Have you ever wondered how long does it take for your blog posts to appear in Google Search? It is frustrating not knowing when your posts will become visible in the search result. It will be pointless to create a blog if no one can find it on Google.
Thankfully, you can use Google Search Console tool to speed up the indexing process of your blog so that people can find your writings on Google immediately.
By default, Google will slowly index your Blogger posts even without the tool. You need to make your Blogspot blog is visible to the search engine and set your blog readers to public.
To make sure that your blog is visible, you can check it through Setting > Basic in Blogger dashboard. GoogleBot will crawl through your pages. However, it can take days or even weeks. Therefore, it is necessary to use Google Search Console.
It is actually quite simple in order to check whether your blog has been included in the search page or not. Simply search "site:yourblog.com" from Google Search. For example I want to see if this post has been indexed, I'd search "site:https://sofanmax.blogspot.com/2020/05/how-index-blogger-post-google-search-console.html".
Blogger, or Blogspot, is compatible with Google Search Console Tool. This online tool is made by Google so that website owners or webmasters (including Bloggers) can check and verify indexing status, visibility, and website ownership.
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| Before this post being indexed |
For the last few months you may notice that Blogger has been pushing new massive updates (yay!). Google Search Console now can be accessed directly from your blog. Previously this tool was mostly unknown to Blogspot users.
Follow the following steps in order to use Google Search Console for your Blogger. It can be a little bit complex but I'll try to keep it simple. Feel free to leave a comment below if you find any difficulties.
Step 1: Verifying Your Blog Ownership
First of all, you have to go to Google Search Console, you can go there directly via your Blogger dashboard. Go to Setting > Search preferences > Crawlers and indexing > Google Search Console > Edit.
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| Google Search Console in Blogger dashboard |
A new tab will open and you will be required to sign-in again in your Google account. After that you will be redirected to https://search.google.com/search-console/welcome?hl=en&utm_source=wmx&utm_medium=deprecation-pane&utm_content=home
You will see that you need to select property, there are two choice, Domain or URL prefix. I suggest that you choose URL prefix option, especially if you are using default free .blogspot.com domain. Input your complete blog URL including the https and press next.
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| URL prefix for blogspot domain |
A pop up notification will appear which tells you that your blog ownership has been verified automatically. Congratulations! Google search console has verified that your blog is indeed your property. The auto verification is possible because Blogger is in fact also a Google product, just like the Search Console tool, hence the "Affiliated product" notification.
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| Your Blogger website has been verified! |
You can add additional verification method in your search console later, but for now you are ready for the next step in order to include your blog posts in Google search result. Now select "Go to property".
Step 2: Adding Blogger Sitemaps in the Search Console
Once you are in your blog property, you will notice that there are a lot of features in Google Search Console. Those powerful features are very useful to accurately analyze your Blogger performance in search page result.
It is similar to "Stats" in Blogger dashboard, but this tool is more comprehensive. I will explain more about Google Search Console features in future posts. For now we will focus on how to use this tool in order to index your blogspot contents.
The next step is to add sitemaps for your Blogger posts and pages. Sitemap is basically the list of all contents in you websites. We need to put Sitemap into Search Console so that Google crawler can find our contents. When Google crawler find it, it will put our content in search page result.
In Blogger, sitemap is generated automatically. You can find your Blogger sitemap for your posts at https://yourblogaddress.com/sitemap.xml and the sitemap for your pages at https://yourblogaddress.com/sitemap-pages.xml
Now to include the sitemap to the search console, go to Index > Sitemaps. You will be required to input the sitemap url, simply type sitemap.xml, then press submit. Do the same thing with sitemap-pages.xml (note that if you do not have published page, it will return an error). Sitemap will be updated automatically every time you post, so you have only to do the step 2 once.
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| Successfully adding Blogger sitemaps in Search Console |
Once you have successfully added your Blogspot sitemaps into the Search Console, you are ready for the last step, indexing your posts and pages!
Step 3: Indexing Blogger Posts and Pages Using Google Search Console
In order to index a post, use Google Search Console URL inspection tool. It is located at the top part and it looks like a search box. Simply put your post url into the box and press enter. Your post will be analyzed in few seconds.
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| URL Analysis Before Indexing |
After the analysis is done, you will notice something similar to the picture above. Google Search Console will tell you that your URL is not on Google. It means that your post has not been indexed yet and no Crawler has visited your post. You will not be able to find your post in the search result yet. Now click the REQUEST INDEXING button. It will take a minute or two in order to submit your request.
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| Successful indexing request |
After your request has been successfully submitted, wait for a moments until your post is being crawled by Googlebot. Sometimes it may take up to one day before your post gets indexed, depending on how busy Google crawler is. Normally however it only takes sometimes within 5 to 10 minutes.
To check if your post has been successfully indexed, you can try to search the URL in google using "site:yourposturl" or by using the inspection tool. Inspect your post URL again in the search console.
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| Successfully indexing a post! |
If the inspection tool test result show you that your URL is on Google, then congratulation! People now can find your post in the sea of Google Search result. You can proudly say that you now own a proper blog which can be searched from Google.
Repeat the third step to all of your existing posts and pages. You need to also inspect and request indexing for your main website URL. Remember that every time you posts a new content, you can use the URL inspect tool to request immediate indexing so that your new posts can appear in Google faster. You can also request re-indexing if you made major changes to your posts or website.
Conclusion
Google Search Console tool is a basic search engine optimization tool. In order to optimize your Blogger appearance in Google Search result, you definitely need to use the tool. Your post may get indexed without this tool, but it may take a really long time to appear in the search result.
If you want people to find your blog from Google, no matter what your Blogger contents are; be it flash fiction, random rants, news, tutorial, or cheesy poetry, you need to use Google Search Console tool.
If you find any difficulties and inaccuracy feel free to leave a comment below! Don't for get to follow my blog and bookmark it to receive latest update.