As you may or may not know, Google Webmaster Tools has updated its platform to the new Google Search Console. In this post I want to discuss how to fetch as Google using the new platform as well as discuss other ways to get more traffic to your blog posts and pages.
By the way, it is no longer called Fetch As Google, but is now referred to as URL Inspection.
I will show you step by step of how to Fetch As Google in a minute. What I would like to discuss first, however, is why it is important to use the Search Console and how we can leverage this and other tactics to drive more traffic to your blog posts and increase your overall authority, regardless of what niche you may be in.
Why Use Google Search Console?
As many of you might know, there are on page SEO strategies as well as off page SEO strategies that we need to incorporate in order to rank our posts in the search engines. Here we will discuss some off page SEO strategies or what to do after you write you post. If you are interested in on-page SEO strategies, you can read our post on how to optimize blog posts for SEO here.
So, why use Google Search Console? Here are three main things I use it for that help me rank my posts:
- It allows me to use the URL inspection feature to speed up the indexing process (the old fetch as Google)
- It allows me to submit and resubmit my sitemap
- It tells me what keyword phrases I am ranking for and what position they reside in Google overall
- which also allows me to look for other keyword ideas
Over analyzing your Google Search Console can be a time sucker, so after each post I write, I quickly go through the above mentioned items in the order that they are written in.
I write the post and then I immediately go to the Search console and ask Google to inspect my URL and then request them to index the page or post. This is the reason we want to “fetch as Google”. We are essentially telling Google that we created new content on our site and we want Google to “crawl” that article. Whether it is a post or page does not matter. In fact, I not only do this when I write a new post, but I also do this when I edit an old post or make any changes to a post.
This is OK to do by the way. If it wasn’t Google wouldn’t ask you if you made changes to your site.
The next thing I do is re-submit my site map. I do this immediately after the first step. And then finally, I take a look at the keywords that I am ranking for on pages other than the first page, and make improvement to my posts so that they will rank higher. This can be by getting more comments, or, if it is an old post, updating it with new information and then re-indexing it. In addition to this, I might go back and do more off-page SEO that I mention below.
In the next section below I will cover step by step how I do these three things.
How To Fetch As Google – Step by Step
In this section I will show you step by step how to not only fetch as Google, but specifically how I do the other two steps mentioned above as well.
I have created a walk through video that shows this process step by step.
As you can see the process is very easy to do. You just need to do this consistently for each and every post that you write. Whether it is a brand new post, or a modification of an old post.
Now, let’s talk about keywords for a minute. As I showed you in the video, Google Search Console shows you the keywords that you are currently ranking for and what position they are in on an average. You can use filters to find out exactly what countries you are ranking it for. By default, the Search Console gives you an average page rank.
One thing I do is if I see a keyword that I am ranking for, say on the 4th page of Google, but I don’t have an article specifically written centered on that keyword phrase, then I write one. Then that article with rank quite easily since I am already ranking for it. Odds are I will then rank that post on page one of Google. This is an awesome strategy to pick good keywords for upcoming articles.
If you do this in conjunction with using my free keyword generator, you will rank on the first page of Google more often than not. Using these two strategies together is a good tip for you to use.
Now in this next section we will discuss some other ways to promote your blog post after you complete the actions within Google Search Console.
Ways to Promote Your Blog Posts and Pages
As you can probably tell by now, I have a routine that I follow for every article I write. I am a fairly linear type of person, so when it comes to writing posts for SEO, for example, I follow the same routine each and every time. I do this also for the promotion of my posts. follow the following steps.
- I create a video and link it to my post
- I post the link on my YouTube channel under the discussion tab with some amount of content.
- I post the link on my social media channels along with some amount of content.
- I am a big fan of Pinterest, so I make sure I post it to a relevant board.
- I post the link on my Flipboard Magazine
- I comment on blog posts related to my niche (I don’t’ spend a bunch of time on this, but a few for each post ads up).
Now, stay tuned, for I will write another post that will detail exactly how I do the above mentioned items in detail. But for now, I believe you get the idea. These items are not that difficult to figure out, but if you are consistent with them they are quite effective.
Now I am not a big proponent of purchasing backlinks nor do I spend a lot of time trying to gather them with any kind of strategy other than what I am mentioning above. Backlinks are best when they are naturally occurring and social media seems to work just fine to spread the word.
I rank on page one of Google for many keywords and I do not have a lot of backlinks to my site. They are just not as important as they used to be. And, they can be dangerous to acquire. They can actually hurt your rankings considerably. Do not fall for the hype. I never outsource for website promotion. I will outsource content before I outsource website promotions.
Conclusion
So, there you have it. A step by step method on how to fetch as Google using the new Google Search Console. When change happens we have to adapt. Two main changes happened lately with Google, this is one of them. The other one is that Google Plus is no longer with us. I used to promote every post onto Google Plus, but I substituted it with the YouTube discussion feature. I really believe that YouTube is moving closer and closer to becoming a bigger social media platform rather than just a place to place video onto.
And, of course, YouTube is owned by Google, so I believe placing your link into YouTube certainly help with your rankings. For Google Loves Google and always will.
If you have any question related to this article, simply post them in the comments below and I will answer you within 24 hours or fewer.
Also, if you have any questions at all relating to affiliate marketing or how to promote your website feel free to leave a comment as well or contact me through the contact page. I will be glad to get back to you to answer any of your affiliate marketing related questions.