Why Google indexing decides whether customers find you

It doesn't matter how nice your website is if Google doesn't know about it. A page that isn't indexed is invisible in the search results, and then no customer can find you that way. Google can only show what it has found, read and placed in its register. Here I go through what indexing actually is, how you know if you're showing up, and why it pays to have more pages than just a home page.

What indexing actually means

Showing up on Google happens in three steps, and they're easier to understand than they sound:

1. Crawl. Google sends out a robot that follows links and visits pages on the web.
2. Index. The robot's findings are read and saved in Google's enormous register. It's this that we mean when we say a page is "indexed".
3. Ranking. When someone searches, Google pulls the most relevant pages out of the register and ranks them.

If your page isn't in step two, it can never appear in step three. That's the whole thing: no indexing, no place in the search results.

Why "a website" isn't enough

Many people think a nice home page is enough. The problem is that a single page only gives Google a handful of things to match against. Every page you have is like a new entrance, a new chance to appear on a search.

If you have a page about roofing, one about facades and one about your references, you can match three different ways people search. If you only have a home page, you compete for everything at once and rarely show up for anything. That's why I build out sites with more relevant pages, and why this Knowledge section exists. If you want to see how the parts fit together, I've gathered the whole picture in the guide How to get your company found on Google.

How to tell if you're indexed

You don't need any advanced tools for a quick check. Type this into Google:

site:yourcompany.se

Google then lists all the pages from your domain that are in the register. If you get zero results, you're not indexed. If you get a single one but have more pages, the rest are invisible. If you want to keep proper track, I recommend Google Search Console. It's free and shows exactly which pages Google has, and why some haven't made it in.

What makes pages actually get indexed

Indexing isn't luck. It's a few things working together:

• A sitemap that tells Google which pages exist.
• That robots aren't blocking the pages by mistake.
• Internal linking: pages that are linked to are found faster.
• Unique content: Google rejects thin or copied pages.
• Reasonable load time: a sluggish page is crawled less often.

This is exactly the kind of thing I set up for my customers so that it takes care of itself.

In summary: start by checking whether you're even indexed, make sure you have more than one page, and build them so that Google can easily read and save them. The next natural step is your free sign on Google. Read on about the Google Business Profile.