There are two main search engines, Google and Bing.
So how do get your website into the search engines?
In order for you to appear in search results in the search engines, the search engines have to visit your website and index it.
In order for this to happen, the website must be manually submitted to the search engines, or the search engines happen to find your website through some link on some website that links to your website.
How to submit your website to the search engines
Submit Your XML Sitemap
One of the things search engines look for on every website is a “sitemap“. This is a file that contains a list of links on your website. Once you submit a sitemap to the search engines, they will visit your website and index your content.
Even though a sitemap may not contain all the links on your website, typically search engines will index all the pages on your website by following the links on your website, unless you have specifically specified that they should not be indexed.
If you have one of our websites then, your sitemap is located at www.yourdomain.com/blog/sitemap.xml (replace “yourdomain.com” with your domain).
To submit your sitemap:
a) Log into your blog www.yourdomain.com/blog/wp-admin
(The login information to your blog was sent with your welcome message)
b) Click on “Settings” then “XML Sitemap“.
c) Click on the link to notify the search engines – see the picture below.
Note: We submit your sitemap when we configure your website for you. It does not hurt to submit it from time to time.
2) Fetch URL from Google and Bing
Both Google and Bing offer the option to directly submit a URL and all linked pages through their webmaster tools.
a) Google Webmaster Tools
If you do not have an account with Google, then you need to open one.
i) Go to Google Webmaster Tools
ii) Add a property (website). Google will ask you for the URL.
iii) Verify your website – It will then ask you to verify your website by downloading a file, then uploading it to your website. We recommend uploading your file by FTP to your public_html folder.
We recommend using WinSCP or Filezilla FTP clients to log into your website. By default, your cpanel login information sent in your welcome email is your main FTP login information.
iv) After you verify your site, click on “Fetch as Google” to fetch your website.
b) Bing Webmaster Tools
If you don’t have an account, open one for Bing webmaster tools.
i) Add a site – Bing will take you through the same verification process where you upload a file to verify ownership.
ii) Click “Diagnostics & Tools“, “Fetch as Bingbot”
Also submit your URL:
iii) Click “Configure My Site“, “Submit URLs”
How long does it take for my website to appear on the search engines?
Nobody really has a a clear answer to this. I have seen websites appear in the search engines within a few hours of submission.
Whether you use sitemap submission or through the webmaster tools, the results are the same – the search engines will visit your website and index it.
How do I know my website has been indexed?
Just go to Google and Bing and type “mydomain.com” – including the “”. Of course change mydomain.com to your domain name.
If your website has been indexed, you will see various pages of your website on the search results.
When I search my keywords on the search engines, I cannot find my website! How can people find me?
When you type any keywords on the search engines, you get a list of results that could run to hundreds of pages. The first search results are the best ranked.
If your website has been indexed by the search engines, then the keywords on your website are already represented on the search results, except they are not among the top results that you can obviously see.
In other words, the question you should ask yourself is:
How does my website rank on the search engines?
This is where SEO comes in.
The higher your website ranks on search results, the more visible you get and the more leads you get. This of course translates to more business for you.
Submitting your website to the search engines and getting it to be indexed is just the beginning on the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) journey.
Every website needs some SEO push to start ranking well on the search engines. SEO is a slow process. It can take weeks or even months before you can start seeing some good results.
SEO should focus on long-term traffic and leads – traffic that will keep coming probably for years. But it takes time to get there.
Gone are the days when people could promise to get your website on the first page of the search engines within a week and they could do it.
Slow but sure is the way to go with search engines.
To-do list
Here is what you need to do to start your SEO journey.
1) Review your content to make sure your website is well localized to your local area where you buy and sell houses
2) Submit your website to your local search engine results
3) Continue to build links to your website such as from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc
4) If you need to, check if we have an opening for aggressive SEO