How to get (google) indexed

posted in: technical 0

So I’ve rebooted my blog. New server and Internet address.

I google “The Empirical Humanist”. Hmmm. My old blog link comes up. No, my new blog is nowhere. No hits at all. What to do?

Ask Google, of course. And their answer: Search Console. Never heard of this free service. And there’s a long list of suggested actions to take.

Following instructions, I created a Search Console account. The first and most important step is to register your website with them. You get a “site verification” html file which you need to upload to the root directory of your site. Then you use a browser to navigate to that file. In the Console, click “Verify” and you’re done. Google now knows about your site and will direct its web crawlers to it.

There are others things you can do. Just explore the options on the console. One very “kewl” feature: you can request Google to index your site! You’re limited to the number of times you ask for this per month, so only do this if you’ve made massive changes to the content that you wish to have made immediately available.

[…later..]

That is, only a few minutes later! A “site: ” search shows this blog and a general search for “The Empirical Humanist” brings me up. Sadly, it’s on the second page of the search results, but that will change as this site becomes more and more active.

Return here often and improve our Google search ranking!

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