7 Super Tips to Getting Google to Crawl Your Site Faster
Search engine crawlers will index your new website, but it may take them anywhere from 1 month to 3 months. Three months is a long time and I know that I for one really don’t have that kind of patience. So for those of you who are like me, here’s some information on your Wix website’s indexing process and what you can do to help.
Can Google Index My Flash Website?
There’s been a lot of discussion on whether the search engines can actually crawl and read Flash websites. As of today, at least Google and Yahoo are able to index texts compiled into SWF and any HTML automatically generated by Flash. Even though SWF itself isn’t particularly searchable, any content (texts) inside a SWF can still be visible and indexed easily using the right techniques. In short, don’t despair – your Wix can and will definitely be indexed. Wix was designed especially to suit Google and the other search engines. Also, we are always developing Wix to remain on the cutting edge with SEO updates from Google and different online sources.
Just look at the picture below. Wix’s website is created using the Wix editor, and there it is ranked right at the top of the first page. Try a few other relevant keywords and see what happens.
Now let’s approach other tactics.
1. Make Sure You’ve Checked the Settings Boxes
First of all, make sure you’ve checked the ‘List in Search Engines’ box in the Wix editor’s settings menu. If you haven’t done so thus far, visit the editor and do so now.
2. Titles, Descriptions and Keywords
Make sure to update titles, descriptions and keywords in the Wix editor’s settings menu.
The title and description appear in search engine results so even though you can’t see the description on your site, it is one of the most important marketing elements, both in terms of the search engines and towards generating traffic.
A good title: This should include your website’s name, and be up to about 10 words long (70 characters).
A description: Should include relevant keywords and be about 30-35 words long (or up to 190 characters).
Keywords: Add about 5-7 keywords to the Wix editor settings menu. Make sure to use keywords that are relevant and actually appear in your general content. Use as many of your keywords as possible in your description, title and headers to strengthen their relevancy. For more information on the Settings check out the Wixpedia.
3. Words, Words, Words
Make sure you have enough good and relevant content. Textual content is Google’s bread and butter. You need to have at least 400 words on your Home Page and 250 words on each of your website’s other pages. If you don’t already have that, start thinking creatively on what kind of written content you can add and where to place it. Also keep in mind that Google (and the other search engines) like relevant sites. It’s not a great mystery that if your site is a business website, it may be slightly confusing if you give it an Arts and Crafts title. Your keywords and texts should be organic, relevant and natural.
If you really don’t want text on your page you can add it as a small footer at the bottom of the page for example.
4. The Chain of Links
Get as many incoming links as you can onto your web page! Google finds new sites through incoming links. As it crawls a familiar site, it follows links from that site to other websites. If you don’t have any incoming links to your website, it just won’t be discovered. Wix automatically creates two links for you when you a build a website using one of Wix’s templates. One is from the directory and one from an XML site map. This helps Google crawl your site but there are many other things which you can do. If you’re having trouble finding someone to send links your way (and you don’t have another website that’s already indexed for example), try link exchanges. People are always grateful when you send traffic their way, and let’s face it; nobody is going to stay in your website forever. So you might as well make friends. Add the links organically into the text. For example, if I want you to read more about Flash templates, I’ll anchor the link into the text.
5. Get Quality Links
Get good, quality links. Google crawls an average site once a month. On the other hand, it crawls the big sites, such as Dig, Facebook, Twitter and Wikipedia every day, so if you add an incoming link to your website from your facebook account, you raise the chances that your website will be indexed fast.
6. Submit Your URL to Major Search Engines
Submit your website directly to the major search engines. Once you’ve done that and read our previous blog about texts and how Google loves them, try submitting your URL to Google . This may make the process a little faster. Submit your website to the other major directories: Google, Yahoo , MSN , Ask etc.
