Skip to main content

indexation.

How do I set up community indexing correctly? There is a link to the sitemap in the settings, but wherever I add it, there is no result - the community is not shown in the search engines.

Mat β€Ž

Anton SamoylinΒ there are couple of steps you can follow to help your Public community indexing:

  • make sure your Spaces have their Privacy set to Public so all posts/links from there can be genarated in the sitemap (xml) file
  • add your sitemap to GSC so a crawler can pick it up:

To submit your website's sitemap to Google Search Console (GSC), you need to log in to your Google account, navigate to Google Search Console, select your website property, and then go to the "Sitemaps" section. From there, you can add the URL of your sitemap file (usually sitemap.xml or sitemap_index.xml) and click "Submit".Β 

  • you can link to your community/post from other sources (link building) to give a signal to crawlers/external people to follow them so it looks like the content is revelant and "important"

    Note: dont forget to build a good quality content around your community and have active users

  • check if your community/link was indexed in Google by using the following operator in the google searchbox:

site:community.wpmanageninja.com/portal

Note: if you check the above query for this community and filter SERP results from the last month only you will notice that only a FEW links Google decided to show in SERP (not all links are visible in SERP then).

Note: when your basic community url was indexed then its up to the google to make decision how fast to crawl and index all links but also if they should be visible in SERP. It also takes time for Google to crawl and index new websites or pages.

Ranking Issues:

  • Low Quality or Irrelevant Content:

    Google prioritizes high-quality, relevant content. Ensure your content is well-written, informative, and meets user search intent.Β 

  • Lack of Authority:

    Websites with more authority (established through backlinks and positive user engagement) tend to rank higher.Β 

  • Competitive Keywords:

    If your target keywords are highly competitive, it may take time and effort to rank for them.Β 

  • Manual Actions/Penalties:

    Google may penalize websites for violating its guidelines, resulting in lower rankings or removal from search results.Β 

Be patient and focus on building an awesome community then the SEO results will come.

PS. you can try to add links to your community in other places (ex: hi traffic social media profiles) so crawlers and people can click and follow (smart but not spammy link building)

PS. indexing is not the same as crawling and it might take some time


Ref:

if a URL is indexed in Google, it can show up in search results forΒ site:Β queries that are related to the URL, however it's not guaranteed. If a URL doesn't show in aΒ site:Β query, use theΒ URL Inspection toolΒ to make sure the URL can be indexed and to submit the URL to indexing. Also, double-check the query is correct;Β site:https://www.example.comΒ doesn't return the same results asΒ site:https://example.com/.

GSC has the most accurate information (albeit delayed a day or so). As you can see from your top screen grab, the page clearly is indexed.

There is nothing you can do to index pages faster.Β 

When you ask for a page to be indexed with the Manual Indexing tool (as an example), it's added to the indexing queue (along with everyone else).Β  If you then ask again (before the bot has got aroundΒ toΒ visiting), you simply get moved to the back of the queue.Β Β If you overuse the tool (by submitting too many pages together or indeed multipleΒ requests for the same page) you'll be locked out completelyΒ (for a period of time).Β  JustΒ how many times you can use it, or how frequently, isΒ not published information.

Then for sitemaps, Google say this (note the similar underlined caveat re overuse)...

*"Google doesn't check a sitemap every time a site is crawled; a sitemap is checked only the first time that we notice it, and thereafter only when you ping us to let us know that it's changed. You should alert Google about a sitemap only when it's new or updated;Β do not submit or ping unchanged sitemaps multiple times***"**.