How To Update Your Google Search Results

Google Search ResultsIf you are seeing outdated or missing search results on your site, Google will eventually crawl and re-index your content automatically.  The problem with this is that it can take several days, weeks, or even longer before your new results will appear.  However, you can speed up this process by using the features in Google Webmaster Tools.

1. Create a Google Account

If you don’t have one already, you will need to create a free Google Account before you can use the Google Webmaster Tools.  Please note that you do not need to have a Gmail based email.  You can use any email when creating an account.

2. Verify Your Site

Next up, you need to verify your site with Google.  When selecting your verification method, use the “Alternate Method” of the “HTML Tag” and copy the entire content string between the quotation marks.

Google Search Console

Next, login to your site and paste this code into the Google Meta ID field.

Google Meta ID field

Now that you have added the Meta ID to your site and saved your changes, you can click the “Verify” button in your Google Search Console.

Verify your settings

You should then get a message that your site has been verified.  If not, be sure that you are only copying and pasting the code string between the quotation marks in the step above.

3. Submit Your XML Sitemap

Now that your site is verified, you can use the Google Search Console to submit the XML sitemap from your site.  This sitemap is automatically generated and is up to date with the latest content in your site.  The URL of your sitemap can be found at http://www.(yoursite).ca.gov/sitemap.xml

Viewing your Sitemap

Switch back to your Search Console and click on your site.

Find your site in the Search Console

Drill down in the left nav to the sitemap section, click the button to add new sitemap, and then type “sitemap.xml” into the URL field and then Submit.

Submit your Settings

Refresh…

Refresh the page by clicking on the link

You will then see your sitemap added to the scheduler.  Most likely, your status will be “Submitted” or “Processing” until the sitemap is actually crawled by Google.  Please note that this process can take several days and sometimes even weeks before all of your content is completely indexed by Google.  So you need to be patient 🙂

Sitemap Status of Pages

4. Wait

Please note that this process can take several days and sometimes even weeks before all of your content is completely indexed by Google.  So you need to be patient 🙂