Google handles billions of searches every day. To provide relevant responses to all these queries, Google must continually find new websites to add to its search engine.
In this guide, you’ll learn how Google finds websites and what it sees when looking over your site.
How Does Google Find a Website?
Google doesn’t have a single database of all websites. Instead, it constantly searches the internet to find and organize pages for its search results.
The search engine uses three primary functions for finding and listing content: crawling, indexing, and ranking (Google calls this last stage serving search results).
1. Crawling
Search engines like Google find websites through a process called crawling. The process begins when Google sends out software bots known as crawlers or spiders across the internet to find new content.
Search crawlers start with web pages used in previous crawls. When a crawler visits a page, it looks for links to other pages to add to its crawl list.
To understand a page's content, Google renders it and analyzes its content and overall layout. Google uses mobile-first indexing, which means it will look at a website's mobile version first when analyzing its pages.
2. Indexing
Google stores the websites it finds while crawling in its index. A web index serves as a database for information available on the internet. When a page is in Google’s index, it can appear as a result of search queries.
3. Ranking
Ranking is the process of determining which pages will appear in the results for different search queries. Google doesn’t search the live web when you type a query; it searches its index. When someone searches in Google, the search engine runs an algorithm to see which pages in the index are most relevant to that particular search query.
It then serves these pages to the searcher on the results page, starting with the most relevant pages. To learn more, read our guide on how search engines work.
How to Help Google Find Your Website?
Google can find and crawl your website without any action on your part. However, you can help Google discover your website. The most effective are:
Create an XML sitemap.An XML sitemap is a document that lists the URLs of your web pages. It helps make it easier for the crawler to find your pages, as it no longer depends only on the internal links from your pages and external links from pages around the web.
Create a Google search console account and submit your sitemap. Google Search Console is a platform that allows you to track how your website performs in the Google search index.
You can see which of your pages are in Google's search index and where different pages are ranking in search results. With Search Console, you can upload your sitemap directly to the platform.
A sitemap is the best way to tell Google about all the pages on your site. After submitting it, Google will crawl the document to find the pages you want to include in the index. For a single new or updated page, the URL Inspection tool is faster; our guide on how to ask Google to recrawl your site explains both methods.
Use a Robots.txt. A robots.txt file helps you control which parts of your website Google’s crawlers can access. Make sure you’re not accidentally blocking important pages, as this can prevent Google from finding your content.
Keep in mind that robots.txt controls crawling, not indexing. According to Google, it is not a mechanism for keeping a page out of Google. A blocked page can still be indexed if other pages link to it. To keep a page out of the index, use a noindex tag or protect it with a password.
Build Internal Links. Link your pages together within your website. For example, blog posts should link to relevant service pages. Internal links guide Google crawlers through your site, making it easier for them to find and index all your pages.
Get Backlinks from Other Websites. Backlinks are links from other websites to yours. When reputable websites link to your content, it signals to Google that your site is valuable and helps Google discover your pages through these external links.
Keep Your Content Fresh and Updated. Regularly update your website with new content. Google’s crawlers are more likely to revisit and index your site when they detect new pages or updates to existing ones.
Ensure Your Website is Accessible and Fast. A slow or inaccessible website can prevent Google from crawling your pages effectively. Optimize your site’s speed and ensure your server is reliable so Google can access your content without issues.
How Do You Check If Your Website Is Indexed On Google?
You can quickly see if your site is indexed by performing a site search on Google.
Go to Google, and enter the following (using your website name) in the search bar:
site:yourwebsite.com
The results will include a sample of your web pages that Google indexes.
You can use the same operator to search within any website: site:example.com keyword shows only the pages from that site that match your keyword.
If the search returns without any results, your website is not currently in Google's index.
You can check if a specific URL is indexed by adding the URL slug to your domain in the site search.
Another way to check the index status of your web pages is to use the URL inspection tool inside of Google Search Console.
Simply type the URL into the search bar at the top of the page, and Google will tell you if the page is currently indexed.
How Does Google See Your Website?
To display your site in search results, Google needs to see and understand your pages just like a user would. This process involves rendering, content analysis, and evaluating technical factors.
1. Google’s Rendering Process
Rendering is how Google views your website’s content and layout. After crawling a page, Google processes the code (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript) to display the page as users see it in their browser.
Google uses mobile-first indexing, meaning it first looks at your site’s mobile version. If your mobile site is slow, incomplete, or missing important content, Google may not index or rank your site well. Ensure your mobile site is fully functional and mirrors your desktop site’s content.
Additionally, your robots.txt file can impact how Google sees your site. If you block specific files (like CSS or JavaScript) in robots.txt, Google might not render your pages correctly, hurting your rankings.
2. What Google Looks For on Your Pages
Google analyzes your page content to determine its relevance to search queries. Key elements include:
Page titles. A page title is an HTML title tag that appears as the page's name in search engine results.
Page titles are important in SEO as they help determine if searchers click your listing.
A clear, descriptive title also tells searchers what your page is about, which makes them more likely to click your listing instead of the one above or below it.
Meta Descriptions - Meta descriptions are an HTML element in your meta tags that help describe your web pages.
They appear as a small snippet of text beneath your page title (headline) in search results.
Like page titles, meta descriptions are important as they play a big part in getting searchers to click through to your website.
Page headings (H1 tag, etc): Headings provide structure to your web pages by breaking up content into different sections.
For example, an h1 tag indicates the page's primary heading (usually the page title). Each subheading is given a different tag, starting with h2 and then moving to h3, h4, etc.
Headings play a role in SEO, as they help crawlers understand the context of your content more easily. They also help improve page usability by making content easier to navigate.
Page Content - Content is the foundation of any web page and is where you will provide searchers with the answers to their questions.
Without quality content, it will be difficult to rank for competitive keywords.
Here are some of the factors Google will evaluate when crawling your content:
- Keywords and topics: The words and related terms you use help Google understand what the page is about. Use them naturally; repeating a keyword too often (keyword stuffing) is against Google’s spam policies.
- Degree and frequency of updates: Updating your content can improve the freshness of pages.
- Structure: Clear headings and, on long pages, a table of contents make the page easier to read and navigate.
- References and sources: Citing reputable sources can signal quality to Google.
Crawlers will check to see if any of your content is replicated across pages. You want to avoid duplicate content negatively affecting your search engine rankings.
3. Technical Factors Google Evaluates
Google also considers several technical aspects of your website, including:
Site Speed: Fast-loading pages improve user experience and are favored by Google.
Structured Data: Schema markup helps Google understand your content better, enabling rich results like product reviews.
HTTPS: A secure site (with an SSL certificate) is essential for user trust, and Google uses HTTPS as a lightweight ranking signal.
Overall Performance: Mobile usability, clean code, and a responsive design are all critical for how Google sees and ranks your site.
4. Tools to See Your Website as Google Does
To ensure Google sees your site correctly, use these tools:
Google Search Console: The URL Inspection Tool shows how Google crawls, indexes, and renders your pages.
PageSpeed Insights: Analyzes your site’s speed and provides optimization suggestions.
Rich Results Test: Verifies if your structured data is implemented correctly.
Key Learnings
Google finds new websites by sending its crawlers, known as Googlebot, around the web. The crawlers move to and from the links on different pages to navigate the internet.
As they go, crawlers save the pages they find in an index that serves the most relevant pages when someone searches for something in Google.
The most effective way to get Google to crawl your website is to generate a sitemap and upload it to Google Search Console.
To keep a page out of Google’s index, apply a noindex tag. Robots.txt only controls which pages Google crawls, not which pages it indexes.
