The Secret Weapon I Use to Get My Sites Indexed
Jun 04
Whether you’re working on Squidoo lenses, hubpages or even niche sites getting indexed is key. So let’s talk a little about getting indexed, what it is, what it means, how you know if you are, and how you can get indexed if you aren’t.
What is “getting indexed”?
Getting indexed simply means that Google has decided to add your site/page to the “index” of sites they have of all the known sites on the internet. So once Google has you in the index they actually know your site exists. Until you are indexed they don’t even know you are there.
What “getting indexed” is NOT.
Getting indexed does not mean you are going to show up on page 1 of Google for your keyword. That is something totally different. Being indexed just means they know you exist. Getting to the front page of Google takes a little more convincing that you are a great site and a good resource for their searchers.
How do you know your site is indexed?
There’s a couple ways to tell if your site is indexed or not. All of them involve asking Google in one way or another.
1. You can simply put the full address of your site in the google search bar. You may come up with something like this:
As you can see ~ a squidoo site came up and lots of things about frying a turkey came up, but my lens did not come up.
Let’s try something else:
2. You can put site:yourulr.com in the search box of Google
Now we get this:
Now we can see that this lens has actually been indexed and Google knows it exists.
I highly recommend using the site: function when searching to see if your site has been indexed, it will make it very obvious if your site has been indexed or not.
Here’s what it will look like if your site has not been indexed:
This message from Google means it is NOT aware of your lens, and your lens is NOT in the index. Bummer.
What can you do to get your site indexed?
The best way to get your site indexed is to provide Google some links to find it from a site other than your own. What does this mean? It means creating content on other sites that link back to your own site.
Here are a few places you can create that content:
1. Ezinearticles.com ~ put a link in your resource box that leads back to your site/lens. Make sure your site is directly relevant to what your article is about.
2. Free ad blogs ~ there are tons of them around. They are generally set up on the wordpress platform. You simply sign up, then you have access to write a post. In this post you can create a link back to your site. It’s a really good idea to use the keywords you are targeting in your site/lens as the anchor text (the words people click on in a link) for the links back to your site.
3. Free blogs ~ a free blog is a great way to create a link back to your site. There are many many free blog platforms you can choose from, any of them will work.
4. Hubpages ~ another free platform where you can put a link back to the site you are trying to get indexed.
5. Wetpaint ~ another great free platform where you can put links back to a site you are trying to get indexed.
The key is to get some links out there ~ this is how Google finds sites. It sends its little “spiders” out to follow all the links of the web, it goes from one site, follows links there to another site, and so on and so on. When you have links from multiple sites (especially authority sites like the ones mentioned above) it shouldn’t take long for Google to find and index you.
I was indexed but now I’m not!!
If you find that you were indexed and now you are not, just go about the process of creating more content on multiple sites to let Google find you again.
BONUS
This may sound like a huge pain to do all this, but there is another bonus involved. All of these links you are creating back to your site to help it get indexed also count as “votes” when Google tallies the votes of related sites when deciding what to choose for the front page of the search results.
When you are creating your links back to your site make sure you use the keywords you are targeting in your site as the anchor text, and you may find you site is not only indexed, but finding its way t the top of the Google search results for your chosen keyword.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=3389ff6d-05b3-45da-9fe8-a83607a0034e)
Are you ready to take Undaunted Action? But don't know where to start?
If you're ready to take action, join us in the safety of a friendly caring community. Join us in the K.I.S.S. Club! Your business will never be the same!
No related posts.
Jackie, Thanks for the good information. Squidoo until now was a mystery to me. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
Follow me @gailjrichardson on Twitter!
Hi Jackie, Yes I’m using US numbers and I search US, but I think the fact that my IP address is in SA still affects the search results I get. I’m not going to worry about it any more. Thanks for all your help.
Follow me @magriet on Twitter!
My question would be are you using United states numbers when you do your kw research and when you look for your rankings? That may be the discrepancy in your traffic.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi, Sorry I’m back. Maybe we do have a problem with personal search even if you are not logged in to Google. Does anyone else think it is a problem or is there something I do not know?
I ask because I have just checked another of my lenses. This one constantly comes up #1 when I do a search, but it cannot be on #1 really as I hardly get any traffic. In the last two weeks, it was missing when I searches for it once, and all the other times it came up #1.
This makes it appear as if, even though I’m not logged in, Google still gives me results that differ from what it gives others. I was just wondering if someone else has the same problem. I have monitored this site for quite a while now. Hardly any visitors but if I search for it, it comes up #1 all the time.
Can personal search really be making it impossible for us to really see where our sites and lenses are? It seems like it. I never search while locked in, yet my results must be “false” because my traffic differs from what you would expect from where I see my sites and lenses.
Follow me @magriet on Twitter!
Hello Jackie, I was not locked in but it does seem to have been one of those funny things because it is down now. I have a site doing the same so now I’m just going to ignore it and go on with others as it is not a very good lens in any case.
