How to Submit URL to Google Index with Google Search Console

Last Updated April 22, 2024

How to Submit URL to Google Index with Google Search Console

Having your website indexed by Google is essential for visibility and attracting organic traffic. One effective method to ensure your website’s presence on Google is by submitting a URL to the Google index using Google Search Console. In this post, we will guide you through the process step-by-step, ensuring that your website gets crawled and indexed efficiently.

Google Search Console is a powerful tool that enables website owners to monitor their site’s performance, identify issues, and interact with Google.

By submitting your URLs to the Google index, you can prompt Google’s bots to crawl and index your pages, making them visible in search results. This process is crucial for gaining visibility and driving organic traffic to your website.

Of course before getting started you’ll need to add your site to Google Search Console.

Submitting Individual URLs

To submit a specific URL for indexing, follow these steps:

1. Sign in to Google Search Console: Visit the Google Search Console website and sign in with your Google account.

2. Select your website: If you have multiple websites added to your Search Console account, choose the one that you want to submit a URL for. This is done on the top left of the sidebar.

3. Enter the URL: Type or paste the URL you want to submit into the inspection bar and press Enter. This is located at the top of Google Search Console.

4. Inspect the URL: Google Search Console will now inspect the URL and provide you with information about its indexing status.

5. Request indexing: If the URL is not indexed, you’ll see a message indicating that it’s not currently in the Google index. To submit it for indexing, click on the “Request Indexing” button.

Request Indexing button in Google Search Console

Please note that Google has a quota for submitting individual URLs, and submitting the same URL multiple times won’t expedite the crawling process. Be patient and monitor the progress using either the Index Status report or the URL Inspection tool.

Submitting a Sitemap

If you have a large number of URLs to submit or want to ensure that Google discovers all the pages on your website efficiently, submitting a sitemap is recommended.

Here’s how you can do it:

Create a sitemap: Before submitting a sitemap, you need to create one. A sitemap is an XML file that lists all the URLs on your website. WordPress will do this automatically and can be found via the example.com/wp-sitemap.xml URL.
Verify your website: If you haven’t already done so, verify your website ownership in Google Search Console.
Access the Sitemaps report: In the left-hand sidebar of Google Search Console, click on “Sitemaps” under the “Index” section.
Add your sitemap: Click on the “Add/Test Sitemap” button and enter the URL of your sitemap.
Submit the sitemap: After adding your sitemap, click on the “Submit” button to inform Google about its existence.
Monitor sitemap indexing: Google Search Console will now process your sitemap and provide valuable information about the indexed URLs.

Submitting a sitemap is especially useful when you’ve just launched your website or made significant updates to its structure. Additionally, sitemaps can include metadata about alternate language versions, video, image, or news-specific pages, enhancing the overall indexing process.

Conclusion

Submitting a URL to the Google index with Google Search Console is a crucial step in ensuring your website’s visibility and organic traffic. By following the steps outlined in this post, you can proactively prompt Google to crawl and index your website’s pages. If you have a WordPress website there are plenty of other tips you can do to improve SEO in WordPress.

Remember to be patient during the indexing process and monitor your site’s progress using the available tools in Google Search Console.

How long does it take for a URL to be indexed after I request indexing in Google Search Console?

Google does not index pages instantly. After you click “Request Indexing,” it can take anywhere from a few hours to several days for your URL to appear in search results.

The timing depends on your site’s overall reputation, how often Google crawls it, and how many other pages are also in the queue. New or very small sites may take longer, while trusted sites are often crawled more often.

To speed things up, make sure your page is easy to crawl and has clear internal links from other pages on your site. You can also help Google discover more of your content by submitting a sitemap, as explained in this guide to what a sitemap is and how it works.

While you wait, keep improving your content and SEO instead of submitting the same URL over and over. Repeated submissions will not make Google crawl your page faster and can waste your limited URL inspection quota.

What is the difference between submitting a single URL and submitting a sitemap?

Submitting a single URL tells Google about one specific page. This is useful when you publish a new post, update an important page, or fix a problem that blocked indexing.

Submitting a sitemap helps Google understand your whole site. It lists many URLs in one XML file and makes it easier for Google to find new posts, category pages, and updated content.

If your site is small, you can use both methods: request indexing for key pages and also submit a sitemap. WordPress usually creates a sitemap for you automatically, which you can learn more about in this simple sitemap overview for bloggers.

For growing blogs, keeping your sitemap clean and up to date is one of the best ways to help Google crawl your content at scale, without manually submitting every single URL.

Why does Google say my URL is not indexed, and how can I fix it?

If Google Search Console says your URL is not indexed, it means Google knows about the page but has chosen not to show it in search yet. This can happen if the content is very new, very thin, blocked by robots.txt, or marked with a noindex tag.

First, check that your page is not blocked by a robots rule or a noindex setting in your SEO plugin or theme. You can learn what a noindex tag is and how it affects search visibility in this short guide on the noindex tag and when to use it.

Next, improve the quality of the page: write a clear title, add helpful headings, and include original, useful information. Using tools like the RightBlogger Keywords Tool can help you find search terms real people are using, so your content answers real questions.

After you update the page, go back to Google Search Console, use the URL Inspection tool, and click “Request Indexing.” Give Google some time to recrawl and reevaluate the page based on your improvements.

How can RightBlogger help my URLs get indexed and rank better in Google?

RightBlogger helps by making your content more SEO friendly from the start. When your posts are well written, well structured, and match real search intent, Google is more likely to index them and show them in search results.

You can use the RightBlogger AI Article Writer to draft high quality blog posts that already include headings, related subtopics, and natural keywords. This saves you time and gives Google a clear structure to crawl and understand.

Once your content is written, tools like the RightBlogger SEO Reports and other optimization features help you fine tune titles, descriptions, and on-page SEO. Better titles and meta descriptions can improve click through rates, which is a strong signal for long term ranking.

After publishing and submitting your URL in Google Search Console, you can keep using RightBlogger to update and expand posts over time. Regular, high quality updates give Google more reasons to crawl your site and keep new URLs in the index.