5 Effective Methods of Backlink Indexing

While many SEOs spent years refining the art of linkbuilding, it’s a lesser-known skill to get them indexed. But with over three billion pages in Google and counting, not doing so could mean your hard work goes unrewarded.

This article will explore the backlink indexing process and provide practical techniques and tips for making it happen.

These methods will help your link-building efforts take root and grow, ensuring those hard-won links are verified and categorised. We’ll cover three free methods and paid one, offering our verdict.

(1) Getting Your Links Indexed with Search Console

Google’s Search Console is the fastest, most effective way to index a link, but it can only be used on websites you own or manage.

If you’ve built a link on a third-party website, perhaps in the form of a link insertion or guest blog, simply request the webmaster to index it for you as part of the deal. 

In most cases, they’ll be happy to do it.

You can cut and paste the following instructions if they’re unfamiliar with the process.

1. Go to the Search Console homepage and sign in with your Google account.

2. Select the website you want to inspect from the property list.

3. Click on the “URL Inspection” button on the left sidebar.

4. Enter the URL of the link you want to index in the search bar and click “Submit.”

5. The tool will show you the index status of the link, and if it is not indexed, you will see a button, “Request Indexing.”

6. Click “Request Indexing” and wait for the request to be processed.

Search Console Indexing is Not Always Successful

Once the request has been processed, the tool will show you the request’s status and whether the link has been indexed.

It’s important to note that indexing a link using the URL Inspection tool does not guarantee that Google will index it. It simply submits the link for indexing, and Google will decide whether to include it based on its own criteria. 

(2) Using a Ping Service for Backlink Indexing

Another popular means of getting something indexed is using a ping service. 

A ping service submits new content to search engines with the aim of reducing the time before discovery.

While this method has its adherents, it’s by no means foolproof, with some SEOs debating its efficacy altogether. 

Nevertheless, there are several free and paid ping services available online you may wish to try:

(3) Using Social Media to Index Links

To understand why social media is effective at indexing pages, you need to understand why a link gets indexed in the first place. 

A link gets indexed when the Googlebot can (a) discover it and (b) when it considers it worthy of inclusion.

Adding your link to social media, therefore, ticks both these boxes because it’s providing the search engine with a discoverable asset and secondly because it’s a third-party source on a credible website.

Because Google indexes Tweets in real-time, Twitter is a particularly effective tool for making this happen.

Simply post your new link within the tweet, or even better, within the Tweet of an active account with real followers, and Google should be racing to acknowledge it.

(4) Paid Link Indexing Services

If you’re really generating a high volume of links that resist natural indexing, such as directories, you can always consider a paid service.

Most of these platforms have their own proprietary methods for indexing which they don’t care to disclose, but it stands to reason that they wouldn’t have a business if it didn’t work.

Here are five paid services you might want to consider:

(5) The Google Doc Method for Indexing Backlinks

One of the best methods that we like here at Dream Digital that doesn’t require paying for anything, is to simply paste your links into a Google doc.

Follow these steps

• Open a new Google doc
• Paste your links into the doc
• Use Ctrl A and Ctrl K to ensure the links are actively hyperlinked
• Click Share and ‘Publish to Web’.

Once this is published, Google has created a crawlable page on its own servers that will soon be indexed.

Backlink Indexing FAQs

What does Google indexing mean?

Google indexing refers to the process of adding web pages to Google’s database so that they can be included in search results. When a web page is indexed, Google’s crawlers will scan the page for relevant information, such as keywords, meta tags, and alt text, and use that information to determine the page’s relevance and ranking.

How can I tell if Google indexes a backlink?

You can use the Google Search Console to check whether a specific link is indexed. You can also use a backlink checker tool or the site command ‘site:domain.com keyword’ to check.

How do I submit my backlinks to be indexed?

You can use a ping tool, submit your sitemap to search engines, use a paid indexing service or use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to request indexing of specific URLs.