So, you have created a website. What's next? Naturally, you need to somehow tell users about its existence. Therefore, the first and most important task is to “show up” in search engines. Moreover, in the future they will become the most powerful source of traffic.
How it works
Indexing a site in Yandex is done by search robots. These are sophisticated programs that regularly crawl all pages from their database of URLs. So the search engine learns about all the changes and generates a search (in other words, selects sites that will be in the TOP).
But what if the resource is brand new? There are two ways to get bots to come to you:
- post links to other sites already indexed (during the next scan, the program will click on them and enter the relevant information into the database);
- directly through Yandex.Webmaster.
Experienced SEO-optimizers usually use both options so that the search engine immediately adds as many pages to the database as possible.
When can I submit a site for Yandex indexing?
Technically, at any time. However, do not rush to open Webmaster and place links wherever possible. 70% successful indexing of pages on Yandex depends on the quality of the resource itself. What does it mean?
- No copy paste! Use only unique content.
- Check the validity of the code. In recent years, search engines have preferred lightweight, convenient resources with adaptation for mobile devices.
- Write meta tags on all pages: title, keywords, description.
- Make a competent internal linking. It is important that you can follow the links to any page of the site (and ideally, the path should be no longer than 3 clicks).
After that, you can safely register in the Webmaster and submit a request for indexing. But doing this in advance is not worth it - if the search engine sees an unprepared resource, the process can drag on for months.
How much to wait?
And here lies the snag. Nobody can give you an exact answer, because the process is completely automatic - even company employees cannot speed it up.
On average, a quality and well-tuned resource appears in the results in 2-14 days.
However, even after this, indexing the site in Yandex will be slow for a while. Why is that? The fact is that the search engine has a certain “white list”. First of all, bots visit trust sites that Yandex trusts for a long time, with good TCI indicators and high traffic.
The frequency of updates also plays a role. The more often you regularly post interesting and relevant content, the faster new pages are indexed. In large news portals, this has been happening for 10-15 minutes.
How to check site indexing in Yandex?
At the launch stage, it is very important to keep track of which pages are already in the database. There are several ways to find out.
The first is directly in the search engine. Using the special site operator, you can see all the pages of the site that are currently in the index. It looks like this:
However, this method has a significant drawback. The system produces no more than 1,000 results. But what if there are more pages on the site? In this case, it is better to use the Yandex.Webmaster tools.
Some optimizers prefer to work with paid programs and services - PR-CY, SeoMonitor, Topvisor, etc. They allow not only to see the current state of the resource, but also the dynamics of changes. By the way, your indicators are simultaneously analyzed in other search engines. Below is an example of the corresponding report from "Topvisor".
Bait for bots: 8 ways to lure them to the site
There are many myths in SEO. One of them is that the accelerated indexing of the site in Yandex is available only to thousands of trust dinosaurs. This is partly true. But if you know the principles of the search engine, you can influence the behavior of bots - and without spending a dime.
Now to the point. What can I do to make Yandex add your site to the database faster and start promoting it?
- Create a quality Sitemap. A sitemap is a special XML file that contains links to all pages of a resource. Thanks to it, the bot will not randomly wander around sections, but will scan all URLs taking into account their priority.
- For users, you can create your own version of Sitemap. It is important that the HTML-map can be accessed from any page of the site in 1 click.
- Add your resource in 5-10 white directories (without a backlink). This is inefficient for promotion, but now our goal is successful indexing of the site in Yandex.
- Broadcast new content using the RSS feed. For announcements to appear on other sites, register it in special RSS directories (RSSReader, LiveRSS, Plazoo, etc.).
- Write 1-2 articles with links to your resource and publish them in free catalogs such as RusArticles and "Catalog Articles.rf".
- Add the site to the ratings of Mail.ru and the Rambler TOP-100.
- Sign up for social bookmarking services ("BeaverDobr", "My Place", LinkMarker).
- Post 2-3 interesting articles about your resource in social news services (NEWS2, SMI2, Newsland, LivePress).
If the budget allows, you can also purchase links to your resource on exchanges such as Sape. It is advisable that they be placed on the main pages - then indexing is much faster. Try to choose quality sites with high TCI indicators and placement in Yandex.Catalog.
If the site is not indexed for more than a month: look for reasons
It happens that even after posting links, nothing changes. What could be the problem? Most often this is due to incorrect site settings.
Consider a few versions that need to be checked first.
- The site or individual pages are blocked for indexing in robots.txt. Before starting the analysis, bots scan this file. The Disallow command is used to show which parts of the site you don’t need to visit at all (as a rule, this is the admin panel and some service files). Make sure that robots do not have a ban on indexing the main page and main sections.
- Privacy settings are enabled and. This is often encountered by WordPress users. This platform allows you to make the site closed to search engines with one click. Make sure that the resource is accessible to bots by opening "Settings"> "Read" in the admin panel.
- There is noindex parameter in page meta tags . In this case, you will have to change the code for each page individually. You can simply remove the line of code or change the value of the content field to index, follow.
- Scanning errors . In simple terms, for some reason, the bot simply cannot get to new pages. The Webmaster panel has a separate tab where reports for the last 3 months and error alerts are stored.
- Unstable resource operation . Sometimes site indexing in Yandex does not occur due to malfunctions in the hosting or server - when the bot comes to scan pages, the resource is simply unavailable. In this case, it is better not to save, but to choose a reliable service.
- Your domain is under filters . This is possible if this name was previously used by other resources. You can check the domain for ban in a minute - when you try to add it to Webmaster you will see an error message. To remove the lock, you have to send a review request to Yandex.
Fortunately, in practice, such problems with indexing are rare, and most often the owners of new sites simply do not have the patience. Be wiser: if you are sure that everything is in order with the site, focus on filling it with quality content and attracting first users from other sources.