Is there a way to force Google to reindex a webpage right away?

October 7, 2007 11:26 AM

Is there a way to force Google to reindex a webpage right away?

I've got a client with a really embarrasing error that they had in the title tag of their homepage. We fixed the error pretty quickly, but not before Google had gone ahead and indexed the page while the error was still up there. Now, in the Google results the error shows up as the "byline" beneath the search result.

I used the Google webmaster tools to request that they reindex the site and I added a sitemap. I tried to set the indexing speed to "faster" but it's grayed out and it's not an option.

Is there anything else I can do to try and get Google to reindex the page faster? It was last indexed on June 26th, 2007. All of the changes I mentioned happened about 6 weeks ago and my client is getting understandably frustrated.

posted by ssmith to computers & internet (7 comments total)

One does not force Google to do anything. Not even a hotfoot with a dead chicken and the proper veve for Papa Legba is gonna get them do anything.

Given what you've already done, the only thing that might get the spiders interested would be a bunch of new links on other sites pointing to that page. Don't overdo it, or you'll be marked as a linkfarm. You're already in The Sandbox as it is.

Sound arcane, a little opaque, somewhat frustrating? Yeah. Welcome to our new overlords.
posted by adipocere at 12:32 PM on October 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

Nope, but you can ask googlebot to re-index your domain next time it makes it's rounds.: http://www.google.com/addurl/?continue=/addurl
posted by chrisamiller at 12:34 PM on October 7, 2007

Though Google more quickly re-indexes sites with higher PR, all the recent stuff on this indicates 6 weeks is too long.
posted by Soup at 12:36 PM on October 7, 2007

I've found that if you submit a sitemap via the google webmaster tools interface it will sometimes poll you to validate that your site map is not bulls**t. This is a one-off solution though, as I'm sure they're smart enough to rate-limit because of the evil SEO people.
posted by datacenter refugee at 1:35 PM on October 7, 2007

>I tried to set the indexing speed to "faster"

That's not the speed at which the spider revisits your site, it's the speed at which, having visited your site, it grabs the pages.

I asked a question rather like this a while back, with some success but no conclusive findings.
posted by AmbroseChapel at 4:02 PM on October 7, 2007

You have to play the waiting game. It's beyond the scope of your brief and, unfortunately, there's not a heck of a lot you can do about it. You might be able to buy some time by referring your client to an SEO company, but you'll still have to stand in line like everyone else.

It's out of your hands. If your client gets pissy about it, your best weapon in this situation is probably charm and/or technospeak.
posted by ReiToei at 4:42 PM on October 7, 2007

I'm curious - what do you think about adding addwords (and then remove it?) Would that possibly force a reindex?
posted by filmgeek at 7:58 PM on October 7, 2007