Indexing your website on Google

What is website indexing?

To get your website appearing on Google search results, Google must first index your website. This involves Google crawlers ("Googlebot") analysing your website and storing the information in Google's search index. 

The best way to manage website indexing on Google is to use the Google Search Console. We recommend creating an account and adding your website as a property. You can then submit a sitemap to help Google index your website.

How to check if Google has indexed your website

Go to Google in your browser and search site:[[yourdomain.com]]. Replace [[yourdomain.com]] with your website domain. If Google has indexed your website, you should be able to see your website in the search results.

To check if Google has indexed a specific page, use the URL Inspection Tool.

How to re-index your website on Google

If you've made changes to any of your website pages' metadata, Google will need to re-index the page in order to show the latest version in search results. 

To do this, you can use the URL Inspection Tool or resubmit your sitemap via Google Search Console. Once you have signed up and created an account on Google Search Console, this article will guide you through making the request.

How to de-index a page on Google

You can also de-index a specific website page in order to hide it from Google search results:

1. Make sure Google Tag Manager (GTM) is set up on your Easol account.
2. Add a new Custom HTML Tag. 
3. Paste the following code in the the tag:

   <script> // Removes any existing meta robots tag jQuery('meta[name="robots"]').remove(); // Create an empty meta element, called 'meta' var meta = document.createElement('meta'); // Add a name attribute to the meta, with the value 'robots' meta.name = 'robots'; // Add a content attribute to the meta element, with the value 'noindex, follow' meta.content = 'noindex, follow'; // Insert this meta element into the head of the page, using jQuery jQuery('head').append(meta); </script>

4. For the Trigger, select DOM Ready.
5. In the trigger settings, switch This trigger fires on to Some DOM Events .
6. Under the trigger conditions, add the Page URL of the pages you'd like de-index. For more information about triggers, see GTM's help articles.
7. Save the new tag.
8. Next, it's recommended to preview and test changes to ensure the new tag is working as expected.
9. Publish the container.