Google recently rolled out a new feature for its Fetch as Googlebot tool in its Webmaster Tools called “Submit to index”. The Fetch as Googlebot feature was already an invaluable resource for webmasters, allowing them to see their site from Google’s perspective. This gives them greater insight into what Google wants to see, helping them identify areas of their sites they need to improve to rank higher in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs). With the added ability to submit URLs to Google, the tool will allow webmasters to have their sites indexed faster, refresh their indexing easily and help their rankings improve faster after making major revisions to their websites.
Faster Indexing of New Sites
One major benefit of this new option is the ability for webmasters to manually submit new sites to Google, potentially increasing the speed with which they are indexed. For newly-created websites, being able to show up in Google’s SERPs can mean the difference between staying afloat and being abandoned. Google’s acceptance of site owner URL submissions means they are aware of the desire for new web sites to be indexed quickly and are willing to work with webmasters to ensure that every website gets the chance it deserves.
Faster Refreshing of Indexed Sites
If a company has made major changes to their website, whether for aesthetic purposes or purely for SEO, they will want their changes to be accurately reflected in SERPs. Having old description text can seem misleading and the longer it takes Google to index changes, the more time is lost that could have been used for driving traffic. Further, Google keeps cached copies of web pages, which can be problematic if a website was changed to remove information that a company no longer wishes to be available to the public. Submitting an updated site for re-indexing will remove the old version from Google’s cache and replace it with the new information.
Possibly Improve Rankings After Major Changes
Anyone who has performed extensive SEO or PPC work knows the benefits that in-depth data analyses provide to the process. Whether someone is using a fully customizable, all-in-one tool, such as a demand side platform for advertising or the SEOmoz PRO tool set, or uses a collection of free, single-use tools, being able to track changes and their effects on rankings and traffic is of paramount importance. Being able to have a site re-indexed by Google more quickly than normal opens the doors to more tweaking and faster data collection. SEO can, at times, be a trial and error process, particularly in the early stages. Being able to decrease the time it takes to see the effects of those changes will make a website more nimble and will help whoever is performing the SEO work do their job faster.
Google’s addition of a manual URL submission tool for its crawler may seem like a small thing, but in reality it has potentially monumental ramifications for website owners. The ability to have their new websites indexed means that owners can see traffic much more quickly than they would otherwise, while the faster re-indexing of changed sites means that major overhauls will show up more quickly in Google and old, cached copies of a website can be overwritten with fresher content in a more timely fashion. Of most importance, however, is the potential for SEO analysis. Webmasters can potentially reduce the amount of time it takes to see their SERP rankings change from SEO efforts and can see what effects they are having more quickly.
This is a unique article written by Thomas and published on SEO Desk with exclusivity.
Popularity: 2% [?]Check out Google’s New URL Submission Tool
This post was submitted by Thomas.
Subscribe to the post comments feeds or Leave a trackback
Yeah, we know, you probably think we’re b-s’ing you again! But,
Are You Fed Up Because You Don't Know How To Make More Money With Less Effort?