Follow me @magriet on Twitter!
ok a couple things to look at.
1. Are you logged into google when you check where your site is ranked? That will give you a completely different answer.
2. How long ago did it get ranked #1? It may take some time for all the datacenters to show that ranking and increase your traffic.
3. Your conversational or not writing doesn’t really come into play until people click through to the site ~which you say is not happening. I’d leave it alone for a while and just see what happens.
Congrats ~ you accomplished your goal. Now stop fussing over it and work on another lens.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie, I thought I’ll post my baffling comment here as I think it is the most appropriate post. I have a lens, 1600 exact seeks, I have the lens in #1 on Google and #2 & #3 with articles on Articlesbase, yet only 10 visitors the last 7 days?!!!!
It must be my intro that appears on Google, or what? Will it effect my ranking if I change it? I’m so scared I’ll do the wrong thing. I know I’m not to good with writing conversational and that may be the problem? Is it possible?
Follow me @magriet on Twitter!
Hey Doug ~ the problem was you didn’t put any keywords between the link and the . However ~ leaving links to affiliate products in a comment is probably not a great idea.
You’re welcome to link to your lens using keyword luv in the comment field though.
Congrats on finishing your lens!! Big step ~ keep it up.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
okay that didn’t work, still tryin to figure out how to make a clickable link in my comment. Again thanks for all you do.
Follow me @steelpaulo on Twitter!
Hi Jackie and thanks for another informative post. I have just created my first commercial lens that had no other squidoo lens competition. The has 3600 searches per month.
Follow me @steelpaulo on Twitter!
Hey Jackie, Great answer! I’m so put off by that question. The problem is that the people who ask it have the wrong focus which is on making money and not how to offer value. Value has to come first and I think it’s a mindset that’s hard for a lot of people to grasp. Of course offering value means working hard and perhaps that’s the turn off, but working hard is a mindset too
Follow me @lizmcgee on Twitter!
Hey Mr X ~
How many times you gonna ask that question in 5 minutes?
Is how much money I make really relevant to how much money you make? Not really. I do my work, and I work hard.
How much work you do, and what kind of work you do I can’t really say.
I’m focusing on money making activities, and spending my work time wisely.
Are you? I can’t say.
So what I make really has nothing to do with what you can do. Your actions and your focus is what determine how much money you make.
With that said ~ I am making a full time income that covers my bills and allows me to do some fun things on the side. Million dollars a year? Nope. Enough? Yep. And more each month as I continue to take action.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
So how much money have you made from this since you started?
deindexing happens ~ it will come back. It’s all part of playing the game with Google ~ you can’t take it personally.
That’s part of pleying the numbers game. If you only have 1 lens and it gets deindexed you make no money. If you have 20/50/100 lenses and 1 gets deindexed it’s not such a big deal to wait for it to come back.
How many backlinks a keyword needs is completely dependent on the keyword and how competitive the keyword is. You just have to keep creating backlinks until you get to where you want to be and then do a few more to make sure you stay there.
That’s why it’s nice to have a program like uaw or 1 way links so you can easily create a lot of links with minimal work. You can of course do it manually, but it takes more time and effort.
Page rank is an algorithm made up of a lot of different things ~ it doesn’t really have anything to do with whether you stay on the front page or not ~ it’s the links that matter.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
I did what you said and my lens did not come up. I will do what you said about creating more backlinks and see what happens. I thought maybe I hadn’t done enough backlinks and that is why my lens was missing.
Realistically, how many backlinks does a lens need so that it stays where it is in google in terms of page rank? Also, does a lens’ PR depend also on how many visiters it gets on a regular basis in order to lets say stay on the first page of google for its keyword?
Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it. There aren’t too many people at all on the internet who would provide this level of support coupled with the information you provide. You are a very kind person.
Sandra
Hi Sandra,
Are you putting your url in the search box and it’s not coming up? Try putting site:squidoo.com/youurl in the search box and see if it comes up that way.
It is possible that it disappeared ~ it happens. It will come back. You might want to do another round of free ad blog posts ~ and maybe a hub or wetpaint. Make sure you link back to your lens. Doing a hub or wetpaint will give you a link back from another authority site and will give your lens a little more credibility in Google’s eyes.
Do the links and then don’t worry about it too much. There’s not much else you can do ~ start a new lens and just keep an eye on it once a week or so.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie,
Is it possible to get your lens indexed by Google, and then have your sight disappear in terms of doing a search in the search box of google and having nothing come up?
That seems to be the case with me… what is going on?
Sandra
I would follow through the process outlined in the blueprint ~ and the mind map. When you’ve done the basics there (as far as backlinking goes) then I’d start on a new lens.
Follow me @momtohanna on Twitter!
Hi Jackie!
I created some backlinks for my lens yesterday and it has been indexed by Google. Should I continue to add more backlinks for my lens or should I move onto creating another lens? I’m kind of stuck at this point.
Thanks,
Sandra