Link building and indexing have deep connections between them. Because link building increases crawling and support indexing. Did you know 91% of web pages didn’t get traffic from Google because their pages weren’t indexed? There is no matter how quality and valuable content is on the website if Google doesn’t crawl and index web pages. The website is invisible in search engines.
So here, link building acts as a building block for the crawling and indexing of pages. It acts as digital PR that gives Google a sign of a trustworthy website. As a result, it frequently crawls and speeds up the indexing of that website.
In this article, I’ll explain how link building supports crawling, indexing, and improves website ranking. I’ll also give you an essential strategy for building links that are easy to crawl for search engines. If you’re a beginner in SEO and worried about indexing web pages, this will greatly help you.
What is Google crawling and indexing?
Understanding Google crawling and indexing is crucial because if the website is not recognized by Google, there is no chance of ranking in search engines. So, here I break down their session for more information.
1. What is Google Crawling, and how does it work?
Google crawling is the process in which a search engine sends a robot named a crawler or spider that crawls all pages, including images, videos, and written content. The crawling starts by following the URL on the web page. It discovers and analyzes the web content by following the links on the website. It starts from a well-known website and then follows the links that are:
- Internal links: Website links from one page to another. It helps the robot to crawl every page of the site.
- Backlinks: Links from other authorized websites that point to your website content.
- Sitemap: A structured file submitted to Google Search Console, from their crawler, which easily finds the website and analyzes it.
- Robots.txt: It is the file that tells which pages they crawl. If you want the crawler not to come to that page, use the disallow directive in the robots.txt file, which specifies not to crawl. Before using this file, research about it and then implement it.
If Google finds content reliable and provides value, the next step, which is to proceed, is indexing. However, without proper internal links and backlinks and without submitting a sitemap, it remains empty, and no crawling comes to the website.
2. What is page indexing?
When the crawler finishes its work, the indexing step starts. It stores information about the website like URL structure, mobile friendliness, content relevance and quality, and technical structure of the website. In simple words, page indexing is a process in which Google stores the site’s data in its large database. If the page isn’t indexed, there is no matter how well it is optimized…
Why is indexing important?
- Visibility
- Indexed pages potentially can rank on Google and get you traffic.
- SEO performance
- Proper indexing ensures that your SEO efforts are not wasted.
- Frequent Discovery
- Indexed pages are crawled more frequently for updates.
You can check if your page is indexed on Google by typing insite:yourdomain.com/page-url or by using a Google index checker in SEO tools.
The process of indexing in SEO
Indexing in Google determines the content quality and stores every single piece of data from websites in its database, which is called indexing. These index data are available for the reader that gives ranking at SERPs.
During this process, Google checks the following points:
- Does this website content provide value to the reader or not?
- Are the keywords that are used in the content for a search query?
- Does the website load in 2-3 secs? Can it provide a user experience?
- Are the backlinks used on the website trustworthy and authorized?
If it meets Google’s criteria and wins, it gets indexed and appears in search results when users search for relevant queries.
How Link Building Supports Indexing in SEO?
As I discussed previously, link-building is the technique in which a site links to another reputable website. It is an effective strategy to faster index web pages, ultimately improving rank.
How do backlinks help Google to discover new pages?
Googlebot’s main source to find new content is links. When a high-authority site creates a link back to a page on your website, Google’s crawlers follow that link and consequently review the content. Chances are therefore higher that your page will find its way into indexing because of these backlinks.
This is how backlinks assist in indexing.
- They are used as “walkways” for search engines to find new content.
- Pages with quality backlinks are indexed more frequently. In comparison to pages that have never received any backlinks.
- Linking sites always have higher chances of building trust with Google concerning their content.
- Nonetheless, some essential web pages with little to no links may take a long time to be found, so be sure to give internal linking a go as well if possible!
Support Indexing Examples
On backlinks in real-world case studies that support the indexing through this increasing link-building:
Case study 1
A newly launched website was fighting with indexing, and five high-quality backlinks from blog sites relevant to its industry made Google crawl and index the pages within 48 hours!
Case Study 2
Internal linking accelerates indexing for deep pages. A blog consumed several hundred posts, but some were never indexed! Google began to produce its indexing for pages others simply passed on after introducing some internal linking to newly published posts linking to high-ranking ones.
Case Study 3
Guest posting and PR speed up the rate of crawling. If you have a startup and want to grow, start focusing on building backlinks with an authoritative website that easily crawls and indexes the homepage and product pages.
Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links: Which One Supports Indexing?
Not all backlinks are created equal. Therefore, they all impact indexing differently. There are two significant types of backlinks:
a. Dofollow Links: Provide built-in SEO values, commonly referred to as link juice, which helps Google to more quickly discover and index your pages. Of these two choices, the first is the stronger option for SEO purposes.
b. Nofollow Links: Direct the search engines not to pass link equity, but it would still probably lead crawlers to your site if the page gets a lot of visits.
