Jan 28 2013

Increase the Frequency of Search Indexing

It would be great if the search engines would index my site as soon as I updated it. The sooner I can start pulling traffic with a new post, the bigger benefit it will have to my site. However, that’s not the way it works. Search engine bots have their own way of doing things.

I just can’t expect it to notice the changes to my site right away. It takes time for the bot to find the content. There are a few things I do that can increase the frequency at which bots crawl my site. Try some, or better all, of these techniques on your website:

Fresh Content

You need to add content regularly. There’s no reason for a bot to crawl you site if there’s nothing new for it to find. Once you’ve added new content, make sure you update your sitemap. It’s a quick way to make sure that the bot gets all of your new content the next time it crawls your site.

Backlinks

Creating quality backlinks to your new content will help search engine bots to locate it faster. The more links there are, the greater chance the bot will find one sooner. Backlinks also help increase the popularity of your site which never hurts either.

Use a Sitemap

I mentioned this one above, but it’s worth restating. A sitemap makes sure that bots can find all of your new content on its next visit.

Speed Up Your Load Time

Search engine bots are a lot like a real web browsing person. They’re busy and don’t have time to waste on a website that doesn’t load quickly. Keep an eye on the load times of your website. If you find that a script of link is slowing down your load time, consider disabling it or using an alternate. The bots will thank you.

Optimize Images and Videos

This one is related to load times. I always make sure that my images, video and other media is optimized to ensure fast loading times. Remember, bots can’t see images or watch videos, so make sure that you use the proper tags to add titles and descriptions to your media.

Use Webmaster Tools

Once you’ve done all of the above, you can make use of the utilities found in the various Webmaster Tools to make adjustments to the frequency that the bot crawls different types of content on your site. You can also monitor crawl errors and use the data presented to further optimize your site.

While there is no direct way to change the interval at which search engine bots crawl our sites, there are things we can do to make sure our content is updated as frequently as possible. Follow the tips above to make your site bot friendly and spread the news of your new content far and wide.

Author Bio: Brian Taylor is the VP, Business Development at Forix SEO in Portland, Oregon. Forix specializes in helping small businesses with their internet marketing needs and offers custom SEO services at affordable prices.

Image Credit: 1.