I am kind of confused in regards to getting a new blog indexed. Can someone please clarify this for me. I have installed the XML Sitemap and the Sitemap Generator. I have several blog posts on my blog and all the necessary pages. When my sitemap rebuilds, it always says Google, Yahoo, et cetera, were successfully notified. Is this all I need to do to eventually get my blog indexed? I've also registered with BlogCatalog and a couple of others and I have at least one backlink from Ezine Articles to each blog post. I guess I'm just confused whether I also need to manually ping Google or if this is what the XML Sitemap is doing for me. This is actually my second blog -- my first got indexed after about four or five days but I was following so many different pieces of advice at that time that I can't remember everything I did -- and I think some of the things I did I shouldn't have done because I was pinging too much -- I think. I also saw where some recommend submitting to blogsearch.google.com/ping. Should I do this in addition to the Sitemap? My blog still isn't indexed after seven days and I'm not sure I've done what I'm supposed to do. Any help would be appreciated.
Hi there lyndatreb, The sitemap generator does not notify Google about your site. It just makes it easier for google to index your site when the bots do come. I like to use Ping-o-Matic to notify all the major search engines after each post. Just enter the post URL and click eneter and its done. You also need to get your post URL correct. Go to Settings > Permalinks and choose Custom undrer common settings and in the box put /%postname%/ (exactly as shown). This will mean the your posts URL will be the name of the post which is presumably the Keyword that you are writing on (it should be). This will also help. Also install the "All in One SEO Pack" plugin. Set this up with your keywords and it will help in getting indexed. Make sure you use relevant tags for each of your posts. I always tag with 4 or 5 tags. Use Digg, technorati, del.ic.io.us etc to social bookmark your posts. Have a plugin that automatically puts these social bookmarks on each post so people reading the post can also social bookmark you. Search Google there are lots of these plugins around for free. I hope this helps. It can be a bit soul destroying when you do not get indexed quickly but keep going and it will happen. Of course, one main thing to think about is your keyword choice - again go to google there is a lot og good info out there thst will help you. Regards, Awkman
I recomend that you submit it to blogsearch.google.com/ping. I just did and my site got indexed in about 20 minutes, fairly quick and this may be what your looking for. Just a note I had submitted my blog to google before with no avail.
Thanks for the help. Just one point of clarification. I do have the All-In-One SEO, as well as the XML Sitemap. Once my site has been indexed, do I also need to manually ping Google or is that what the XML Sitemap is doing when it says that Google, et cetera, has been notified. I get so confused on this, because I had some people telling me to be careful with the XML Sitemap because when I make updates to my site, i.e., make changes to a post or add a new post and if I do it too frequently within a short period of time, that because I have the XML Sitemap, Wordpress pings Google each time and I could get banned from the pinging services because I'm pinging too much. So I guess my question is, when the XML Sitemap information in my blog is telling me that it notifies Google, Bing, Yahoo, et cetera, each time I add a new post or make a change to an old one, does that mean it's pinging them or should I be doing it manually?
I would suggest u to join Google Webmaster Tools and then verify and submit xml sitemap there... It will index ur pages for sure then but since ur site is new.. it will take some time...
I second PankajKumar's suggestion of verifying your xml sitemap into Google Webmaster Tools rather than just waiting for google to find your sitemap.
Check your privacy setting to make sure your blog is set to public not private. The fastest way to get your blog indexed is pinging, and if your site is set to private the pinging option is disabled.