Whenever you take a new website live, you’ll have a few questions. One of the first questions is “How long does it take to get my website on Google?” Or, “How long until my website is live in search results?” Naturally, after putting time and money into a website or a new blog for your business, you want to be found. You also want to get indexed in the search results. So here are a few tips to help that happen as quickly as possible.
How Google Finds New Content on the Web
Google crawls content it finds on the web and in website sitemaps. If you’re curious as to how many pages your website has indexed, make sure you setup and use Webmaster Tools.
How to Get Your Website or Blog Found Online
There are a few standard items you want to do after your website or blog is taken live. This is to make sure Google can find and index your content quickly:
- Create and Submit an XML Sitemap – A sitemap is essentially a list of the pages on your website. Sitemaps contain the frequency you’ll be updating your content. They also contain any no-follow links (where you prefer some content not be found). On WordPress websites, you can use the Google XML Sitemaps plugin. This will create your sitemap automatically for you. If you’re a client of ours, you won’t have to worry about most of these steps. This is because we build basic SEO bells and whistles into every website we build.
- Submit Your Sitemap via Webmaster Tools – If you use Google Webmaster Tools, this should be your go-to for the onsite health of your website. If you don’t have a Webmaster Tools Account, setting one up and submitting your sitemap is easy.
- Install Analytics – Google Analytics is not only helpful for tracking the sources and activity of your browsers. It’s preferred by Google that your site use this, as it’s another indicator to Google of your activity and that you’re online.
- Submit Your Site URL – This one is argued as not necessary, however, we still do it for our clients because it’s quick and easy. And, it may certainly speed things up a bit. All you have to do is sign into your Google Account and Submit URL via Webmaster Tools.
- Use Social Media – The search engines want content and links. These are flags that your website or blog is live and online. They also show activity and build trust. If you don’t already have social media profiles setup, make sure you setup the main ones, which are somewhat industry dependent. Once you’re ready, make sure you add your links to your new website or blog with supporting content and keywords (the core ‘thing’ that your website, blog or brand is about). Make sure you also share the new URL to your friends and fans. While these links are “no follow” links, they still build traffic and activity towards the URL, which ultimately will help you get found online.
- Create Content – When I say content, I mean both content on your site (this includes pages with informative, helpful text, images and links) and blog content. The blog is the most dynamic portion of your website. It you blog correctly (correctly being key – think organic, helpful and well written), it will drive traffic from varied sources to your website. It is this traffic that helps … yes, you guessed it: get found online. It’s not rocket science. It just takes a little time and dedication. Offsite press releases also help, as they can create a steady stream of traffic and links to your website.
- What Else – If your website is purely a blog, there are other steps, such as using Feedburner and submitting to blog directories such as Alltop.
When Will You See Your Website on The Web?
Once you’re indexed, you’ll see some organic search traffic. If you follow the steps in this article, this can happen faster and more effectively than if you sit around and wait. You might build it into your content strategy to share helpful and informative information from your website or blog on social media and through your Google updates.
Keep in mind that your blog is more dynamic than your pages. So, consider using a blog, such as WordPress, and ideally, have it hosted along with your website. This means the blog and the website are one. If you’re stuck on this, give us a call and we can help. You can use your blog to support and build links to your website content that strengthen and support one another. This will help your website get found more quickly as well.
And how long does it take to get your website on Google?
So, how long does it take to get your website on Google? It depends how you do on the above list. If you’re going for being found by more than just your business name, it will also depend on your industry and how saturated it is. Also, it will depend on the search terms you’re targeting, your brand name, your web copy, and your url, to name a few.
What techniques have you found are most successful? How are these affected by Google Hummingbird?
We look forward to your thoughts and questions.
– Cheers! Christina
Hi I have read your article take a look at my Blog. .www.votevince2014.blogspot.com. Let me know what you think? .Offer tips on making the blog more effective. Thanks Vincent Duncan.
Hi Vince, thanks for reaching out! For starters, I’d suggest self-hosting the blog. You’re currently using blogspot.com but it’s not on your server. Beyond that a unique url and a theme design. You’ve got some content but just might need a few elements in place and a proper sitemap. We’re always happy to help.
Cheers! – Christina @ Savy
This is a great post – it’s important to remember to be patient, as there’s so much competition online that it can take a while to get noticed. There are loads of simple things that can be done in order to get a higher Google ranking! Thanks for sharing.
Hey, Christina, long time no talk. I hope you and the family are doing well.
This is solid advice, but I’ve found other techniques to also be quite effective. I recently launched Anakota.com and did none of the things on your list (except for adding Analytics) and was picked up 3 days. I’ve been experimenting with different techniques over the past 15 years and I think I finally figured out what Google wants. It’s very esoteric, nothing concrete, but the secret is in the quality of the website/code.
Another useful trick for new websites is to put up a landing page and submit that to Google while the full site is being developed. By the time development is finished, Google is already making regular visits to the domain, so when the site launches it doesn’t take very long for the new content to be indexed.
Take Care,
-steve.
Hey Steve, great hearing from you! Hope all is well in creative and in life : ) Nice work on Anakota; it’s a beautiful site. It’s not clear from the outside what Anakota is competing on, this makes it a little more tricky when you’re a new site entering a saturated space. The page rank is good, was Anakota served that out of the gate? Right on! Cheers! – Christina
Thanks!
“It’s not clear from the outside what Anakota is competing on, this makes it a little more tricky when you’re a new site entering a saturated space.”
I agree. Let’s just say I was working within a lot of constraints and leave it at that.
I thought the site was out of the gate, but I did a search in the archive and it looks like they had an old site that was taken down before I started on the project. That probably explains the quick index the page rank. We should really nerd out on this sometime, i’ve got secrets and I want yours! I’ve gotten a rank of 47k in Alexa and 8-9 with google with an ecommerce site I built back in the early 2000’s.
Something that was somewhat unexpected was how well the single page website works with google. Do a search for Anakota, Helena Dakota Vineyard, Ankaota Contact and you’ll see the description change. Perhaps a compelling reason not to use a meta description on single page layouts.
Hi Steve, I’m not seeing the description change and don’t see results on Anakota Contact, but I know what you mean. I fiend 8-9’s and LOVE to geek out on this stuff. My secret? It’s no secret – content, and a little magic 🙂
Hiya! Quick question that’s entirely off topic. Do you know how to make your site mobile friendly?
My site looks weird when viewing from my apple iphone.
I’m trying to find a template or plugin that might be able to resolve this problem.
If you have any recommendations, please share. Cheers!
Hi Frances, in order to make the site mobile friendly, it needs to be developed with mobile in mind. I suggest building your website full responsive, so that the page – URL, HTML, images, etc – remains the same, but the CSS gives different rules based on browser width.
Let me know if we can help. Cheers!