Spiders continuously work in the background, scanning billions of web pages every day. Spiders can take several days or weeks to discover your website and index it on Google. That’s why it’s important to have a well-structured website, as Google bots can easily navigate and scan the entire content.

One of the first steps in search engine optimization is to get your website indexed by Google. Unindexed websites will not receive any traffic, leads, or sales from Google.

A sitemap is a map of your website. It informs Google bots about the pages and structure of your site, to index it correctly and quickly. Most WordPress websites have sitemap plugins that allow you to add Plugins easily without having to know code.

Building a backlink is adding your website link to another website. Google bots continuously crawl websites. If bots find your link on another website, the bot will immediately follow the link to your website and index it. Linking from trusted and reputable websites helps your SEO score.

There is a file known as the robots.txt file that informs Google bots of what web pages should be indexed and what pages should not. Here are the reasons why websites use the robots.txt file:

Several website pages that do not need to appear in Google. These pages can be:

• Login Page

• Cart Page

• Thank You Page

Every website has a limited amount of crawl time before the Google bot moves on to the following site. Crawl time is the time spent by Google bots when indexing your site. If Google bot crawls unnecessary pages of a website, it may exhaust its resources and miss out on indexing essential web pages.

Duplicate content is copying the same content on different pages of your website. Google does not like duplicate content. If your website has the same content across multiple pages, you may want to prevent access to the less important pages by blocking access to those pages.

Web developers use the robots.txt file to prevent access to a website until it’s completed. Developers forget to disable permissions on the robots.txt file. This is a common mistake that leads to websites not being indexed.

Google does not waste its crawling resources on low-quality websites. Low-quality websites are viewed as spam. Google will avoid crawling and indexing the following websites:

Websites with limited content are viewed (by Google) as “thin content” sites. Websites should have multiple web pages with a good combination of images and text on each page. Avoid one-page websites, too, as they limit your marketing capabilities.

Duplicate content is copying information from a website and using it on your site. Google does not index websites with Duplicate content. Your content should be unique, informative, and free from grammar and spelling mistakes.

Websites with technical issues perform poorly on Google. Google wants the interaction between websites and users to run smoothly. Here are the main technical issues associated with websites:

Slow-loading websites frustrate users and create a poor user experience. Websites must have super-fast download speeds as users have grown impatient while browsing the internet. A website should load within 2 seconds. Anything past 3 seconds may cost you traffic and rankings.

A redirect automatically directs traffic from one web page to another. People use redirects when they are changing domain names and want to keep the number of backlinks still pointing to their new domain. Bad redirects lead to blank pages, lower your SEO rankings, and frustrate users.

Broken links are links that lead to no destination. All internal and external websites must be active and working. Having multiple broken links on a website may lead to Google not indexing your website.

Viruses have the potential to destroy websites and create issues with visiting users, such as intercepting personal information (credit card details). If Google detects a website that contains a virus, it will be removed from Google. The website will be placed on a blacklist until the threat is removed.

Websites need to provide a responsive design to appear clearly on multiple devices such as phones, laptops, and tablets. Websites that do not offer a mobile-friendly interface will struggle to get indexed by Google.