How to prepare your business website for Google indexing – a checklist
A page Google does not index does not exist in search results. Check the 10 points that decide whether your pages make it into the index.
Even the most beautiful website will not bring in customers if Google does not index it. Before you think about SEO, make sure the search engine can find, fetch and understand your pages.
1. Robots.txt does not block important sections
Your /robots.txt should allow crawling of your content and point to your sitemap. A single stray Disallow: / can remove the whole site from search.
2. XML sitemap
A sitemap.xml lists the URLs you want indexed together with their last modification date. Submit it in Google Search Console and keep it limited to canonical pages that return status 200.
3. Canonical URLs
The same content under several addresses (with and without www, with and without a trailing slash, with session parameters) dilutes your signals. Redirect (301) to one version and add a rel="canonical" tag to every page.
4. Redirects from old URLs
After restructuring a site, every old URL should 301-redirect to its closest equivalent so you keep the links earned over the years.
5. Internal linking
Every important page should be reachable from the menu or content within a few clicks. Orphan pages that nothing links to are crawled rarely, if at all.
6. Unique titles and descriptions
The <title> tag and meta description should be unique for every page and describe its content – they are what usually appears in search results.
7. Language versions
If your site has several languages, connect them with hreflang annotations so Google shows users the right version.
8. Structured data
schema.org markup (e.g. Organization, Service, Article, BreadcrumbList) helps search engines understand each page and can enrich your search result.
9. Speed and mobile
Google indexes the mobile version of your pages. Use a responsive layout and keep good Core Web Vitals – see our article on website speed.
10. Fresh content
A regularly updated site with a news section gives search engines a reason to visit more often. Mark publication and update dates both in the content and in structured data.
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