Google has removed the public version of the Google Index tool which was widely used by the marketers for Google’s search engine indexing. The purpose of the tool was to allow not just the owners of a site but anyone, to submit the site URLs for indexing.
On 25th July, the webmasters at Google declared that, while the public submission tool has been disabled, people can still submit the URLs of their sites using Google’s Fetch & Submit tool and alternatively through sitemaps.
Use of Public version of Google Submission tool:
The Public version of the tool had made it possible for the SEO services company in Delhi, Gurgaon on, Bangalore, etc. and SEO experts to submit the page URLs of other websites (whose links are pointing back to their site) for quick indexing by Google. Which eventually helped in improving the Page Rank on the Search Engine.
Similarly, the tool was extremely helpful in managing third party links, social media page such as Twitter or Facebook page, and especially in reputation management.
Why does the URL submission tool take away?
- Previously not everyone in the industry was aware of the fetch and submit tool available in the search console, so many people were relying on the public URL submission tool for indexing.
- Search engine marketers were misusing the tool to submit the URLs for pages they had no ownership of “by submitting links to the competitor’s site to index the spammy pages and once it is indexed then later filing a spam report.”
What solution we have now?
Google Webmasters have suggested alternative means of submitting URLs to make things comfortable in the absence of the public URL submission tool. Digital marketing services companies and individuals can either utilize the Fetch & Submit tool, available in the Google Search Console or they could do it through submitting the sitemaps.
Nowadays, the site owners are allowed to submit a maximum of 10 individual URLs per day but, it does not guarantee you access to the re-crawling function. You can only wait for it and see if it appears. Currently, there is no provision to make re-crawling available immediately.
How does Fetch & Submit tool make things better?
- “Fetch as Google” is a feature provided by the former Webmaster Tools, now known as Google’s search console. It allows the owners of the websites to submit URLs (new or updated) to Google for indexing. There is no assurance of getting indexed via this submission process but, Google bot will aid crawling access to your URL within 24 hours.
- You can use it for the pages containing time-sensitive information like events, or to update important pages which must be recognized by Google quickly.
- The tool is especially helpful in case you have published incorrect content (content that you have unintentionally published on a page) and you want to update the page with the corrected one.
How to Use the Search Console’s Fetch and Submit tool:
To make things easier Google has provided the site owners with the step-by-step guide for using the search console’s “fetch & submit” tool for indexing the URLs.
- In the Search Console Dashboard, you can find the crawl menu on the left side of the page.
Click the crawl menu page, and select the “Fetch as Google” option.
- Here either you can enter the page URL or submit the website URL for indexing. For indexing, the homepage URL of the website:
Kindly Note: As you have already logged in to the console then the homepage URL will be already available under the site and you don’t have to submit it again.
- The fetch option is accessible in both desktop and mobile version of the pages. To see how the Google bot perceives your page click on the “Fetch and Render” option.
- Once the link is fetched successfully, Click on the “Request Indexing” link. You will now be asked to choose whether you want to submit the single URL or the URL with its direct-linked page.
- Choose your desired option and click the “Submit to index” button to queue your request.
The pages whose URLs have been submitted through the “Fetch as Google” process must contain relevant information to display on Google search engine results (SERP).
Verdict
“Fetch as Google” is useful for time-sensitive content or information. It helps the page(s) to appear in the Google search result and also helpful for pages featuring the new content.
