One of the common problems faced by some webmasters is slow or non indexing by Google. As we know, Google is currently the top search engine in the world, and so if you have a website on whatever, the first thing you can do for it is to try to get it indexed and listed by Google. The Google bot is one of the most active search engine spiders in the Web world, always crawling the Web looking for good content on sites, and so, it is quite rare these days to have a problem with getting indexed.
One of the situations when indexing fails to occur is when the domain has been blacklisted by Google. This may be due to the current or previous owner, failing to adhere to Google’s webmaster guidelines.
The symptoms: No matter how much and how long you promote your site, and build links to it, and work on the site, the domain never gets indexed by Google.
You can check Archive.org to determine the previous history, although this is far from accurate, because many domains do not have their past history archived on record.
The solution: Open a Google Webmaster Tools account, and submit a Reconsideration Request through a link there. This is the only way to get back into Google’s good books. There is no guarantee of success though. Be prepared for a long wait of weeks or even months. It helps if you are not the one responsible for the domain being banned.
Why do I say indexing is so fast these days? Check out Matt Cutts’ post on Minty Fresh Indexing. Google is able to literally index a page or domain in minutes, thanks to its cutting edge technology.
So in short order, here are a number of ways to get indexed quickly by Google:
- Post in any popular, open registration forum with the page or URL in there. Since the Google bot is always crawling the forum, the chances are good it will find your link through your post.
- Submit your sitemap in Google Webmaster Tools. Submitting a sitemap is telling Google that your site is “crawler friendly,” and mapped out.
- Submit your site or page to Digg and social bookmark sites like Del.icio.us, or Furl.net. These social networks have large influence with Google.
- Set up a blog on your domain, even if you don’t like blogging. Blogs allow convenient pinging of the search engines. By posting a few posts and pinging Google, you invite the Google bot to check out your site, which will hasten indexing, often within a few days or less. The blog can be removed later, once your site or page has been indexed.
The bottom line is, indexing is a no brainer if you get an authority site or page to link to you – as in a site that Google respects. But, make sure your domain is not blacklisted or considered shady by Google in the first place. Based on my observations, there are certain types of domains (usually in certain “dubious” niches), that have a tougher time getting indexed, even though they may not be blacklisted at all.