Don't Use Fetch As Google - Use AddURL
Hey,
Quick tip for you all today.
A lot of people recommend using Webmaster Tools (or Google Search Console) "Fetch as Google" when they want to speed up getting their site or article indexed.
I've never been a fan of doing this, because it's not what Fetch as Google is supposed to be used for, and that's why there's a limit on how many times you can do it.
Instead, you should use Google.com/addurl
First of all, it's what you're supposed to use, and second of all, it's so much faster.
I've had new sites that struggled to get indexed, and Fetch as Google didn't always work. With /addurl, I was able to add 3-4 URLs and have them all indexed in less than 24 hours. Sometimes much shorter.
Fetch as Google is basically a way of saying "Show me what Google sees when it crawls this URL" (which is why you have the option to Render as well). This is good if you think there might be some technical issues with your site, or if it's not displaying properly.
I had a site last week that had indexing issues so I used Fetch and saw that there were some redirect issues between HTTP and HTTPS, so that helped. That's the only real time I recommend using Fetch.
Instead, if you want to get something added to the index faster, use the tool Google actually created for that purpose. You'll get it indexed 10x faster.
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It just tells Google to index a post, so if it is already indexed, I'm not sure the purpose. I guess if you want them to re-crawl a post that has been updated then Fetch might be better.
Fetch works perfect for me. My posts are indexed and ranked in seconds, the fastest so far I registered was 8 seconds.
Have a new site, just a few weeks old, and even there I have posts indexed and ranked within minutes (not all though). So I am convinced it works well on my side.
But I do always use what you suggest for Bing; and sometimes also for Google too when I make updates to older posts. Was not aware of any formal difference between the two ways.
Go ahead and use Fetch, but just remember that addurl will work just as effectively, if not more so, and is also the one you're supposed to use. When stuff gets indexed in a second, your site doesn't even need you to add it to Google, cos they'll index it quickly anyway.
Thank you so much.
Hopefully, this will resolve indexing issues I've recently discovered on my site.
Thank you. I just used Fetch for the very first time.
I will try addurl next time.
N with a smile
That's what I also always thought, but ever since the courses and videos here, I started to use fetch. Had always the feeling that fetch was meant for something else concerning the 'what Google sees'.
Thanks Dom for clearing that up! Send please a message to Kyle and Jay about that as well!
Steven
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I'll thank you, Dom