How Fetch as Google Makes Your Life Easier
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David
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September 11th, 2012
If you've never heard of Fetch as Google, you've been missing out on some special treatment from the number one search engine itself.
Essentially, Fetch as Google allows you to see your website as Google. It gets inside the site with its spider-like limbs, and reveals what's really lurking inside your site.
Here are the top 4 reasons to go verify your site and run Fetch as Google today.
1. Make sure your media is found.
Got a site loaded with JavaScript? Sites with rich media can check up to the first 100k of text to see if the content has been indexed correctly.
Fetch as Google also allows you to make sure that those meta-tags and titles worked correctly. This is crucial for sites with rich media, because search engines struggle to process those visuals the way you want them. Save time and frustration with a simple Fetch.
2. Check the crawlability of your site.
Send in the spiders, and make sure every edge of your site is ready for the search engines. At this point, Fetch as Google pulls up exactly what Google sees, and tells you immediately if there is any kind of problem at all.
Architecture of a Web crawler. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Your blogging platform, hosting service, and access panel rarely offer any of these services. The only way you'll know if Google is finding you the right way is if you check. You can find major clogs in a few clicks of the button, which will save you time and frustration in the long run.
You can even check for crawl errors to make sure there aren't any major search engine road blocks keeping key traffic from heading your way.
3. Index changes immediately.
For those of us who add new content often (like bloggers or web designers), it can take quite some time for those adjustments to become searchable.
Whether you added a post, deleted a key page, or made other alterations, Fetch as Google will allow you to submit your sitemap for indexing right away.
This cuts time and saves the hassle of people arriving to your page from a dead link or retrieving the wrong content due to a previous problem. Plus, you can add up to 500 URLs per week, which makes this a valuable tool capable of being used in bulk.
4. Fight the hackers.
Got someone trying to hack your site for whatever reason? Use Fetch as Google to make sure your page is being seen the right way. Many hackers will sneak inside your coding to insert their own spamming content (like links to porn sites). There is absolutely no way to find this stuff on your own. In fact, the only way to fight the hackers at this game is to let the search engines in.
Fetch as Google will let you know immediately if there's been a problem. These issues could go on indefinitely, completely ruining your web presence and searchability (many people have blocks on their accounts preventing them from accessing any inappropriate sites). With one simple check, remove that threat entirely.
Have you tried Fetch as Google? Would you recommend it to others?