total
Website owners can speed up the indexing process and improve their search engine rankings by creating quality content and using social media and link building to increase website visibility.
source: Google
Featured image created by the author using Midjourney.
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