If you've recently created a website, don't worry if you can't find it on Google yet. It may take around a month for your website pages to get crawled, evaluated, and indexed. Learn more: In-depth guide to how Google Search works
Your website's rank in the Google search results depends on many various factors: the quality of website content, loading speed, accessibility, and more. Here are some proven recommendations to get your website up and running on the most popular search engines:
Take care of the visuals (favicon, preview images, alt text)
Create valuable content
Having authentic high-quality content on your website is crucial for increasing traffic and improving your search ranking. Therefore, make sure to address the specific needs of your target audience and steer clear of mistakes.
To rank your site with specific keywords, include them in your website's content. Learn more: How to use header tags for SEO
Remember to add links where necessary. Also, try to get backlinks — links from other sites to yours — which are one of the most heavily weighted Google ranking factors. Incoming links to your website from high-authority domains improve your credibility, bring in traffic and improve your search ranking.
Add meta titles and descriptions
Meta titles and descriptions help search engines understand the content of a webpage and are displayed in the search results:
Learn more: How to add meta titles and descriptions
Double-check URLs
It's important that the URLs are neat. Make sure to check all the URLs of your website pages, including product pages and blog posts.
Learn more: How to edit a page URL
Take care of the visuals
SEO isn’t just about written content, it's also about the visuals:
Upload a favicon
Add link preview images to your pages
Add alternative text to images
Specify your website's language
The HTML lang attribute specifies the language of your website and makes it more accessible:
Search engines use the language attribute to return language-specific search results
Screen reading tools use this attribute to recognize the language and provide the correct accent and pronunciation while reading website texts
Learn more: How to add a language attribute to a website
Use Google Search Console
Create a Google Search Console account. It is a free service that helps you monitor and troubleshoot your website’s appearance in the search results.
To improve your local ranking on Google, you can also create a Google Business account. Providing and updating business information in Google Business can help enhance your presence online.
Things to avoid
This advice applies to any search engine, be it Google, Bing, or Yandex. When creating your website, avoid:
Duplicate content
Low-quality content
Little or no content
Broken links