Getting Your Site Indexed By Google

There has always been a lot of discussion as to the best ways to get a site quickly indexed by Google. You can spend a fortune buying up all of the e-books and programs that promise instant search engine results. Many of these techniques can get your site blacklisted. It’s very easy and simple to do things the right way without risking your site’s inclusion before it even gets off the ground.

Assuming that there are no outside or technical issues preventing your site from being spidered you should find it relatively easy getting included.

I have brought dozens of sites online over the years and I have never had a problem getting indexed by Google within twenty four hours. In fact, just yesterday I uploaded a brand new site to our server with a brand new domain name and had it indexed in half a dozen locations in less than an hour. It doesn’t rank high but it is there. With that said, I’m certainly not an SEO expert or even in the field. I just hate to see so many people throw money at something this simple just to risk being penalized later.

You can submit it once at at google.com/addurl but that takes a while and still doesn’t guarantee your site’s inclusion. There’s certainly no reason to continue submitting your site once it is indexed.

It Is This Easy

Get a site that is already being indexed (the higher the rank the better) to link to your site on a page that gets spidered. It’s that simple! It’s not rocket science and it doesn’t take a so-called SEO expert to get you there. By the way, as a side note, most of those ‘SEO experts‘ can’t even get their own sites beyond a Google PageRank of three or four. Be careful who you give your money to.

If you already have a site that fits the bill then you are way ahead of the game. Set a link from the already established site’s front page and Googlebot should follow the link.

Need Outside Help?

If you need to get your backlinks from other sources, and you do if you want any rank or search engine traffic, then start by taking advantage of the social networks, related sites, article directories, and high quality directories such as Dmoz and Yahoo. Remember, this article is about getting indexed, not getting to the top of the search results.

Quality Content

Google likes to see sites build links naturally and by merit. If  it looks spammy or mass-generated you are in trouble. Don’t get greedy and impatient. Always write quality and original content. This includes content on your site and content on the sites linking to you. Unique and relivent content will help your cause. Well established sites considered high ranking in Google’s eyes will boost you to the top in many instances.

Make It Count

Another thing to keep in mind when using outside resource to get indexed is the rel=nofollow microformat. Find sites that do not add this attribute to outside links. If they do then Google won’t bother following the backlinks to your site. Here’s a couple online lists to get you started:

Huge List of DoFollow Sites!

The Definitive List of Big Dofollow Social Bookmarking Sites

TIP: There is a better solution than viewing the page source when checking to see if a site is using the rel=nofollow microformat on it’s outside links. I use the Firefox browser with the SeoQuake plugin. The SeoQuake plugin has a Line-through “nofollow” and “noindex” setting that informs you instantly if a link is tagged with the rel=”nofollow” attribute. Here is an easy to follow article on how to achieve this: How to detect rel=nofollow using firefox

Avoid Black Hat Tactics

Avoid black hat or even gray hat schemes. Stay clear of web rings, link farms, free-for-all (FFA) sites, link directories and paid links. These methods are nothing but trouble.

Extra Credit:

Here’s a cool fact that I have long suspected but is now confirmed – Google ignores the meta keywords tag. They do use the title tag. You can learn many other relevant things like that from Google Webmaster Help. Here’s what Google says about Adding a site to Google.

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27 Comments

Sadie  on September 29th, 2008

I am kinda green about ‘how to backlink’. I have a blog, and I am pretty sure it’s indexed. I would like next to increase my PR. I know posting on blogs with a PR, and leaving your URL within that post is one way to increase your rank. So, if I post on a site do I actually live the Anchor link in the body of the comment or does just leaving the URL in the ‘Website’ category box that’s usually directly below the box for your name…does that generate that backlink. Are there right or wrong ways of doing it.
Thanks much…8o)

Brian  on September 29th, 2008

Hi Sadie, As long as the blog’s outside links don’t carry the no-follow tag then it should count although there seems to be some debate as to the benefits of backlinks from blogs and forums. Some feel that blogs and forums can do more harm than good but I’m not sold on that yet.

As far as anchor text within the comment itself I guess that would depend on the blog. I think most would consider that comment spam and may delete the comment. That shouldn’t stop you from adding your link in the appropriate space when leaving a comment. You forgot to do that on this blog by the way. Comment back and leave your site’s URL if you like. Thanks, Brian

Project Runway Philippines  on September 29th, 2008

I really needed this post especially that my site is new. Thanks for this tip. I’ll probably comment on one site that I know that is PR5. Also, I wanted to know/give a try if this theory is correct. I’ll give this one week. If my site appears after one week in Google, then I’ll know that this tip is correct.

Project Runway Philippiness last blog post..Veejay Floresca

Blog for Beginners  on September 30th, 2008

It’s very kind of you to share the easiest way to get indexed and yes, it’s that simple, yet many are still clueless about it.

Perhaps, getting the right blog to link to you isn’t the easy part as most beginners do have only one blog in the beginning.

