So you have put together a website and have it published on the web. All the content is in place and all your site’s functionality is working properly. What comes next? This question can be answered by answering another question I have seen several times on the forums at SEO.com and other forums that I frequently visit. This question is, “how do I get my site indexed in Google?”
How does someone get their site indexed in Google and the other search engines? I have seen many different answers to this question. Some of these answers are, “submit the site to Google” or “link to your site from blogs and forums” or even “submit your site to some directories.” While these methods may all work, there is one really effective way to get your site indexed fairly quickly in Google. I have used this method for several sites that were not indexed yet, and each site was indexed in Google within about one week. This is done by submitting a sitemap in XML format to Google through Google Webmaster Tools.
When you create your XML sitemap for Google you can also submit it to Live Search through their Webmaster Center. You should also be sure to reference your sitemap in your robots.txt file. To reference it, just add the following line to your robots.txt file and insert your own domain name.
• Sitemap: http://www.example.com/sitemap.xml
Submitting a sitemap doesn’t mean you don’t have to do those other things I mentioned as answers to getting indexed. Building inbound links to your site will not only help with getting indexed, but will also help with improving the rankings of your site. You should continue to look for good places to get inbound links. Directories, social media, blogs, and forums are just some of the places where inbound links can be acquired. But building inbound links is a topic for another blog post.
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Thursday, March 19, 2009
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