After you’ve designed a website and its content, the next step is to submit the website to Google. If your new website doesn’t need to be indexed yet, consider submitting it for review. For first-time website owners, indexing has significant advantages, as we’ll explore in this guide.
Do I have to submit my website to Google?
Submitting your sitemap to Google doesn’t have to be done by everyone. However, it can be incredibly beneficial as it makes the search engine find your website faster. Because of this, it is suitable for new website owners, especially if your website has not yet been indexed by crawlers.
It is important to note that Google (and other search engines) do not rely on manual input for indexing. The most common method used is site crawling, in which computer algorithms search websites for new links and new content. When crawlers find something from their existing archives, they add the new pages to their index.
The benefits of submitting my sitemap to Google
There is an excellent chance that Google will find your website on its own without you having to submit anything. However, this does not mean that there are not some benefits associated with manual filing. Let’s take a look at some of the most obvious benefits of submitting your website to Google.
Effective crawling
The biggest benefit of manually submitting your sitemap to Google is that it allows crawlers to do their jobs more effectively. With a manual submission, you forward the algorithms directly to the new content on your website. This process helps make your content easier for the crawlers to find, rather than finding the content themselves.
The faster crawlers find your new content, the faster they can index the new content. That said, the faster your updates will be added to improve search engine ranking. Manual submissions also ensure that your website’s content is correctly added to the relative rankings.
Improve search listings
Another benefit of taking this process into your own hands is that it helps improve your organic searches. When people search for content related to your website, their results are the most up-to-date information. For example, all links on your website are listed accordingly per search entry, such as B. Your home page, products and more.
Improved recognition
It is important to remember that search engines are the main source of traffic for many websites. Without traffic, your website won’t get enough hits, get an authority ranking, and you won’t make money.
By making sure your website is crawled efficiently, you are in the running when it comes to being discovered by potential customers. This is another benefit that directly affects new websites or new pages that you have added to your website. The faster you get a leaderboard, the more people you can attract to set yourself apart from the competition.
Access to valuable metrics
As a website owner, one of the most important things you have access to is a list of metrics. These metrics can give you fantastic insights into your website traffic, such as: This information can help you get a better idea of whether your content is reaching your target audience.
Interestingly, when you create sitemaps, you also get sitemap reports that contain these valuable metrics. You can look at keyword searches, traffic reports, and other data points to help improve the website.
Updated content warnings
Creating a manual sitemap is a phenomenal way to let Google know of any updates you make to your website. One of the best ways to claim a high position on search engine results pages (SERPs) is to make sure your content is current.
Because you update throughout the year, Google will automatically be notified when your content changes. And with regular updates, you can ensure that you are better serving your visitors’ needs. This process can lead to higher SERP rankings and increase the popularity of your website.
The disadvantages of submitting a sitemap to Google
Some industry leading experts do not recommend submitting a manual crawl request. With all the benefits associated with manual crawling, you might be wondering how this can be a bad thing.
In reality, it’s not so much that manual crawling is bad. It just prevents you from seeing some kinds of valuable information.
Avoiding natural results
Sending your website to Google manually will undoubtedly get the job done faster. However, it prevents you from seeing the valuable results of a natural crawl that website owners can benefit from. In other words, when you submit an XML feed (or any other feed), you are breaking the natural crawling process.
As a website owner, it is important to understand the specifics of your website, such as: B. in which areas unique and helpful content is missing. If you choose to crawl manually, you are redirecting algorithms to specific areas of your website. During this process, the crawlers cannot crawl your website like an average browser.
Page Inclusion and Exclusion
Another big problem website owners have with manual submissions is how crawlers can include or exclude certain web pages. It is important to have a full view of your website to see its successes and failures. By directing crawlers to specific areas, they tend to include problematic pages while excluding quality content.
On the other hand, crawling organically helps avoid indexing dozens of old pages that could affect your SEO ranking. These pages, often referred to as orphaned pages, must also be considered when crawling.
How to prepare my site for indexing
Getting your website ready for indexing is easy using this in-depth guide that we created to walk you through the process. Additionally, there are two additional factors that every website owner must consider before submitting their website to search engines.
Most crawling algorithms look for websites that are easiest to navigate and that contain helpful information for visitors. With that in mind, we want you to focus on the user experience first and foremost as that is what matters most.
Of course, it is important that your website is indexed quickly. Nonetheless, the quality and navigability of your website are just as important. There are two factors that you should pay closer attention to: UX (user experience) and website speed.
UX (user experience)
As we all know, your website visitors are potential customers, and your website is their first impression of your business. If your website is blocked by too much content and badly organized, it will leave the wrong impression. They will not engage your audience, which will cause potential customers to leave your website and go elsewhere.
The user experience is by far one of the most difficult concepts for website owners to come across. You have to make sure that all important information is immediately available to the visitor. For example, you should be able to find the checkout page quickly, have easy access to company information, and much more.
Fortunately, measuring the UX for your website is easy as long as you consider these key metrics:
Qualitative metrics
Qualitative metrics encompass the factors that visitors consider to determine the quality of your website. This can include overall customer satisfaction with the layout, customer ratings for the user experience, and other measurable metrics.
There is no doubt that qualitative metrics give you a clear picture of which areas of your website need improvement. Tracking qualitative metrics is relatively easy using customer surveys or behavioral statistics.
For example, if you look at your back-end metrics, do you notice that certain pages have less retention? If so, these pages aren’t targeting as many customers as they should, which means they may need a content update.
Objective metrics
The second component of the user experience that you need to consider is objective metrics. These are the numbers that don’t include direct reviews or satisfaction ratings from your customers.
Think about how visitors organically navigate your website and if they have any problematic features. Also, watch out for user error, the success rate of certain integrations, or the time customers spend on tasks.
For example, does it take the average consumer too long to find your checkout page? Are certain buttons on your website not directing users to the right pages?
By taking objective metrics into account, you can greatly improve the user experience in an unbiased manner. Instead of making changes based on what your customers think, you can make changes based on their browsing habits.
Website speed
The speed of the website is essential for a better user experience and helps to gain a more professional footing. Visiting a website with too much content will cause the pages to load slowly. In most cases, potential customers will leave your website to find another webpage that loads faster.
Being able to identify the problematic areas of your website that are causing it to get blocked is essential. This point is especially true if your website is being crawled as its speed can make it less effective.
Every page receives a PageSpeed-Score from Google, which can influence the ranking. The faster your website loads, the more benefits you’ll have, including:
- Increased page views
- Higher conversions
- More positive user experiences
- Reduced bounce rates
Submit Website To Google: Final Thoughts
Learning how to submit a website to Google is a relatively simple process. Before you begin, however, it is important to consider the pros and cons of manual indexing. By focusing on the user experience, you have a higher chance of getting high quality and reliable indexing from crawlers.
