When it comes to internet marketing jargon indexing is one of the most confusing areas for new internet marketers. We’re going to cut through the confusion and get clear on this whole indexing thing today.

What is indexing?

Indexing is something Google and the other search engines do. They send out their little “spiders” to check for new content and new sites all over the web. When they find something new they will determine if they want to add it to the list of all the sites on the internet. If they choose to do this they have “indexed” your site.

How do I know If my site has been indexed?

You can check to see if your lens has been indexed (or any site for that matter) by putting the url of your site in the google search box surrounded by quotes. This way it will look specifically for that exact site. Sometimes it helps to leave off the http: and the www, so for the ironman lens I would just put “squidoo.com/ironman-gravity-4000-inversion-table” in the search box at Google.

As you can see this lens has indeed been indexed by Google.

Why do I need to know if my site’s been indexed?

It’s good to know if you’re site’s been indexed, because unless it has been you can’t get any search engine traffic. Now if your site hasn’t been indexed, you can still get traffic from Ezinearticles.com, your blog posts, or any other place you’ve used to build links to your lens. That’s why putting up an article at EZA is good to do right away because it can fill in traffic until you get indexed and start getting search traffic.

What if my site is NOT indexed? What can I do?

If your site has not been indexed yet, think about how long it has been since you published the lens.  Indexing does not happen immediately. It can take a day or two, but it can also take a couple weeks ~ it all depends on Google. So DO NOT freak out if your site is not indexed.

You also want to think about your link building strategy. Have you put content elsewhere online with anchor text links back to your lens? This is the BEST way to help Google find your lens. If you haven’t done this it can take much much longer for Google to find and index your lens. It is crucial that you do this.

While RSS feeds directories are great, I definitely recommend you have some other places you can link from as well ~ for instance a blog, or hubpages, or wetpaint, Google knol, somewhere that is well known to google where you can use anchor text links to your site.

*** If you have put links up on your blog please take a moment and make sure your blog is indexed. If your blog is not indexed yet, those links aren’t going to do you much good. Don’t worry they will work just fine when you’re blog is indexed, but for right now you need to put links somewhere you know Google goes looking for new content, and if you’re blog isn’t indexed, it’s not one of them (yet). ***

So if your lens isn’t indexed after a few weeks go ahead and put up a few more links to it. It will happen, don’t worry.

How often should I check if my lens is indexed?

Ahh… here’s where I get to give my little lecture about obsessing about indexing. (as she steps up onto her soapbox) If you have built links to your lens Google will find and will index your site. Trust me. Whether it takes 24 hours or 24 days, it will happen.   I will tell you what I do. I do not check to see if my sites are indexed. I trust that the process works, and I know that they will get indexed at some point. I keep building more lenses.

This is where you have to decide what your “money making activities” are.  Rest assured I can almost guarantee you that checking to see if your site is indexed is NOT one of them. If you can stay focused on doing the activities that are going to make you money you will do much better in the long run.

AND yes!! I know how good it feels the first few times you build something and Google comes and puts in the index. Cherish that feeling, Celebrate that feeling, and then get back to the things that will make you money. What are those things?

1. Building more lenses
2. Writing more blog posts
3. Promoting (building links to) your lenses

Hey ~ did you notice I did NOT say “keyword research”? While it is a necessary part of the process it is NOT a money making activity all on its own. It must be done together with actually building a lens/website to make it a money making activity. If you spend ages and ages doing research, all you have is a nice long list ~ it’s not until you turn that list into something that you have the ability to make money from it.

RANT over ~ sorry ~ a little off topic there.

If I’m indexed why don’t I see my site on the first page of Google?

These are two totally different things. Being indexed does NOT (necessarily) mean you going to rank well for your keywords. I mean the index of sites is GINORMOUS, and of course, everyone can’t be on page 1. Yes, check to see where you are listed in the index ~ go to Google and put the keywords you based your lens on in the search box and see if you can find your site. I’m not aware of any super tools to do this for you that are accurate. Just look over the first couple pages and see if you can see your lens.

If you can ~ cool. Make note of what position is it in, and then watch it over time to see if it comes up. If it does, great. If it doesn’t, build some more links to it. Remember, it takes Google time to find the links you put out there so just because you’ve done some linking doesn’t mean Google knows it’s there, give it time.

If you can’t find your lens ~ that’s ok too. It takes time. Don’t panic!! Think about how long it has been since you finished and published your lens. If you only recently published your lens then you can’t expect it to show up on the first page of Google. Give it some time ~ how much time? It depends, there’s no real definitive answer because Google does what Google wants, and that’s just one more thing we have no control over. If after a couple weeks or so you still don’t see it, build some more links to it, that’s the only way you’re going to push it up the ranking, building links. At this point if you still aren’t seeing your lens show up it might be time to take a little extra effort and use some of the link building with article marketing techniques we’ve discussed in previous posts.

All in all don’t fret too much about this ~ you’ll know when you’re site is indexed and ranking because you’ll start seeing traffic numbers on your dashboard at Squidoo, and THAT is what’s really important.

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