7. Connecting Your Domain
Index your new domain to Google. If you plan on upgrading your Wix account to use your own domain, we highly recommend you do so before submitting the original freebie account. The reason being, that when you index the Wix URL, it takes Google about a month to index it. Once you connect and submit your new domain, the entire process begins from scratch, thus taking double the time it would to submit the final URL from the start.
To dig deeper into the world of SEO, visit Google’s webmaster’s site.
August 30th, 2009 at 4:26 pm
Thanks for the great info! I love Wix, and i’ve been building websites with it for a while. It’s a great product and easy to use. Even my mother is starting to get addicting. Now I also know how to promote my website on Google. Thanks blog team!
September 7th, 2009 at 4:45 am
Yes. I finally discovered the SEO advice on wix.com
good stuff!
I have been trying a verification method:
google6563608b2fc0cf85.html
But I can’t figure how, other than on an image file.
Your help is much appreciated.
September 21st, 2009 at 6:27 am
I too am trying to figure out how to paste the verification codes in. Would appreciate some help. You cant verify your URL to google until you do this
September 21st, 2009 at 11:58 am
Hi Jodie,
I assume you are referring to Google’s webmaster verification codes. If so, adding the verification codes into your html is not possible at the moment. It will be in the future.
Stay posted :)
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Can i get the news letter?
October 1st, 2009 at 4:32 am
I’m also looking for a way to verify my site with google.
October 3rd, 2009 at 9:28 am
Hi Wix Team, I have also been trying and on another forum it siad 6 to 8 weeks which was 8 weeks ago so is the Google’s webmaster verification codes.ever going to happen? I never had this problem with other websites. Thanks
October 5th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Very good article :)
October 7th, 2009 at 4:32 am
looking for a way to verify my site
October 7th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Hi Guys,
Lots of good questions, why don’t you try the Wix support center?
You can submit a question through this link:
http://support.wix.com/index.php/Submit_Your_Help_Request
or just browse the Wixpedia which also has lots of great answers. I will continue making posts in relation to the questions you’re asking but this is a good way to get a quick answer.
Enjoy
Wix Team
October 14th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
Hi,
How much is the hosting on the WIX search engine?
Can I transfer the web design to another search engine?
Can I amned and add to the site after it is launched?
Does it cost anything to amend and add and relaunch/publish?
best regards
Brian
October 14th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Hi Brian,
I think you may be confusing a few issues. Wix hosting (on the Wix server) is free. Web designs are not created per search engine. You create your design and submit the website to each of the search engines. You can be listed in all search engines and its even preferable.
You can make any changes you want to your site after launching – easily and it doesn’t cost anything. Visit the Wix website to find out more. All the information is there.
Hope this was helpful.
Moran Matyash
Wix Team
October 26th, 2009 at 5:11 pm
wix is nothing but an awesome experience,to imagine that almost everything is free.i am jus new to web design but with wix i have alot of confidence to do it,i’ll still ask questions as i advance.thanks a million times to Wix team.
best wishes
Bright.
October 29th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
Was searching for new SEO innovations when I found this one. Interesting, but do you think it has a long shelf life?
October 31st, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Nice post on web crawlers, simple and too the point :), I use python for simple html web crawlers, but for larger projects like documents, files, or the web i tried http://www.extractingdata.com/web%20crawler.htm which worked great, they build quick custom screen scrapers, web crawlers, and data parsing programs
November 6th, 2009 at 3:59 am
I used Wix to design most of my website, but I also wanted to use some non Wix components, so I embedded it in a site hosted by 110mb.com and added the non Wix components there. It is easier to get your site spidered by Google if you have some basic HTML components. My site is http://theheads.110mb.com
November 9th, 2009 at 3:50 pm
~~Wow, great advice. Just found this website yesterday and I’m blown away by how great it is !!! ~~
November 13th, 2009 at 6:09 am
yea nice Work :D
November 17th, 2009 at 8:52 am
It’s funny that you finally spoke up! I have been waiting for someone to bring this out to the open! Anyway… nice post. I will be back.
