Whether you’ve been in business for decades or only a week, you’ll need a website and an online presence in order to survive in the digital era of 2018. As early as 10 years ago, indexing your website on Google mostly consisted of designing a website and hitting the publish button—there wasn’t too much effort or skill involved.
In 2018, the process of getting your new website indexed in Google (along with the other major search engines such as Bing and Yahoo!) has changed. Thanks to various Google updates and algorithm changes to cut down on spam, you’ll need a digital marketing strategy in place in order for your customers to find you in the search engines.
Although getting your new business website indexed in 2018 requires a bit of skill and know-how, it’s certainly not impossible. This guide will help you learn how to index your new website in 2018 and see to it that your business website remains spam free and user-friendly for your customers.
Step 1: Register a User Friendly Web Address
Not too long ago, businesses were buying web addresses that consisted of keywords rather than the business name itself. While this isn’t necessarily bad practice for SEO in 2018, keywords in your web address don’t weigh as heavily within the search algorithm as they did in the past.
Instead of worrying about overstuffing all of your keywords in your web address, focus on a name that is user-friendly and easy to spell. If your keywords are naturally contained within your registered business name, consider it a bonus. User friendliness is one of the keys to getting your website indexed on Google, and it all starts with your domain name.
Step 2: Design a Website That’s Easy to Navigate
Once you have your domain name registered and ready to go, it’s time to start thinking about the design of your website. Once again, user-friendliness is key to encouraging Google to index your new website. Make sure that your website’s navigation is easy to find and includes a system that makes sense.
After you’ve figured out your navigation system, move on to creating a sitemap that lists out all of your pages under the proper categories. Your sitemap helps Google and other search engines organize your website and index your pages properly. You’re most in need of a site map if your website is very large and contains a lot of content, or if your site is new. Google might not discover links on your website unless other pages link to it first, so set some extra time aside to generate a sitemap for your new business website.
Step 3: Conduct Keyword Research
Although we mentioned that keywords in your web address aren’t as important as they once were, you’ll still need keywords throughout your content to help web crawlers understand the context of your website. However, you don’t want to choose just any keyword for your website. Some keywords may be too competitive to realistically plan your content strategy around, and other keywords may have too low of search volume to be effective.
There are multiple keyword tools available online to help you determine your best choices. There are free keyword tools such as the one supplied by Google Adwords, and another keyword tool called keywordtool.io. While you’ll have to take these results with a grain of salt, you’ll be able to get a rough idea of good keywords to include in your content with these tools.
Other reliable keyword research tools that require a paid subscription include KeywordEye, SEMRush, and Wordstream.
Step 4: Plan Content For Your Pages
Once you have your keywords in place, you’ll want to start creating content that caters to those keywords. Getting your new business website indexed in 2018 depends a lot on the depth and quality of your content, so it’s important to put some thought into the subpages of your website.
As you plan out your subpages, always keep user experience in mind. Think about how a customer would feel as they browse through your website and read the content on your pages. Make sure that your content is helpful, informative, and encourages the customer to e-mail or contact your company for more information.
Step 5: Start a Blog
One strategy to getting your business website indexed is to start a blog. Your blog provides a steady stream of fresh content to Google on a regular basis, which sends web crawlers to your website each time you publish a new post. Even blogging once per week can help you increase your website ranking in the search engine.
If you decide to start blogging, be sure to do so with a strategy in place. Blogging on a whim or offering overly promotional content won’t help increase your brand’s exposure online. Your blog content needs to be unique to your website, engage your customers, and be published on a regular basis.
Step 6: List Your Business Website on Google My Business
As you’re building your website, be sure to sign up for an account with Google My Business. This is an important step, as Google My Business ensures that:
- Your website will get ranked in the search engines
- Your business location will be placed on Google maps
- You’ll have access to a Google+ account, which you can use to help grow your brand online
- Your business contact information will be correct when customers search for your brand
Google My Business is important for local SEO, but there are also other websites where you can add your websites such as Yelp and Bing Local.
Launch Your New Website With Big Foot Media
If you need a solid roadmap to navigate your way to index your new website in 2018, Big Foot Media assists local businesses in gaining traction on the web. Contact us today to learn how we can help grow your small business.
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