How to Tell Search Engines about Your Site

This post is a checklist, not a comprehensive explanation. If you want to learn more, I’ve included links to other sites for more information.

If you outsource SEO, ask that these items be completed.

On-Site Things that Tell Search Engines about Your Site

It is important to have these in place before doing off-site items, so do on-site items first.

Navigation Links

Most sites already have a navigation menu for users, and search engines use these links too. Search engines find pages through links, so include links to all the pages you want found and indexed by search engines.

XML Sitemaps

XML sitemaps are machine readable files with a list of pages on a site. Search engines read these files and crawl the pages.

Several WordPress plugins publish XML sitemaps, including plugins Yoast SEO, RankMath, and All in One SEO. Most other website systems publish these sitemaps. Generally, site owners and editors don’t need to know the technical details.

Confirm that your site publishes XML sitemaps and find their URLs. You need the sitemap URLs for other items below.

robots.txt File

A file named “robots.txt” can be published on your site. For SEO, this file can list the XML sitemaps mentioned in the previous section. Search engines automatically look for this file and read it.

Some SEO WordPress plugins handle this, but you might need to turn on advanced settings or edit the file with a plugin. Even without a plugin, you can upload a file to your website if you have file-level access to your hosting service.

This robots.txt file isn’t critical if you submit XML sitemaps on Google Search Console (GSC) and Bing Webmaster Tools (BWT), but it is a backup to those services, and it informs other search engines about your site maps. Use a robots.txt file if possible, and especially if you don’t have access to GSC or BWT.

Off-Site Things that Tell Search Engines about Your Site

Some off-site items have on-site plugins that send data to other websites. Just be aware that some of these off-site items can be managed with on-site plugins.

Use Your Own Accounts

You need accounts at several websites, and for the life of your business you will want access to your accounts and SEO reports. Make sure your registrations at these sites are done with your account or that of your business. Then you can give and remove access for others including employees, contractors, and third-party services.

Google Search Console (GSC)

Google Search Console (GSC) is both a place to register your site and a place to track how it performs on Google. You can do several things to tell Google about your site:

• Register and submit your site to Google.
• Submit URLs of XML sitemaps for your site.
• Manually submit pages for indexing after they’ve changed.

Once you register your site, you can monitor search results, page indexing, and lots of other info about your site’s presence in Google Search results.

If you’re going to do one off-site thing, register your site with GSC.

URL Inspection Tool and Request Indexing

The Request Indexing tool at GSC is very handy for newly published pages and pages with significant updates. Learn where to find this for your site and use it.

You can request that an inspected URL be reindexed by Google, however, submitting a request does not guarantee that the page will appear on Google.

Pro Tip: Use the TEST LIVE URL Button First

Any page you submit should be ready for Google. The TEST LIVE URL button will test the URL and tell you if a page can be indexed. If it passes, submit it for indexing.

Bing Webmaster Tools

Bing Webmaster Tools is both a place to register your site and a place to track how it performs on Bing. You can do several things to tell Bing about your site:

• Register and submit your site to Bing.
• Submit URLs of XML sitemaps for your site.
• Manually submit pages for indexing.

Once you register your site, you can monitor search results, page indexing, and lots of other info about your site’s presence in Bing search results.

URL Submission

The URL Submission tool at Bing Webmaster is also very handy for newly published pages and pages with significant updates. Learn where to find this for your site and use it. However, you can automate submission to Bing using IndexNow (see the IndexNow section below).

IndexNow

IndexNow is a system for sending short notifications about new and updated pages to some search engines, most notably Bing and Yandex. Google does NOT use it, though they’ve tested it.

In WordPress, some SEO plugins handle IndexNow, including one created by the IndexNow organization.

It’s free, easy, and submits your pages to a few big search engines. It’s one of the many small things that help SEO.

Notifying Doesn’t Guarantee SEO Improvement

Notifying search engines gives them a chance to find your site, and they will. Maybe they’ll put you somewhere in search results, but maybe they’ll take a year to index your small site. Over the years I’ve been delighted with results, and I’ve been frustrated with results.

Search engines do whatever they want to do. They make no guarantees.

Conclusion

You have several options for notifying search engines about your website. Some are done on your site. Some are done at other websites like Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.

Notifying search engines is one of the many parts of good SEO, and it’s an important one. Do as much as you can from the list above.

There’s a lot more to SEO. See my post Search Engine Optimization (SEO), A Practical Strategy for a thorough checklist.