Frequenting webmaster forums and SEO blogs you will see multiple discussions on how to get Google index or crawl your site faster. What you should always bear in mind is that Google is sure to make the most of your website based on its maximum capacities. Don’t try to “force” Google to visit more often or crawl deeper or faster.
What I’ve seen with my most recent sites:
- If you host your site with a reliable service, Google will most probably start indexing your site within just a couple of days (even without any external links);
- If you moderately add content, Google will crawl your site deeper with each next visit;
- If you ensure proper website architecture and interlinking, you won’t have any troubles with Google crawl depth;
- If your server is fast enough, Googlebot will visit often and crawl as fast as possible…
If you think your site deserves more frequent visits or deeper crawling, think how to improve the site itself first (before trying to change anything externally): setting the faster Googlebot crawl rate and adding external links shouldn’t be the first things to do. What should be your priorities instead:
- Diagnose your site (Xenu Link Sleuth and spider simulators are good tools to start with);
- Get rid of duplicate content;
- Monitor your site uptime and the web page size;
- Search for the least linked-to pages (also can be done with Xenu);
- Use Google advanced operators to analyze your site indexing problems.
This is good advice but let me suggest one minor change. Not all duplicate content is bad. Some duplicate content can be adjusted to be more unique, provide more value.
If you have duplicate content (as a result of using a CMS, for example) then consider means you can employ to make secondary pages unique and interesting to your visitors.
The search engines don’t penalize you for normal duplicate content. The biggest problem with duplicate content is that it may split your internal PageRank — itself not necessarily a bad thing, but part of the optimization process includes increasing the value of your content.
Before you “get rid of duplicate content”, first see if you can make it less duplicate and more useful.
So what is the best service out there which is fast and reliable in your opinion (and that of search engines)? I am talking about hosting services, I think that’s what you were eluding to in your blog post, if I am not mistaken!
I can recommend one thing in regards to uptime and your web site to be accessible when Google comes crawling. Stay away from shared hosting. If you are running an online business you will need a better solution than shared hosting.
For SEO purposes you should always use either a VPS Hosting Solution or if cost is not a factor then I suggest a Dedicated Server. Make sure that they are reliable and fully managed by the provider.
A Dedicated Server can be costly however, VPS Hosting is not as costly as a Dedicated Server and it can be just as good in my opinion.
Some will disagree in regards to VPS vs. Dedicated.
Agree!
only a summary aha,common sense
the own site content refers to the ability of the auther.
it’s more important.
I’m from Shenzhen,China
Xenu tip is great. Hadn’t seen that before, and tracking the deepest buried pages could be very helpful.
You pointed out two very important things in this post:
1. Worry about your own website. I have seen many really bad websites and even worse content, but the webmasters of those sites can’t seem to figure out why they are not getting the tender loving care from Google that they expected.
2. Don’t visit numerous different seo/webmaster blogs or websites. If you visit thirty different sites in one day, you will learn thirty different ways to go about doing the same thing which is more likely to confuse you than it is to do any good. Pick a seo that you feel you can trust and stick with them!
It is so important to have the write content on a site. People seem to think a great design will automatically gain interest in their site. If people do not like what they read they will leave.
Duplicate content does affect the SEO if it is obvious. It may be well written by if it’s repeated, it is sure to effect your rankings.