To submit a website to Google for small businesses, follow these steps:
- Register Your Website with Google Search Console:
- Go to the Google Search Console page and click “Start Now”.
- Enter your website’s URL under “Domain”.
- Choose a verification method. If you use Google Analytics, you can verify your site using your existing tracking code. Otherwise, use the DNS record method.
- After selecting the DNS record method, Google will provide you with a code to enter into your website’s DNS configuration. You can do this through your hosting account’s cPanel under “Advanced DNS Zone Editor”.
- Wait for a couple of hours to a day for Google to verify your site with the Google Search Console.
- Create a Sitemap with Yoast SEO:
- Install and activate the Yoast SEO plugin on your WordPress site. This plugin automatically generates XML sitemaps for your site.
- Access your sitemap by navigating to
yoursite.com/sitemap_index.xml. Keep this URL for the next step.
- Submit Your Website to Google:
- In Google Search Console, select your website using the “Search Property” drop-down menu.
- Click on “Sitemaps” under “Index” in the sidebar.
- Click “Add a New Sitemap”, enter the sitemap URL you created with Yoast SEO, and click “Submit”. Google will confirm the submission and start processing your sitemap.
- Use the URL Inspection Tool for Individual URLs:
- If you have specific pages you want indexed immediately, use the Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool.
- Enter the URL you want to submit into the “Search” function.
- If Google finds no errors, click “Request Indexing”. Your URL will be added to a priority crawl queue, and Google will index it once it has been crawled.
By following these steps, you can ensure that Google is aware of your website’s presence, which can help with faster and better discovery of your site. Remember, while submitting your site to Google is not mandatory, it can be beneficial, especially for new sites or when you add new content that you want indexed immediately.