What exactly is search engine crawling and indexing?

Is there a difference between the two?

Do they have anything to do with my site making it to the top Search Engine Results Page (SERP)?

To start, crawling is when search engines randomly send out robots called bots, crawlers, or spiders to find new or recently updated substance or online content. This new content can be either an image, a video, a document, a webpage, or any other form. The form doesn’t matter though. The more important thing to note is that all these new contents are discovered through links.

The crawlers start with a few pages first. Then, as they jump from a few web pages to the next, these crawlers follow links found in the previous pages to find other URLs. When they discover a new URL, this is then added to the ever-growing list of existing URLs in the search engine’s database. This step is known as indexing. It would be good to note that it is only at this point that your site officially becomes a possible candidate for the SERP (search engine results pages).

Does this mean my site can now appear in the SERP?

Well, technically yes, it can appear, but not exactly where you would hope it does. You see, unless you’re searching for something (specific content or keywords) that only your site has, don’t expect your site to be in the first few pages of the result.

The truth is, with billions and billions of existing URLs (in the database) to compare yours to, the chances of making it to the top of the list are relatively slim. And unfortunately, as most businesses that engage in digital marketing know, failing to show up in the first few pages of a search result means low online visibility.

Let’s face it – up to which page of the search results do you often get to check out? Just the first page? Maybe page 2? Do you even have enough patience to make it to the results on page 5?

This is the same for most people. The truth is if people do not see your site immediately, chances are, they never will.

This is where SEO companies and digital agencies come in. They offer specialized services that essentially make it easier for crawlers to find your site, as well as update your site’s rank in the growing index of URLs in the database. With the appropriate monitoring tools and a sound digital marketing strategy, they can then improve your site’s ranking which will then allow your site to appear higher in the list of search engine results.

Without the help of a proper SEO company, however, the best digital marketing strategy you can do is just to keep your site regularly updated with good quality content. This way, crawlers will have a higher chance of finding your site and will be forced to keep updating your site’s ranking regularly. Otherwise, you will have no choice but to manually submit your site’s web pages to search engines or properly maintain a sitemap – both of which will take some time to learn without prior SEO knowledge.