To determine whether your site is in Google’s index you can do a site: search for your site’s home URL. If you see results, you’re in the index. For example, a search for ‘site:lemonstolemonade.co.uk’ returns these results.
If your site isn’t on Google, it’s frequently for one of the following reasons:
- The site isn’t well connected from other sites on the web
- You’ve just launched a new site and Google hasn’t had time to crawl it yet
- The design of the site makes it difficult for Google to crawl its content effectively
- Google received an error when trying to crawl your site
- Your policy blocks Google from crawling the site
How do I get my site on Google?
Google is a fully automated search engine that uses web crawlers to explore the web constantly, looking for sites to add to their index. In fact, the vast majority of sites listed in their results pages aren’t manually submitted for inclusion but found and added automatically.
While there’s no guarantee that Google’s crawlers will find a particular site, following these guidelines should help make your site appear in the search results.
Google Search Console provides tools to help you submit your content to Google and monitor how your site is performing. Search Console can even send you alerts on critical issues that Google encounters with your site.
Here are a few basic questions to ask yourself about your website when you get started.
- Is my website showing up on Google?
- Do I provide high-quality content to users?
- Is my business showing up on Google My Business?
- Is my content fast and easy to access on all devices?
- Is my website secure?
Do you need an SEO expert?
An SEO (search engine optimization) expert is someone trained to improve your websites visibility on search engines.
Deciding to hire an SEO expert is a big decision that can potentially improve your site’s performance and visibility and ultimately gain you with more customers.
Make sure you research the potential advantages of hiring an SEO, as well as the damage that an irresponsible SEO can do to your site. Many SEOs and other agencies and consultants provide useful services for website owners, including:
- Review of your site content or structure
- Technical advice on website development: for example, hosting, redirects, error pages, use of JavaScript
- Content development
- Management of online business development campaigns
- Keyword research
- Competitor intelligence
- SEO training
- Expertise in specific markets
However, before beginning your search for an SEO expert, it’s a great idea to become an educated consumer and get familiar with how search engines work. We recommend going through the entirety of these guides:
If you’re thinking about hiring an SEO expert, the earlier the better. A great time to hire is when you’re considering a website redesign or planning to launch a new website. That way, you and your SEO expert can ensure that your site is designed to be search engine-friendly from the bottom up. However, a good SEO expert can also help improve an existing site.
For a detailed rundown on the need for hiring an SEO and what things to look out for, you can read Google’s article ‘Do you need an SEO?’