Importance of Indexing, Sitemap, Ranking, and Backlinks

Importance of Indexing, Sitemaps, Ranking and Backlinks in SEO

The content of this page (& navigation also):
A. What are Indexing and Sitemap? ⬇
B. What is Ranking, and how does the search engine rank pages? ⬇
C. How can we reach a higher rank position? May Backlinks help us? ⬇

A. What are Indexing and Sitemap?

When a Search Engine, such as Google – the King of them nowadays – has been to your site and added the page to its index directory, this is known as being indexed. Google operates an enormous computer park that crawls billions of websites daily. The program that does this activity is called Googlebot.

What is the task of the Crawling Bot?

The crawling Bot reads and entirely analyzes the content and structure of your website. It means it creates a unique “map” designating the number and location of your applied keywords, the relationship between the words, links, images, and their ALT tags, and the heading structure. All of these elements have a significant impact on the successful indexing process. This index of your site and the relevant incoming links are the major factors in where your site appears in the natural search – also called “organic search” – results in the SERPs. The Googlebot can “remember” the results of a previous crawl and compare them with the current. Here comes the importance of a sitemap.

Let’s ask some questions to be answered:
* How can a search engine determine which URLs to index?
* How do you discourage search engines from indexing some URLs?
* What is Ranking, and how does the search engine rank pages?
* How can we reach a higher rank position?
* Well-organized, well-built page and site structure with keyword-based relevant content.
* How to write good site content?
As Google says: “Provide high-quality content on your pages, especially your home page. This is the single most important thing to do. If your pages contain useful information, their content will attract many visitors and entice webmasters to link to your site.”
* Good and reliable linking structure. That is, you need quality links.

How can a search engine determine which URLs to index? What does a Sitemap look like?

The sitemap is the structure of the existing pages of your website that informs the search robots (spiders) of the existing pages available for crawling. How can we make the robots (spiders) aware of this? This is what the sitemap.xml file is for.
If you are ready with your site, you want to create a sitemap listing all your page URLs. See the example below:

Example of a sitemap.xml file:

<?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
<urlset xmlns=”http://www.sitemaps.org/schemas/sitemap/0.9″>
<url><loc>http://www.yourdomainname.com/</loc><changefreq>monthly</changefreq></url>
<url><loc>http://www.yourdomainname.com/yourpage1url/</loc><changefreq>weekly</changefreq></url>
<url><loc>http://www.yourdomainname.com/yourpage2url/</loc><changefreq>daily</changefreq></url>
</urlset>

Note: Your automatically generated sitemap may differ from the example above. Furthermore, if your domain name is not a “com” extension, use yours instead. “Changefreq” determines how often you change your content. Always double-check your sitemap.xml file before uploading and submitting it to the search engines. The title of the sitemap may also differ depending on, for example, the WordPress plugin you use to generate it.

However, sitemaps do not directly affect your place in the search results; it is more than suggested to place them (if you have, e.g., more standalone WordPress sites belonging to your main site) because sitemaps’ content will give information about your entire site’s structure (pages). If your sitemap is up-to-date (it should be), it will inform the spiders (bots) about your changes on your site, too. Without it, the crawler won’t be able to recognize your changes on time, and it can be disadvantageous for you.

How to generate a sitemap.xml file?

It is straightforward: visit https://sitemaps.org/protocol.html website to find the protocol I examined above. If you understand what to write, you can generate sitemaps.xml immediately for free.
Or, if you want to reach more results, such as a workable (data added) sitemap.xml right away.  XML Sitemap Validator, Search Engine Bot Simulator, or maybe an HTTP Headers Viewer, or Keyword Analisis. Visit https://xml-sitemaps.com site, where you will find more tools if you are a registered user. The wished sitemap.xml file can be downloaded without registration. But, the other tools (up to 500 URLs) are only available after registration, or you can choose among their paid plans to get more information.
Note: Microsoft (Bing) and Yahoo officially support the Open Sitemap Standard. Google doesn’t provide sitemap-generating tools currently.

