Why You Need to Index Your URL in Google Search Console (And How to Do It)

Let’s say you’ve updated your service pages, or you worked hard on a new blog post and it’s been published. You’ve done the work, and now you wish to give Google a little knock to get caught up.

That’s where requesting to index your URL comes in. It’s one of the simplest steps you can take to help search engines find your updated content faster, and if you have a blog, it should be a standard part of your publishing process.

Let’s go over what indexing means, why it matters for your B2B website, and how to index your URL in Google Search Console (step by step).

What is Indexing?

Indexing is how search engines like Google organize and store information about websites in a way that makes it quick to retrieve when there’s a search request. Basically, it’s like adding your webpage to a giant online library. Once your page is in Google’s index, it has a chance to show up when people search for something related to your content.

Before a page gets indexed, Google needs to crawl it. Crawling is when search engines visit your site to find new or updated pages. After crawling, Google decides whether to index (save) the page in its database.

Why Indexing Matters?

There are several key benefits – indexed pages can show up in Google search results, which helps people find your website. This can:

• Bring more visitors to your site.
• Help local businesses show up in local searches (like “[small business niche] near me”).

Remember, indexing is just the first step. To rank higher in search results and get traffic that will result in leads, you’ll also need to optimize your website with good keywords, fast loading times, and helpful content.

Before You Index Your URL, Prep It

Before you send a request, it’s worth making sure your page is not only ready to be found, but also worth finding.

For B2B service providers, that means two things: your content needs to be genuinely useful to the clients you’re trying to help, and your URL needs to be set up correctly from the start.

A note on URLs: if you’re updating a page that’s already live and has been indexed, be careful about your decision in changing the URL. Without a proper 301 redirect in place, you risk losing any SEO traction that page has already gained. When in doubt, leave the URL as is and focus on improving the content.

What is Quality Content?

Here’s something I see fairly often. A B2B service provider requests indexing, waits for Google to catch up and then wonders why the page still isn’t getting traction. More often than not, the issue isn’t technical but the content itself.

I worked with a consultant who had a beautifully designed website. Every page was live, indexed, and technically sound. But their homepage was vague with lots of “I help businesses grow” and “tailored solutions for your needs.” Nothing that told her ideal client: this is exactly what I do, this is who I do it for, and this is what changes for you when we work together.

Once we rewrote their homepage with SEO and a B2B messaging with the right search intent behind every word, two things happened: Google understood what the pages were about, and her ideal clients finally saw themselves in the copy. That’s the difference quality content makes.

For your pages to be worth indexing, they need to be:

(1) Clear and accurate: Truthful, specific, and free of filler. Say what you do and who you do it for in plain English.

(2) Useful and relevant: Answer the question your ideal client is searching for, not the question you wish they were asking.

(3) Easy to read: Short sentences, simple language, and avoid sentences that sound fancy but don’t really say anything. If your client has to work to understand it, they’ll leave.

(4) Engaging: Write like a human being. A friendly tone, a real example, a moment of “yes, that’s exactly my problem” it’s what keeps someone on your page long enough to take action.

(5) Original: Don’t copy other websites. Not just because it’s wrong but because Google will find out, and it will hurt your visibility.

Optimize Your URL

Before your page even goes live, you need a well-structured URL to improve both user experience and SEO. Search engines use the URL to understand the content of the page, so it’s important to keep it SEO-friendly.

Here are a few things to consider:

• Use Keywords: Include important keywords in your URL that are relevant to the page’s content.
• Keep It Short: Shorter URLs are easier to read and remember, use dashes to separate the words, and all case sensitive.
• Be Descriptive: Make the URL informative, so both users and search engines can easily understand the content of the page.
• Avoid Special Characters: Keep URLs simple by avoiding unnecessary symbols or numbers.

It’s important to note that URL structure is just one factor in SEO. However, if you’re updating a live page on your site that’s already been crawled/indexed, you need to be careful about changing the URL if you don’t have a good set up for 301 redirections as I mentioned above.

How to Request Indexing Your URL to Google

You can request to index your URL with Google Search Console (GSC). This is a free tool website owners can use to monitor and manage the website’s presence in Google search results. Once your GSC is set up, it’s pretty easy to do.

Here are the steps:

• Sign in to Google Search Console: If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to set one up. Here’s how to set one up with WordPress, Squarespace, and Wix.
• Navigate to the URL Inspection Tool: You can find it at the top with the search icon, it’ll have the words ‘Inspect any URL in…’ Enter the URL of the page you want to index and hit enter.
• Request Indexing: After Google inspects the page, click the “Request Indexing” button. Google will then begin the process of crawling and indexing your page.

You can also use Google Search Console to check the indexing status of your pages. You can find it via the Overview page (homepage of your GSC account). Scroll to Indexing and click on the ‘Full Report’. You should see a section with information about why pages aren’t indexed.

One thing worth knowing: there’s a daily limit on how many individual URL requests you can submit in GSC. Submitting the same URL multiple times won’t speed up the process, Google works on its own crawl schedule regardless.

If you’ve just done a large site update or launched several new pages at once, submitting your sitemap is a more efficient move than requesting each URL individually.

Take the Next Step: Request Indexing

Indexing your URL is a great step but it’s one piece of a larger picture. For your B2B website to consistently show up in front of the right clients, your whole site needs to be optimized, maintained, and working together.

If you’d rather have an expert handle that strategy so you can stay focused on your clients, that’s exactly what my SEO services are here for. Explore my SEO services and let’s make sure your website is set up to get found on search.