How to Improve Your SEO and Get Your Webpage Noticed

You've just written your latest blog post or uploaded a new webpage to your website, and you want to make sure that Google knows about it…. Like right now, not next week. We have been researching and creating new webpages for different kinds of logos, and as part of that process, we wanted to be sure that the new pages were indexed by Google as soon as possible.

We were told that to have google index our pages faster; we can follow these simple steps. Really what this means is that we are going to request indexing for a URL. Officially, Google says that this can take "up to a week or two," BUT our test showed indexing in less than 2 minutes. Yes, less than 120 seconds.

First things first, this advice assumes that you have an account at Google Search Console. If you don't, head over to https://search.google.com/search-console/about and click on "Start Now."

Ok, now you have an account at GSC (Google Search Console), so log in and click on the "URL Inspection" in the left menu. You'll see that the "Inspect any URL" at the top gets highlighted.

Now, paste in the full URL of your brand new webpage or shiny new blog post, and be sure to include the https://

Click "Request Indexing"

Now, go and take a walk around the block. Seriously, we all spend far too much time sitting in front of our computers doing video conferencing, so let's take a 20-minute break. The real reason? Your page should be crawled and available in the Google search results within 20 mins to an hour. Hang on a minute, maybe put the walk on hold for right now because when we tested it, the indexing was done in less than 120 seconds.

To verify that your URL is now in the Google index, you can search in Google for site+url

It should look something like this: site:logo.com/blog/reconnecting-in-an-age-of-social-distancing-with-alvin-hung.

You can check Google every few minutes and see when your new page is available in the search results.

We actually ran a test on this blog post dated 9 July 2020

https://logo.com/blog/carla-williams-johnson-founders-interview

Here's the screenshot showing that it wasn't in the search results of Google:

Then we go into our Google Search Console and add it to the URL Inspection:

You can see here that we requested Google index the page:

And then, literally less than 120 seconds later, we recheck Google, and the page is in the search results!

Simply amazing, right? If you've gotten this far in the steps and are still confused, we recommend checking out this useful 4-minute video from Michael Quinn, which covers how to submit a URL to Google using the URL Inspection tool

The official help post by Google about this is at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/9012289?hl=en, but we hope that you'll be able just to use the steps we've outlined here to get your webpage or blog post indexed by Google instantly!

Perfecting Web Design And SEO

We catch up with Gresham Harkless, founder of CBNation powered by Blue 16 Media. He shares his expertise in web design and SEO, sharing some personal lessons along the way.

Tell us about yourself and what your company does, & how long you've been working on it.

I founded a company called Blue 16 Media. An agency that focuses on web design and SEO. CBNation is B2B Brand that helps entrepreneurs and business owners be more successful. CBNation consists of blogs (CEOBlogNation.com), podcasts (CEOPodcasts.com) and videos (CBNation.tv). I've been working on CBNation for 8-9 years and Blue 16 Media for 8 years.

What inspired you to start your own company - tell us the story?

I always knew I wanted to start my own company but I just wasn't sure what exactly. I started CBNation as a passion project to focus on.

How did you decide on your company name and logo?

Blue 16 Media - Blue is a calm, peaceful and tranquil color. 16 represents change but was also my line number when I was in school and media represents that every company is a media company and in the media business. CBNation is a variation of CEO Blog Nation.

‍Tell us about your first sale.

Mike Moss--he was my first sale for my current business. He was someone that I met and introduced me to the networking group where I even gained the confidence that I could grow and build a business. If it wasn't for him, I don't think I would have had the confidence that I have now that I can grow this business.

What's been a good way of growing your customer base and sales? Can you share a few success stories with us?

I'm a big believer in building a media company or in other words, you create content and information that is valuable to your target market. I've built and developed relationships through my blog and podcast that have been some of my biggest clients.

Can you share some insights that your customers often overlook?

The biggest is the challenge of digital marketing and how competitive it is. Especially because I work a lot in SEO. Theoretically, there is 10 spots per search term. Many people think that one podcast or one post or one blog post will result in instant success but don't realize how important it is in SEO but really all forms of marketing it is to constantly build and how it's not (most of the time) one thing that causes the overnight success but the work over years and years and years.

What did you wish you knew before you started your company? What advice do you have for first-time entrepreneurs?

The best advice is to probably continue to develop yourself. I think it's something that can be overlooked. I benefit greatly from the interviews, content and podcasts. I can't understate how much I've grown because of the audience around me.

‍What’s been your biggest challenge in life thus far and how did you overcome it?

Definitely this business. Starting everything at a young age--even though I read and heard a lot about how challenging it is. I don't think there's much that prepares you for the ups and the downs and things you juggle when running a business.