Submit Your Website to Search Engines
Why Should I Submit My Website to Search Engines?
When you first create your WordPress website, it’s not a strict requirement to submit it to search engines.
Submit your site manually because it will help you get discovered faster.
If you are just starting a new business or blog, then search engines are the most important sources of free website traffic.
Unlike paid traffic from ads, organic search traffic is free, and you don’t need to pay search engines to get that traffic.
How to Submit Your Website to Google
Google is the largest and most popular search engine on the planet.
For most websites, Google is often the biggest source of their traffic.
To submit your website to Google, you need to sign up for Google Search Console.
It’s a free tool that helps website owners see how their website is performing in Google search results.
Signing up is free and easy.
Simply go to the Google Search Console website and click on the ‘Start now’ button.
You can use your existing Google account to sign in or create a new one.
Google will prompt you to enter your website domain name.
Use the URL prefix option as it’s easier to verify.
Using the URL prefix method to add your site to Google Search Console
After choosing this option, use the HTML tag method to verify your website and submit it to Google.
You simply need to click on the HTML tag option to expand it and then copy the code by clicking the ‘Copy’ button.
Copying the HTML meta tag from Google Search Console
1. Adding Verification Code in WordPress Using All-in-One SEO
The easiest way to do this is using All in One SEO, which is the best WordPress SEO plugin on the market.
It allows you to optimize your website for search engines without learning any SEO jargon.
Install and activate the All-in-One SEO plugin.
Visit the All in One SEO » General Settings » Webmaster Tools page and click on the ‘Google Search Console’ option.
Paste the content value from your HTML meta tag into the ‘Google Verification Code’ box.
Changes button at the top of the screen.
2. Adding Verification Code in WordPress Using WPCode
If you are not using the All in One SEO plugin, then you can use WPCode to add the Google Search Console verification code to your WordPress site.
Install and activate the free WPCode plugin.
Go to the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page in your WordPress admin.
Paste the whole HTML meta tag into the ‘Header’ box.
Click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top of the page.
Verifying Your Site in Google Search Console
After adding the meta tag to your site using either method, you need to go back to Google Search Console and click the ‘Verify’ button for the HTML tag method.
You should now see a success message in Google Search Console to let you know that your site has been verified.
An XML sitemap in WordPress is a list of all the content on your website, including all your posts and pages.
It helps search engine bots discover your content faster and start showing it in search results.
All-in-One SEO (AIOSEO) creates your sitemap because it includes a comprehensive sitemap generator.
It allows you to customize your XML sitemaps by excluding unnecessary or duplicate content.
AIOSEO also comes with several other sitemaps, such as a Video Sitemap, News Sitemap, and RSS sitemap.
These can all help you get a competitive advantage and rank higher in SEO.
Install and activate the All-in-One SEO plugin.
After being activated, All in One SEO will automatically create your sitemap file.
To view the sitemap, simply go to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page in your WordPress admin.
Click the ‘Open Sitemap’ button.
Click the button to open your sitemap, which has been automatically generated by All in One SEO
Adding Your XML Sitemap to Google Search Console
Now that you have generated your XML sitemap, the next step is to help Google discover it quickly.
The easiest way to do that is by using Google Search Console.
Simply log in to your Google Search Console account, and then click on the ‘Sitemaps’ link in the left-hand toolbar.
Google Search Console has already put your website domain here.
All you need to do is to type ‘sitemap.xml’ into the box and click the ‘Submit’ button.
You should see a message confirming that the sitemap has been successfully submitted.
You will also see your website sitemap in the ‘Submitted sitemaps’ list.
Your sitemap should appear in the table after you submit it to the Google Search Console.
How to Submit Your Website to Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo
Submitting Your Website to Bing
To submit URLs to the Bing index, sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools.
Click the ‘Sign In’ button to get started. Then, sign in using your Microsoft, Google, or Facebook account.
Bing will prompt you to add your site.
Use the ‘Add your site manually’ option.
Simply enter your website URL (domain name), then click the ‘Add’ button.
Next, you will see some verification method options.
Click on the HTML Meta Tag method. This will open up the details.
Click the ‘Copy’ button to copy the meta tag.
The easiest way to add the meta tag to your site is to use All in One SEO.
In your WordPress dashboard, go to the All in One SEO » General Settings » Webmaster Tools page.
Click on the ‘Bing Webmaster Tools’ option.
This will open up the box where you can enter the Bing verification code.
Upon activation, go to the Code Snippets » Header & Footer page in your WordPress admin.
Paste the whole HTML meta tag into the ‘Header’ box.
Click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top of the page.
Return to Bing Webmaster Tools and click the ‘Verify’ button.
A success message to let you know your site has been added.
Click on the ‘Sitemaps’ tab on the left sidebar and click the ‘Submit sitemap’ button.
You need to paste in the URL of the sitemap index that All in One SEO created for you.
This should be your domain name with sitemap.xml at the end.
Click the ‘Submit’ button.
You will now see your sitemap in the sitemap table in Bing Webmaster Tools.
Submitting Your Website to Yahoo and DuckDuckGo
Now that you have submitted your website to Bing, it has also been automatically submitted to Yahoo.
Submitting your website to Bing, you will also get it automatically indexed on both Yahoo and DuckDuckGo as well.
To check whether your website has been indexed, simply go to your chosen search engine’s homepage and type in site:yoursitename.com as the search term.
If your site has been indexed, then you should see a list of your content.
Your homepage will normally be at the top.
Should You Use a Website Submission Service?
They charge a premium fee for a service you can easily do yourself.
These submission services may submit your website to spammy sources, which may harm your website’s SEO.
Here are some common problems and FAQs we hear about submitting your site to search engines.
1. How long will it take for my site to appear in search engines?
It could take several days or weeks for your website to appear in search engines.
It is up to search engines to index your site. You cannot force Google or any search engine to index your site faster.
Getting plenty of backlinks to your site can also help speed up the process.
2. Why isn’t my site showing up in search engines?
First, check that your site is visible to search engines.
In your WordPress admin, go to the Settings » Reading page and make sure that the box ‘Discourage search engines from indexing this site’ is not checked.
Make sure the box to discourage search engines is not checked in the Reading settings.
If the box is checked, then it stops search engines from crawling your WordPress site.
Simply uncheck it, then click the ‘Save Changes’ button.
If this setting is correct, then you simply need to be patient.
It can take a day or so for Google Search Console to process your sitemap.
3. Why isn’t my site getting traffic from search engines?
If you are not getting traffic to your site, then it could be ranking very low in search engine results pages (SERPs).
Use All in One SEO to get detailed recommendations about your site’s SEO (search engine optimization).
In particular, it’s important to use keywords appropriately in your site’s content.
You can also use keyword research tools to write more SEO-optimized content and implement proven tips to increase your website traffic.
4. How do search engines find my site?
Search engines use automated software to constantly look through the web for new web pages.
This software is known by a few names, such as search bots, web crawlers, or spiders.
The process of looking for new pages is called ‘crawling’.
The web crawler goes through links to find new pages.
This is why an XML sitemap is so important.
It has links to all the content on your site and information about them that the web crawler can understand.
5. Is there a submission site list I can use?
You don’t need to worry about submitting to lots of search engines. The most important one is Google.
Once you have submitted your site to Google, it’s a good idea to also submit it to Bing.
This helps Yahoo and DuckDuckGo find your site too.
6. How do I track website traffic coming from search engines?
The easiest way to track search engine traffic is by using MonsterInsights.
It is the best Google Analytics plugin for WordPress and allows you to see where your users are coming from, what pages they are viewing, and what they do while on your website.