Yan

Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..The Best 15 SEO Tools At Your Disposal

Brian  on September 30th, 2008

That’s a nice test Project Runway Philippines. I just checked and ProjectRunwayPhilippines.com isn’t indexed yet and this blog post is. Hopefully Googlebot will re-spider soon :)

Brian  on September 30th, 2008

You’re right Yan, It may take many attempts and even then we should continue to build back links. I think the best bet is doing just like you are doing and commenting where you want to participate and don’t worry about the backlinks. That will happen naturally and the commenter doesn’t get accused of comment spam.

Successful bloggers do what comes natural, blog and comment because they like the topic. Anyone that doubts that should visit ThouShallBlog.com and look at the number of comments you get. It’s very impressive.

Sadie  on September 30th, 2008

There are loads of ebooks out there and someone could spend a fortune on them just trying to learn the basics, not realizing that blogs and blogging will lead you to the answers you need.
Thanks much for the help..8o)

Sadies last blog post..-Fool Me Twice Shame On Me

Brian  on September 30th, 2008

Glad to help Sadie :)

Make Money Blogging  on October 13th, 2008

Hey there Brian,

I realised that method too and I am glad you are sharing it here. An advice for those who are following this method is that you shouldn’t submit your url to google’s add url and if are hoping to get index through other’s website.

You will get indexed faster than you thought.

Chris  on October 13th, 2008

I wish I had come across this article sooner (especially the links to the DoFollow sites list). In the process of trying to get http://www.sportboatsdirect.com indexed, I posted links on some blogs and social/business networking sites that use a nofollow tag. Found this out later of course! Thanks for the article.

Armen Shirvanian  on October 13th, 2008

Google appears to be quite quick in adding a new site to their index. I sure haven’t heard of anyone not seeing their site up within a reasonable period of time.

Armen Shirvanians last blog post..Spoken/Written Words vs. Intent

Brian  on October 13th, 2008

Hi Chris, I’m not sure why so many sites use those tags. It’s been a big debate as to if you loose rank or not by not using it. BTW, that’s a nice site. Very clean.

Brian  on October 13th, 2008

Hi Armen, I have to admit that they stay on the ball. I’ve been spending a lot of time at Google Webmaster Central trying to learn as much as possible. I have also subscribed to a couple of their group feeds. There’s a wealth of information there for those that want to wade through the other stuff.

Brian  on October 13th, 2008

Hi Ben, I have read in a few places that submitting your URL can do more harm than good. I do believe it’s all but ignored. I can remember years ago trying to get indexed for weeks that way and ended up paying a guy $12 in the Ukraine to get me indexed :)

Hussein  on October 13th, 2008

I would suggest that you first make quality post before submitting your site to Google or any other search engine.

Brian  on October 13th, 2008

Hi Hussein, Quality content is certainly important.

Blog for Beginners  on October 15th, 2008

Thanks for the shout, Brian. Fact is the major source of my traffic comes from blog commenting. I know it’s not the best scenario but I’m trying to balance both referral traffic and organic ones.

I’ve not been around here lately and how’s everything on your side, Brian?

Yan

Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..The Art of Writing Catchy Articles

Brian  on October 15th, 2008

Hi Yan, It’s great to here from you again. Everything is going well. I agree with you about blog commenting. It’s very important. I even noticed that even the biggest bloggers such as John Chow still comment on other blogs. You may remember the post I wrote back in July : Are You Passing Up Comment Credit? You were a comment pro even then :)

Blog for Beginners  on October 15th, 2008

Hey Brian

Good to hear that everything is fine. It appears to me that it’s been a while since you update this blog judging from your latest post. Busy with the other blogs of yours?

Oh yeah, I’m impressed you have such a great memory to remember my comment way back in July. Time really flies, I was still a newbie then…

Great to be able to catch up with you again. You take care, my friend.

Cheers

Blog for Beginnerss last blog post..The Art of Writing Catchy Articles

Brian  on October 20th, 2008

Project Runway Philippines, I’ve been meaning to check to see if ProjectRunwayPhilippines.com ever got listed and I finally got around to it. I searched Google for ProjectRunwayPhilippines.com and it was listed first. Bloganol.com is number two and this post number three. When I search site:projectrunwayphilippines.com I can see that thirteen pages are indexed so far. I’m glad to see that it worked :)

elmo live  on October 21st, 2008

awsome Thanks!! I am actually currenly trying to get mine indexed, taking a while though =/

Matt Helphrey  on December 11th, 2008

You know I don’t even worry about it anymore. I just post and let Google run it’s course. Usually Google has it indexed within minutes.

Matt Helphreys last blog post..Develop a Link Building Strategy

Brian  on December 11th, 2008

Hi Elmo, I must have missed your comment before. It looks like you’re site has been indexed now. I checked it here https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/sitestatus and is shows the Google is indexing your site.

Brian  on December 11th, 2008

Hi Matt, that’s one of the blessings of an established site.

Article Directory  on February 5th, 2009

Thank you so much Brian and all the others, I got many ideas from your conversation.

Brian  on February 5th, 2009

Glad it helped Article Directory.

Keith from SuperiorFenceProducts  on December 6th, 2009

Sheesh, I feel like an IDIOT! Have been using SEO Quake for over a year and never saw the line through option! LOL

BTW both links under the “Make It Count” heading don’t go to anything (atleast not for me)
Keith@SuperiorFenceProducts´s last blog ..Vinyl Privacy Fence Products My ComLuv Profile