Full Transcript
Lauren: So my friend just launched her website. She's all excited, types her business name into Google, and... nothing. It's like her site doesn't exist. She's freaking out.
Honor: Welcome to the 805 Web Minute with Lauren and Honor... We make interwebs and website stuff make sense... Let's get into it.
Honor: Okay, first... take a breath. This is incredibly common, especially for new websites. And the good news is, it's usually fixable.
Lauren: But wait, her website is live! Like, if I type in the actual address, it works. Why wouldn't Google know about it?
Honor: So here's the thing... Google doesn't work like that. They use these automated programs called crawlers that have to discover your website first, then add it to their index. It's like a librarian cataloging new books... until it's cataloged, nobody can find it in the library.
Lauren: Oh! So even though the book is on the shelf, it's not in the system yet.
Honor: Exactly. And here's the timing that surprises people... for most websites, basic indexing takes about 1 to 3 days. But for brand new domains? It can take weeks. Sometimes even months.
Lauren: Months? Are you serious?
Honor: Yep. And that's just for Google to know you exist. Getting good rankings takes even longer. There was a study that found... the average page in Google's top 10 results is over two years old.
Lauren: Two years! That's... that's like saying you need to be a restaurant for two years before you get a Yelp review.
Honor: Ha! Kind of, yeah. Only about 20% of first page results are less than a year old. Google tends to trust websites that have been around and proven themselves.
Lauren: Okay, so if her site is brand new, patience is part of the deal. But what if it's been a few weeks and still nothing?
Honor: That's when we look for blockers. There are a few things that can accidentally tell Google to go away. Like, there's a file on websites called robots.txt that tells search engines what they can access. If it's misconfigured...
Lauren: You put up a "do not enter" sign and forgot about it.
Honor: Exactly! And some website platforms have a setting that says "discourage search engines" that people accidentally leave on. Or there's a "noindex" tag that's like telling Google, "don't list this page." Really common with DIY website builders.
Lauren: So it's like building a store and leaving the "under construction" signs up even though you're open for business.
Honor: Perfect. The other big one is site speed. Here's a number that blew my mind... websites on Google's first page load in an average of 1.65 seconds.
Lauren: One point six five seconds? That's like... nothing!
Honor: Right? And the average website takes over 3 seconds. If your site is slow, Google notices. And visitors notice too... the probability of someone leaving your site goes up 32% just going from 1 second to 3 seconds load time.
Lauren: So a slow website is like having a really long checkout line. People just... walk away.
Honor: Exactly. And there are other factors too... like having no other websites linking to yours, or having really thin content. But the new site timing and these technical blockers... those are the big ones.
Lauren: Okay, so what can my friend actually do today to check this stuff?
Honor: Here's the simplest thing... go to Google, and type site colon, then your website address. Like, site colon yougrow dot pro. If you see a list of pages, you're indexed. If you see nothing, Google hasn't found you yet.
Lauren: That's so easy! So the moral of the story is... run that check first. If you're not indexed yet, be patient if you're new. And if it's been a while, look for those technical blockers.
Honor: That's it. And for the speed stuff, Google has a free tool called PageSpeed Insights that tells you exactly what's slowing you down.
Lauren: And if all of this sounds like homework you don't want to do... give YouGrow a call!
Honor: Yeah, this is actually what we handle for you. We build fast sites... they're optimized from the start. We submit everything to Google properly. And when things change, we keep your site updated and performing. 79 dollars a month, month-to-month, cancel anytime. We're local, in Arroyo Grande, and when you have a question, you just call us.
Lauren: I love it. Alright, this has been 805 Web Minute. Thanks for listening.