Common Search Marketing Myths – Part 9: Submitting Your Website to Google, Social Media and Algorithm Updates
Always make sure you submit your website to search engines
If you’ve recently launched a new website or made a lot of changes to an existing site, you’ve probably been advised to submit the site in question to Google. After all, that’s the only way they’ll be made aware of your new site / new content, right? False. In reality, you never need to submit your website to Google – or any other search engine for that matter. Chances are they’ll notice and crawl your site all by themselves.
Now, there are a number of reasons you might actually benefit from submitting your site to Google. Whilst it’s certainly not necessary, there are a number of advantages to doing so.
Although Google is more than likely to become aware of your site in time, a manual submission can speed things up a little bit – although this is never guaranteed. If you’ve launched a new website, it’s always best practice to create a corresponding Google Search Console account before submitting the URL of your XML sitemap. This will help the search engine find and crawl your site content, before indexing your pages and resources accordingly.
If you’ve recently reworked a page or area within your site, or you’ve published new content, it’s a good idea to open up Google Search Console and inspect the URL(s) in question before requesting indexing. Whilst again, this isn’t at all necessary, it can help speed things up if Google are taking time to index your content. It can also help identify potential issues within your site content which are preventing your site from being indexed.
Social media will help with your website rankings
Social media can play a large role in content marketing, with businesses and individuals all around the world utilising a variety of platforms in order to share and promote content, products and services. The exposure achieved via this practice can help generate a large volume of shares, comments and links back to your website. This can, in turn, have a positive impact on your overall SEO and therefore performance throughout organic search. However, this doesn’t mean that there is a direct link between social media activity and website rankings.
As with most online activity, generating content promoting your website is likely to have an indirect impact on your search performance. If done correctly, this impact is likely to be a positive one. Having said that, the impact social media can have on website rankings is typically rather minor, in comparison to the costs associated with a full-scale social media campaign.
That’s not to say that such campaigns aren’t worth it – the visibility and brand awareness gained from activity across social platforms can be extremely beneficial and even produce a high return on investment. But when it comes to organic SEO and how your website performs throughout Google rankings, social media isn’t the first step we’d recommend in boosting position or traffic.
If you’re looking to improve organic Google rankings and traffic, we’d strongly suggest first taking a look at your on-site / Technical SEO. Get in touch with Varn today if you’d like to discuss our Technical SEO and website auditing services.
Algorithm updates should always be a cause for concern
If you own or run a website, likelihood is that the second you hear the phrase ‘Google Algorithm Update’, you’re filled with dread and a have a million questions swirling around in your head. What have Google changed now? Have my rankings been affected? Is my organic search traffic about to drop? Have I been penalised by Google? What do I need to do in order to ensure my website performance isn’t damaged by this most recent update?
If you’re familiar with the world of SEO, you’ll see ongoing conversations about the most recent Google algorithm updates year-round. These updates are rarely announced beforehand and are regularly unconfirmed by Google. There doesn’t appear to be a pattern for algorithm updates and they can happen any time of day or night, any time of the year. So, it makes sense that these updates should be an ongoing cause for concern, right?
Simply put, no. Google algorithm updates are never a ‘bad’ thing. These updates are designed to improve the performance of Google SERPs and to provide the best user experience possible. As long as your website is optimised and follows Google’s guidelines, you’re unlikely to suffer as a result of an algorithm update.
If you’ve noticed a drop in visits that you suspect is associated with an algorithm update or if you’re worried your website might suffer because of an upcoming update, feel free to get in touch. Varn’s SEO services can help ensure your website is optimised according to Google’s guidelines and that you’re less likely to experience a drop in rankings and search traffic following future Google updates.
That’s it for another instalment in our Search Marketing Myths blog series! If you haven’t already, do make sure you check in on our previous blogs within this series, starting with Part 1: Exact Match Domains, Backlinks and Google. And keep an eye out for Part 10, coming soon!
