Link building is a core part of a winning SEO strategy. In fact, research shows that the top ranking page on SERPs has 3.8 more backlinks than any other page.
However, having a lot of quality links will not do much for your SEO if search engines don’t know about your links.
This is where link indexing comes in handy. Simply put, this is the process by which search engines recognize and rank the backlinks that you have on your site.
Link indexing tools work by crawling through websites and cataloging all links on each webpage.
This information is then organized into a searchable database, allowing users to quickly find relevant websites and web pages.
The tool updates its database as new links are added or removed from websites.
Some link indexing tools also provide metrics such as a website’s domain authority and the number of external links pointing to a specific webpage.
This allows for more informed link-building and SEO strategies.
Keep reading to learn more about link indexing, the tools you can use, and how to get your site linked faster.
Why is Link Indexing Important?
The primary reason link indexing matters is that it allows search engines to include your links in their database and further assess them to determine their value.
If the search engines rate the links as useful, they will rank the page highly so that more people can access it.
A top position on SERPs translates to high visibility for your brand.
In fact, this infographic from uSERP shows that 58% of business owners believe that link building plays a critical role in brand visibility and awareness.
It can also mean more organic traffic for your site, ultimately leading to increased revenue for your business.
Additionally, links indexed highly by search engines often point to site authoritativeness, which is a core ranking factor.
Link indexing can also help you have higher referral traffic. This usually happens if a site with high traffic links back to your site.
For instance, a medical services provision business that gets mentioned on giant medical sites like WebMD or Mayo Clinic can expect a spike in traffic thanks to the reference.
Finally, link indexing benefits your business by presenting you with a networking opportunity.
This is because you have to reach out to other sites for backlinks, which builds business relationships.
Your business will no doubt benefit a lot from these networking efforts.
How Do Link Indexing Tools Work?
The best link indexing tools are easy to use. Usually, all you need is to copy and paste the link you want to be indexed, upload it, and wait for the tools to do their work.
Behind the scenes, the tools typically work by introducing your links to search engines so that the engines notice them.
The tools also optimize the appearance of the links, so they seem authoritative and important, which increases the likelihood of search engines recognizing them and ranking them highly.
Link indexing tools also send regular prompts, known as pings, to search engines, reminding them to index your links.
This is a critical function considering that the average time search engines take to index a link is ten weeks.
In the worst-case scenario, search engines could also fail to index the links. When this happens, all your efforts to build and use link juice go to waste.
Rather than wait and hope that search engines will discover and index your links, it is much wiser to use tools to hasten the process.
Examples of Link Indexing Tools
Below are three link indexing tools you can use to make the most of your link juice.
Google Search Console
Previously called Google Webmaster Tool, Google Search Console is one of the best link indexing tools.
It is a free indexing resource offered by Google to assist content marketers with their SEO strategies.
You can use the Google Search Console to search for unindexed links on your site.
The tool also allows you to alert Google that there are links it needs to index. You can add up to 500 new links weekly, which is a decent number.
Additionally, this tool allows you to ping URLs to Google. Pings serve as gentle reminders to Google of sites you wish the search engine could index.
Although pinging can help accelerate the indexing process, it is inadvisable to do it too frequently.
Excessive pinging can irritate search engines which might just pass over your site without indexing the links.
Ping Farm
Ping Farm is yet another link indexing tool that can help you make the most of your link juice.
Like Google Search Console, it is also a free tool, making it an excellent SEO resource for small businesses with a limited marketing budget.
As the name suggests, Ping Farm works primarily by generating useful links for your site and then pinging them. It is a user-friendly tool that is easy to use.
However, because all this tool does is generate links and ping them, it may not be the most effective link indexing tool for big companies.
If link indexing is a core requirement for your business, you will be better off using a more nuanced indexing tool.
Indexification
Indexification is a paid link indexing tool that works in multiple ways, such as:
- Creating and pinging short URLs of your links
- Creating and submitting content pages that have links
- Creating and submitting your RSS feeds
- Creating and pinging your sitemaps
The company guarantees users that Google will crawl through every link submitted. You can submit up to 50 000 links daily, which is fantastic for established businesses that depend heavily on link juice.
How To Get Faster Indexing
One of the easiest ways to get faster indexing is to ping your URLs to remind Google to index them. Google will usually index such links quickly, especially if they are useful and authoritative.
Additionally, try to get as many second-tier links as possible. A good way to achieve this is to share your content on social media and prompt your audience to share the content as widely as possible.
Second-tier links generally bring a lot of organic traffic, which is a feat that 91% of all websites fail to achieve.
Additionally, Google highly ranks sites that get plenty of organic traffic, which is great for SEO and brand visibility.
Conclusion
Link indexing can be a powerful SEO tool if used correctly. The best and easiest way to increase the chances of your links being indexed is by using link indexing tools.
These tools make your links more crawlable by notifying search engines of their existence. Others also remind search engines of your unindexed links to hasten the indexing process.
Some of the best link indexing tools include Google Search Console, Indexification, and Ping Farm.
Be sure to follow the tips shared in this post for a smooth link indexing process.