I designed my own website and no one can find it. I don’t understand how to get it to show up on Google. Do I have to pay someone for my website to be found?
These comments and questions are common when I meet business owners. There can be several reasons why a website isn’t found on Google or any search engine.
Build your own website and save money
There are many great options for building your own website these days, and yes, building your own website can save you money. I completely understand why you made the decision. However, there is a bit more work involved than creating content and adding pictures when building a website. These extra steps can help webbots find your website. Let me share some information that may help you improve your SEO.
Tips to get your website found
Here’s some tips and information that can help your website get indexed by search engines.
Patience
Yes, I realize that is not helpful, but it can take up to 4 weeks for search engines to find and index a new website. So, keep sharing your website, include it everywhere (social media channels, business cards, brochures, invoices, emails, etc.) and encourage people to look at your website and leave reviews.
Domain Name
What is the url? Did you purchase a domain name from a registrar company, such as Namecheap, Go Daddy, Tierra or another? A domain name will cost between $9-20 yearly and is a great investment in your business. Consider purchasing a domain name and using it, if you haven’t done so already.
Descriptive Information 
When you created your website, did you fill in descriptions, alt tags and meta data? Look at your images and graphics, these items will also have alt tags. These are not required items when you create a webpage, but it can help SEO and webbots find your page. The graphic illustrates how this information is seen, so make it work for you.
Check Your Content
Read your website and content from your customer’s prospective. Does it answer their questions, solve their problem? By using keywords and phrases, that your customer’s use, will help your website get found. Providing valuable content should be a top priority.
Claim Your Business
Claim your business on Google and Bing. Check your business listing and make sure the content is complete and correct. And don’t forget to include your website!
Create a Sitemap
There are several free tools online that can create a sitemap for you, if your host doesn’t provide the option. What is a sitemap and why do you need one? A sitemap is a map for your website. It shows all of the pages are on your website.
Google says this about sitemaps:
A sitemap is a file where you can list the web pages of your site to tell Google and other search engines about the organization of your site content. Search engine web crawlers like Googlebot read this file to more intelligently crawl your site. It tells the search engines about the content that you have on your site so that they can find it more easily and when it was last updated.
Once created submit the sitemap to Google and Bing. Don’t forget to continue to add fresh content to your website.
Ask for help
If you get stuck with any of these tips it may be time to ask for help. We would be happy to talk with you and have a free preliminary consultation. Give us a call today, 615-891-0016.