In WMT how do I get Google to re-index my site? I have made some changes last month, and it is still showing the old caches, I have submitted a sitemap too, but still not changing to the new content.
lucy24
12:37 am on Aug 10, 2011 (gmt 0)
You left out one thing. How often are they crawling? Are they hitting the new pages? Don't rely on anything second-hand; look at your raw logs.
whatson
1:06 am on Aug 10, 2011 (gmt 0)
I am referring to my cache in Google? How do I update that?
Robert Charlton
3:37 am on Aug 10, 2011 (gmt 0)
Caching is handled on different servers and by a different team than indexing. In my experience, the cache is usually the last step in the indexing process. Somewhere in between are changes to elements (like titles) of the listings on the serps page.
In the indexing that I've watched closely in the past (and it may well have changed since I've looked this closely), Google would often index a page and apply ranking factors before a modified title appeared in the serps. Generally, I'd notice the ranking shift the night before I'd see the title change. The cache then might be anywhere from a day to a week behind this.
On the most recent page changes I made, all indexing changes... including the caches... appeared on the day after I uploaded the modified pages.
A lot depends on where in various crawling and indexing cycles Google happens to be when your pages go up, the extent of your changes, how well linked your site is, qdf factors, etc.
I don't think there's much you can do now to force a faster update.
whatson
4:03 am on Aug 10, 2011 (gmt 0)
So submitting a sitemap was the correct action to take?
gmanendra
6:30 am on Aug 10, 2011 (gmt 0)
You can ask Google to re-index the pages which you updated recently. Just use the " Fetch as Googlebot " which is available in the Google Webmasters tools. Just follow the screen instructions there and submit your link which you want Google to re-index.
lucy24
6:57 am on Aug 10, 2011 (gmt 0)
(Responding to question about sitemaps)
It definitely can't do any harm. But the important thing is to verify that google is actually crawling your site on a regular basis. (Can't give a time interval because it varies from site to site. But presumably you know what's normal.) If they can't crawl it, they can't index it. If there are entirely new pages or directories, check whether they're getting crawled. There should be a flurry of activity as soon as googlebot notices that something has changed recently-- especially if the changes involve new links.
