Search engines are the biggest source of traffic for most websites. It is important to make sure that they can easily search and rank your website pages.
Do You Need to Submit Your Website to Search Engines?
- How to Submit Your Website to Google.
- Create a WordPress Sitemap using All in One SEO.
- How to Check if Your Website Has Been Indexed.
No, you do not require to submit your website to search engines. Most search engine bots can automatically search your website if it has been mentioned on other sites.
However, for WordPress websites, we suggest submitting it manually due to it will help you get discovered faster.
Why you should submit your website to search engines?
If you are planning to start a new business or a blog, then search engines are an important source of free website traffic. This means you can grow your business online without investing a lot of money.
The submission process is quite easy, free, and provides you access to several tools that will help you grow your business later on.
Step 1) Submitting Your Website to Google
Google is the largest and a popular search engine in the world. For most websites, Google is a great source of their traffic.
Sign up for Google Search Console to submit your website to Google. It is a free tool provided by Google to allow website owners to see how their website is performing in search results.
Signing up is free and simple. Go to the Google Search Console website and click on the ‘Start now’ button.
Use your existing Google account to sign in or create a new account.
Next, Google will ask you to enter your website domain name. We suggest using the URL prefix option here as it’s easy to verify.
After selecting this option, the HTML tag method is used to verify your website and submit it to Google. Simply click on the HTML tag option to expand it, and then copy the code by clicking the ‘Copy’ button.
Now, there are multiple ways to add this code to your website. There are two easy methods as discussed below.
Method 1) Adding Verification Code in WordPress using All in One SEO
You can use All in One SEO with the help of WordPress SEO plugin on the market. It enables you to optimize your website for search engines without any knowledge of SEO jargon.
Install and activate the All in One SEO plugin. Next, 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. The part you need is the long string of numbers and letters.
Click the ‘Save Changes’ button at the top of the screen.
Method 2) Adding Verification Code in WordPress using Insert Headers and Footers
In case you are not using the All in One SEO plugin, then use this method to add the Google Search Console verification code to your WordPress site.
Install and activate the Insert Header and Footers plugin.
Once activated, go to the Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page in your WordPress admin. Paste the whole HTML meta tag into the ‘Scripts in Header’ box.
Click the Save button at the bottom of the page.
After the meta tag is added to your site through either of the two method, go back to Google Search Console and click the ‘Verify’ button for the HTML tag method.
You will see a success message in Google Search Console to let you know that your site has been verified.
Step 2) Creating an XML Sitemap with All in One SEO
An XML sitemap in WordPress contains a list of all the content on your website, which includes all your posts and pages. It allows the search engine bots discover your content faster and start showing it in search results.
In the WordPress 5.5 update, XML sitemaps were added as a built-in feature. However, these sitemaps are basic but can’t be easily customized.
All in One SEO is the complete WordPress SEO toolkit that includes comprehensive sitemaps generator.
It enables you to customize your XML sitemaps by avoiding unnecessary or duplicate content. They also provide powerful custom sitemap for WooCommerce, news sitemap, and video sitemaps. This provides an advantage in SEO as your business grows.
Firstly, install and activate the All in One SEO plugin.
Once activated, All in One SEO will automatically create your sitemap.
To view it, go to the All in One SEO » Sitemaps page in your WordPress admin. Then, click the ‘Open Sitemap’ button.
Now the sitemap index for your site is seen. This links to all the sitemaps that All in One SEO has created.
Open or save the page URL as you will need it later in the tutorial.
Click on any of the links to view the content listed in each individual sitemap. Here is the sitemap for the pages on our demo website.
Step 3) Add your XML Sitemap to Google Search Console
Now, once your XML sitemap is generated, the next step is to help Google discover it quickly.
The easiest method to do that is by making use of the Google Search Console.
Login 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. Now, type sitemap.xml into the box and click the Submit button.
Search Console displays a message letting you know the sitemap has been successfully submitted. Your website sitemap in the ‘Submitted sitemaps’ list.
Optional : Submit Your Website to Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo
Google has more ranking the search engine market with a whopping 92% market share. The search engines like Bing, Yahoo, and DuckDuckGo can still be a significant source of traffic for your website.
In order to submit your website to Bing, sign up for Bing Webmaster Tools.
Click the Sign In button to get started. Now, Sign in using your Microsoft, Google, or Facebook account
Next, Bing will ask you to add your site. It is suggested using the ‘Add your site manually’ option. It doesn’t require any verification your site with Google Search Console.
Enter your website’s domain name (URL) then click the ‘Add’ button.
Next, some verification method options are displayed. Click on the HTML Meta Tag method. Click on the ‘Copy’ button to copy the meta tag.
The easiest method to add the meta tag to the site is to use All in One SEO. Go to WordPress dashboard, go to All in One SEO » General Settings » Webmaster Tools page.
Then, click on the Bing Webmaster Tools option.
This will display a box where you need to enter the Bing verification code. This is the long string of numbers and letters that make up the content value in the Bing meta tag.
Install the free Insert Header and Footers plugin for WordPress.
Once activated, go to the Settings » Insert Headers and Footers page in your WordPress admin. Paste the whole HTML meta tag into the ‘Scripts in Header’ box.
Click on the ‘Save’ button further down the page.
Go back to the Bing Webmaster Tools and click the Verify button. You will see a success message to let you know your site has been added.
Click on the Sitemaps tab on the left-hand sidebar. Then, click the ‘Submit sitemap’ button.
Paste in the URL of the sitemap index that All in One SEO created for you. This will be your domain name with sitemap.xml at the end.
Click on the ‘Submit’ button.
Your Site will appear in Yahoo and DuckDuckGo’s Search Results
Now, once you have submitted your website to Bing, it has also been automatically submitted to Yahoo.
DuckDuckGo uses Bing’s search results. This means that by submitting your website to Bing and will get indexed on DuckDuckGo as well.
Step 4) How to Check if Your Website Has Been Indexed
To check whether your website has been indexed is by going to your chosen search engine’s homepage and type in site:yoursitename.com as the search term.
For Websicon website, type site:websicon.in into the search engine.
If your site has been indexed, then a list of your content. Your homepage will normally be at the top.
This works for all famous search engines, including Google, Yahoo, Bing, and DuckDuckGo.
Should You Use a Website Submission Service?
No, a website submission service must not be used to submit your WordPress blog or website to search engines.
There is no advantage to using a website submission or search engine submission services. These submission services may submit your website to spammy sources which might badly affect your website’s SEO.