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B. What is Ranking, and how does the search engine rank pages?

Even though PageRank and all related patents expired on September 24, 2019, and it’s not the only algorithm Google uses to rank search results today, I think it’s helpful to learn how it’s worked over the decades. All this can be a starting point for studying and understanding the algorithms that work today.

When Google indexes your page(s), it uses specific metrics to “grade” your site. If we see our example above, Google will give back the best results if you search for something. It is not a game; it is a business. Let’s go to the search engine and see if it is working. Imagine how many web pages the search engine needs to read through to give you the best results in return.
Pagerank is a number that specifies a position for a web page in the search results. This number shows how a particular web page may come up during a search and how relevant it is to the topic given by the search engines.
For this purpose, all major search engines use unique mathematical formulas – called “ranking algorithms” – to determine the rank of a web page (Google loves to name them after various animals such as “panda”, “penguin”, “hummingbird”, etc.). These algorithms have an “ever-changing” feature: Google likes to alternate them almost year after year. Although the applied exact mathematical algorithms may vary depending on the search engine, the principle is to give the examined web page a position.

How important was PageRank?
Reminiscence: Decades ago, PageRank played a prominent role in evaluating a site. Nowadays, PageRank is one of many factors that determine where your web page appears in search result ranking, but if all other factors are equal, PageRank can have a significant impact on your Google rankings. So, some different strategies still work today, so I thought it was essential to present PageRank. In my opinion, knowing this can only benefit us. Read more on my page: Google Main Ranking Factors After PageRank – Facts Beyond if interested.

What does it mean? If your page has higher PR and a good linking structure than your competitors’, examining the same search term, your page will come up more frequently during the search than the others and/or will overtake theirs.
If you want to learn more about PageRank, visit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PageRank page.

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C. How can we reach a higher rank position? May Backlinks help us?

We have examined the ranking process above. As you can remember, it is based on an ever-changing, special mathematical algorithm applied by search engines, e.g. Google. Its components are:

1. Well-organized, well-built page and site structure with keyword-based relevant content.

Ingredients: Title, Description, Meta Tags, keywords, IMG Alt Tags, and site content.

How do you write good site content?

Your site content has to be focused on the niche. You must know something about your product, service, or offered information and handle it as your specialty. You have to know what information people are looking for, and you should provide that. In one sentence: You have to create relevant content on your site so that people can find what they seek.
Before writing your content, do Keyword Research. It is vital because this is where you can find out what people are looking for currently. If you search for keywords, the easiest solution is to go to Google’s keyword tool (https://adwords.google.com/, now called Keyword Planner) or word tracker. There, you can do some research interpreting the various aspects of the tool and examining the offered opportunities.
On the other hand, you need to understand the “habit” of how people search. The average number of words they type in is 3.1. It means that these three words play the most crucial role if you want to reach your forthcoming visitors or customers

2. A good and reliable link structure means you need quality links.

If you’ve read through Google’s explanation above, you already know that the number of quality incoming links is significant in ranking. But the opposite is also true: Avoid using – and accepting – low-quality or spamming links because they can also decrease your popularity and PageRank.

How do you obtain high-quality backlinks?

First, the content you offer on your website must be valuable for the visitors. This is the best way to build a reader base. If someone considers your site’s content or a particular article or blog to “import” to his own site, you’ll get worthwhile Trackbacks and backlinks.
On the other hand, there are many ways, such as participating in relevant niche forums, writing helpful, not spamming, exciting comments on others’ websites, and creating intelligent, not offensive, precious answers on Yahoo Answers or ASK. Avoid using low-quality, automated bulk article submitter software because it can quickly turn your advantageous position to the opposite.
Later, I’ll come back to link-building strategies.

I hope I have contributed to a better understanding of the topic.

Thanks for reading!

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