Keeping content on your website updated is an integral part of SEO website optimization. Google is continuously refining its algorithms and ranking best practices, so it’s good to keep your content up to date with that. Businesses who have very active internet marketing campaigns would especially benefit from not letting their material become outdated.
However, when it comes to getting content indexed and showing up in the SERPs, there are a few things to know. Let’s have a look at what indexing is and how you can get Google to index new content on your site:
What Is Indexing?
Google indexing is the process of adding your web page into the online index, which allows it to show up in the search results. Before Google can index a web page, it first needs to crawl your page via Google Spider Bot. It usually does not take long, even with new websites, which generally index in a matter of days. Even so, many website owners hope the process could be faster, especially when it comes to indexing updated content.
Google Rewards Updated Content
The main benefit of updating old content is that Google rewards it. As an underutilized internet marketing and SEO strategy, it has great potential to launch you to the top of the search results. When Google is calculating your ranking factor, it takes everything into account: from your general content updating practices and the content’s relevancy to its quality and how long it maintains high traffic.
However, for Google to recognize your content as updated and reward you for it, it’s not enough to change a few words here and there or rearrange the material. Trying to game their system this way will not work. Only new and relevant information replacing the outdated information in your article will do it.
How to Get Google to Index Updated Content
If you’re following the best practices of SEO website optimization and you’re updating your content, you might want to get Google to index the page faster. Some people believe that if the content update is substantial enough, Google will be able to pick up on the changes sooner. However, that’s not necessarily the case. More often than not, Google does indexing at its pace, which may or may not happen as quickly as you want.
Getting content indexed is straightforward enough via the Google Search Console. You could re-submit your sitemap containing the updated page, and Google will update the search results within a few days. However, if you need it faster, try to use the Fetch as Google option for the page from the Search Console. It sends the crawlers in a matter of hours, but it’s an option you should use only for time-sensitive content.
SEO optimization yields excellent results in the long-term, but business owners are often discouraged when it takes months to see any yield from their strategy. If you wish to see results sooner, don’t hesitate to contact me. I’d be happy to discuss your internet marketing strategy and help in any way I can.
Rob Dunford is a Marketing Consultant in the Great Toronto Area with over 20 years of experience in implementing marketing plans for small businesses.