December 3rd, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Important info for anyone who wants backlinks for no charge. Anyone need free backlinks for their webite? I figured I would distribute some good info I found recently. Free one way backlinks for your website. I have been taking advantage of this this for my blogs and it absolutely works super! Just click my name to get what I mean. Not selling anything, it’s completely free and it works.
December 3rd, 2009 at 8:49 pm
Thank you SGreen! I did as you suggested and went to 110mb.com and created a free website. After figuring out the sites mechanics I simply added the html code
to redirect my website to the Wix site. I also updated the meta tags and description on my 110mb site. Once I went out to Google and added my URL it was showing up in searches. I truly appreciate the advice you gave. Much thanks!
Blessings,
DLC
December 6th, 2009 at 6:18 am
You are a very smart person! :)
December 13th, 2009 at 4:48 pm
Thanks again for a nice site.
December 16th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Cheers for the fantastic info – I loved reading it! I always enjoy reading this blog. :)
December 16th, 2009 at 6:12 am
Cheers for the great info – I loved reading it! I always love looking at this blog. :)
December 17th, 2009 at 1:51 am
Thanks for the great post – I enjoyed reading it! I always enjoy this blog. :)
December 31st, 2009 at 8:21 pm
We’re new at this, but want to move our hosting from a previous Webmaster to WIX. Is there a pro that could help us do that? We are revising our website currently, and hoping it doesn’t have to be down when we move to WIX. Anyway we can keep the email accounts? barbara@bigbearmagazine.com, etc.
Thanks so much.
January 7th, 2010 at 12:14 am
I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business.
January 10th, 2010 at 1:35 am
Awesome post! You have a great blog, absolutely the best Ive read so far. I will be looking forward to your next entry. Thanks again.
January 11th, 2010 at 7:25 am
hello i have a big question, it says its good to have 400 words and so on your home page. what if i don want to show all the text to the user but still be there for the search engines. can i ad lots of text and change the settings to transparency 0 so that it is not visual to the eye but still visual to google and so???
best
pp
January 13th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
Greetings! I just wanted to comment that I really am interested in your blog.
January 14th, 2010 at 4:35 am
My sites are currently ranked in the top three on most major search engines..If I transfer my site from HTML to the Flash Wix setup, will I loose my rankings? Please let me know, thanks!
January 17th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
That is considered an illegitimate technique by Google and the other search engines. Check out the blog post on the subject: Spam – Illegitimate SEO Techniques
January 20th, 2010 at 7:35 am
I’m having a little bit of trouble viewing your site in Opera, but it may just be my computer. Apart from that, I love your site. I plan on browsing around and reading some more posts!
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:23 pm
I’m having a problem with Google…
My website (www.zoezimmer.com) used to show up at the top of the page when my name was searched… as of a few weeks ago it’s not showing up at all! It seems to have just vanished…
I haven’t changed any settings, or anything on the site. And I’ve re-submitted it to Google.
Any ideas?
January 23rd, 2010 at 8:28 am
I have my own domain and have made all the changes as indicated above on editor, changed title, keyword, etc. Then why is it that when I google my name it still comes up as this but takes me to my domain name site?
Wix.com – Website built by “my name” based on Blank Website
This Website was built from Blank Website by “my name” using wix.com.
www.”mydomainnamehere”.com/ – Cached
I hate that it says all this before my name. I would like for it to read as other artist sites that say the artist name and then the website below and nothing about Wix.com Help!
January 24th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
You lucky guys, watch ths video, this is, to me, the 1st flash based free web editor like this, all seo friendly create a free flash website
January 24th, 2010 at 5:57 pm
Claudia –
To use your own domain, you must upgrade to premium. This is done through the main Wix website. Good luck.
January 24th, 2010 at 5:58 pm
Dear zzimmer,
Please send an email to Wix support. I’m sure they can help you: support@wix.com.