Which one works better for indexing?
Dofollow links help to index and rank sites much faster; nofollow links might drive some traffic and help with discovery, but don’t do much in terms of helping rank. For the best effect on your SEO, aim for really high-quality do-follow backlinks from reputable sources.
Best link-building tools to improve indexing
Link-building tools help in examining the website’s weaknesses and give a problem solution. For faster crawling and indexing, the right tools help you.
Here are the best tools that help in link-building to improve SEO strategy:
1. Ahrefs: It gives a comprehensive overview of the website, but mainly it helps to find the relevant links and also gives the competitor’s links profile.
2. Semrush: This tool helps users with link-building outreach and analyzing the backlinks. It makes backlink audits, which helps in determining which backlinks generate more traffic.
3. Moz Link Explorer: It helps users find their domain authority and tracks backlinks.
4. Hunter.io: It helps users find the email to reach the website admins for link-building.
How do link-building tools improve crawling and indexing?
Essentially, these tools can assist in having your pages indexed on Google quicker by:
- Showing what backlinks are of high value.
- Finding broken links that you can replace with your content.
- Helping you in doing outreach campaigns for guest posting and mentions.
- Tracking which pages are indexed and which need cleaning up.
Pro tip: Connect Google Search Console along with the link-building tools so you can see which pages are indexed and request indexing for new backlinks.
Google Index Checker: How to Ensure the Page Is Indexed?
Every web page needs to be indexed by Google. It helps to ensure visibility on search engines; when users search related queries, it shows indexed content. But here the question is how to check whether Google has indexed site pages or not. So use Google Index Checker to verify the index status of pages. Use tools that give a detailed overview, or you manually check them.
What is Google Index Checker?
Google Index Checker is a tool that is used to identify whether the entire website appears on the Google search index. This tool will analyze crawlability and detect things that block indexing, such as non-index tags or server errors; it also provides insights to fix these problems.
Relying solely on automated crawling can cause delays, especially if the website is relatively new or a page has a small number of backlinks. Google Search Console and other third-party platforms mostly fill this gap by allowing a non-robotic way of requesting.
How to Check If Google Indexed Your Website?
Here are the methods to check whether web pages are indexed.
Method 1: Use the Site Search Operator
The most straightforward way to check indexing is to write site:yourdomain.com in the search bar of Google. This operator will show all pages that are indexed by Google from your domain.
Method 2: Google Search Console’s URL Inspection Tool
The URL Inspection Tool of Google Search Console analyzes the page of your choice. Paste the URL into the tool, and it will display:
- Crawlability: Whether Google sees the pages?
- Mobile usability and a few data issues are enhancements.
If a page is not indexed, the tool normally tells you, for instance, if it is blocked by robots.txt or duplicated elsewhere, so you can always fix it in a targeted way. It is possible to resort to third-party indexing tools.
Method 3: Use Third-Party Indexing Tools
Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Small SEO Tools also have Google index checkers. These tools will sweep across Google to see whether the pages you enter are indexed.
Steps to request indexing in Google Search Console
In case a page has not been indexed, follow these steps to hasten the process:
1. Verify Ownership: Join Google Search Console and make sure you have verified ownership of your website.
2. Inspect URL: Go to URL Inspection and paste the target URL in the provided search bar. Like this:
3. Crawlability: The crawlability tool will display if the page can be crawled. Fix any errors (like 404s, server timeouts, etc).
4. Request Indexing: Click on the “Request Indexing” button. Usually, Google processes these requests within 48 hours.
Google manual indexing requests are limited to 50 items per day to prevent abuse. It is advised to prioritize high-value pages like product launches or updated service pages.
Best practices for fast and accurate indexing
- Fix Technical Barriers
- Robots.txt must not block crawlers from indexing. Remove no-index tags from pages to be made for ranking. Resolve server errors (5xx) and redirect chains.
- Internal Linking
- Link new pages from existing indexed content, like blog posts or navigation menus, thus creating a crawl path for Googlebot.
- Submit an XML Sitemap
- One should upload a sitemap to GSC to guide crawlers toward key pages. XML sitemaps should be updated regularly to reflect a site’s new content.
- Building High-Quality Backlinks
- Pages with authoritative backlinks are crawled and indexed faster.
According to Sitechecker’s case study:
Earning links from .edu domains, for example, had a 62% quicker indexing time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Conclusion
Indexing is a necessary thing because it allows for site visibility, but improper indexing techniques can be harmful to the SEO of a website. Ensuring that more important pages are indexed easily is accomplished by performing regular technical audits, optimizing their content, and executing index request submissions strategically.
Google Search Console, SE Ranking, and Ahrefs make continuous monitoring of Clandestine easy and allow modifications to be completed quickly so that webmasters can adjust relatively quickly to the constant changes in algorithms set forth by search engines.
