Recently, one of our users asked us how to get their WordPress site listed on Google? Being the largest search engine in the world, Google is quite good at automatically detecting and listing new websites. However, sometimes it may not automatically list your website right away. Since Google is the biggest traffic source for most websites, it’s important that you get your website listed in Google immediately. In this article, we will share how to easily get your WordPress site listed on Google.
Why You Should Get Your Website Listed on Google?
Google is the top source of traffic and visitors for most websites. If you are serious about starting a blog or launching your small business website, then you need to get your website listed on Google as soon as possible.
If you are following the WordPress SEO best practices, then search engines like Google can automatically find your website. However this could take some time, and you will miss out potential customers.
But you can easily expedite this process. Let’s take a look at how to get your WordPress site listed on Google.
Listing Your WordPress Site on Google
Before we start, you would need to create a Google Webmasters Tool account (also known as Search Console). You can easily set it up by following our step by step instructions on how to add your WordPress site to Google Webmaster Tools.
Step 1: Check WordPress Settings for Search Engine Visibility
After you have setup your Webmaster Tools account, you need to make sure that your WordPress site is visible to search engines. You can check this by going to Settings » Reading page and scrolling down to the Search Engine Visibility option.
Make sure to remove the check mark from this option, so search engines can crawl your website.
Don’t forget to click on the ‘Save changes’ button to store your settings.
Step 2: Installing Yoast SEO Plugin
Next thing you need to do is install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.
Upon activation, you will see a new item in your WordPress admin menu labeled SEO. Go ahead and click on it to see the plugin’s settings page.
On the settings page, you will see the Webmaster Tools tab. We will use this to connect Google search console with your WordPress site.
Step 3: Connecting Google Search Console with WordPress
Now that you have installed Yoast SEO, you need to add your website to Google Search Console. You can do this by clicking on the Add Property button inside your Google search console account.
In the website field, you must add the full website URL. It is important that you use the same URL that you’re seeing in your browser’s URL bar including WWW or non-www as well as HTTPS.
Once you add the website URL, it will take you to the verification page where you need to verify that you’re the owner of this website. There are multiple methods that you can use to verify ownership. The easiest way is listed under the Alternate methods tab called “HTML tag”. It will give you a meta code that you need to copy.
Next, switch back to your WordPress admin area and visit SEO » General page. In the Webmaster Tools tab, you need to paste the code in Google Verification Code field.
Once you are done, click on the Save Changes button. Now go back to Google search console account and click on the Verify button. Your website ownership will be successfully verified.
If for some reason it doesn’t verify, then you need to make sure that you clear the cache in WordPress.
Step 4: Setting Up XML Sitemaps
Once your site is verified, you need to go to SEO » General page in WordPress admin area and click on the Features tab. Next, you need to scroll down to the XML sitemaps option and turn it on.
After that, click on the Save Changes button to properly set up XML sitemaps in WordPress.
To view your sitemaps, you can click on the question mark icon next to XML sitemaps title. It will display the link that you can follow to see all your XML sitemaps.
Next you need to submit your sitemap to Google webmaster tools. Sitemaps help Google search bots easily find and index your new content.
Step 5: Submitting XML Sitemaps to Google Search Console
Simply login to your Google search console account and select your website.
You need to go to Crawl » Sitemaps on left side of the screen.
Next, you need to click on the Add/Test Sitemap button on your screen and add your sitemap URL.
Your main sitemap file is sitemap_index.xml, and it has links to all other sitemaps on your site. You need to simply submit this main sitemap link, and Google will automatically crawl all other sitemaps on your website.
Once you are done with these steps, you can visit your Google search console account to check your listings. Once Google has crawled and indexed your website, you will start seeing reports in search console.
Another important factor that affects search rankings is website speed. Slower websites are bad for user experience and are often ranked lower than faster websites. See our guide on how to improve your website performance
That’s all. We hope this article helped you get your WordPress site listed on Google. You may also want to check our expert pick of the best WordPress SEO plugins and tools that you should use to optimize your website.
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