How to Ask Google to Recrawl URLs of Your WordPress Site

We recently launched a major new feature on our site and needed it ranking on Google right away. Instead of waiting days for the search engine to find it, we used a simple trick to get it indexed in just a few hours.

It’s a frustrating feeling to update an important page or publish a time-sensitive post, only to wait for Google to notice. That delay can mean lost traffic and missed opportunities, which no business owner wants.

In this guide, we’ll show you the exact steps we take to ask Google to recrawl our pages. This ensures our new content and important updates get seen by search engines as quickly as possible.

When Do You Need to Ask Google to Recrawl URLs?

Every time you make changes to your WordPress website, whether it’s publishing new content or updating existing pages, Google needs to discover and process these changes before they appear in search results.

While Google usually does this automatically, sometimes you need to give it a gentle nudge.

There are several common situations when requesting a recrawl makes sense:

1. When you’ve published time-sensitive content like breaking news, event announcements, or limited-time offers that need immediate visibility.
2. When you’ve made important updates to your content, such as major revisions, price changes, or error corrections.
3. When you’ve noticed issues with your pages in search results, like missing pages or outdated versions showing up.

Google handles most indexing automatically through XML sitemaps, which we strongly recommend setting up. But in many cases, we’ve had to manually ask Google to recrawl a site.

Before you start requesting recrawls, make sure your site is properly set up in Google Search Console. If you haven’t done this yet, follow our guide on how to get your WordPress site listed on Google. This ensures Google can properly crawl and index your site.

Now, let’s walk through the exact steps to request a recrawl and get your content showing up in Google search results as quickly as possible:

1. Using the URL Inspection Tool to Recrawl URLs
2. Submitting an XML Sitemap to Recrawl URLs
3. Frequently Asked Questions About Google Recrawling
4. Additional Resources to Boost Your SEO

Step 1: Using the URL Inspection Tool to Recrawl URLs

Google Search Console (formerly Google Webmaster Tools) provides a URL inspection tool that helps identify issues with your URLs. This method is best when you have just one or a few high-priority pages you need Google to see right away, like a new blog post or an updated landing page.

It will also help you troubleshoot the common WordPress errors for your individual URLs and other URL indexing issues.

You need to navigate to the Google Search Console website and then select your property or website to check its URL index status.

After selecting the property, you need to go to ‘URL Inspection’ on the left menu.

Then, simply add your URL in the search field that you want to inspect.

It will get the data about your URL and display it in the Google Search Console dashboard.

The tool will retrieve the current index status of your URL from Google. You will see a summary that clearly states if the ‘URL is on Google’ or ‘URL is not on Google.’ You can expand the report to check for any mobile usability or other issues.

Once you’ve confirmed everything looks good, simply click the ‘Request Indexing’ link. Google will then test the live URL and add it to the priority crawling queue.

If the tool reports any errors, you’ll need to fix them on your site first. Once they are resolved, you can come back and click the ‘Request Indexing’ link.

Simply repeat this process for the other URLs you want Google to recrawl. Keep in mind that this tool is meant for a handful of URLs at a time, as Google has a daily submission quota. For getting a large number of pages indexed, submitting an XML sitemap is the better method.

Step 2: Submitting an XML Sitemap to Recrawl URLs

If you have made widespread changes to your site or added a lot of new content, submitting an XML sitemap is the most efficient way to ask Google to recrawl multiple URLs at once.

This method is ideal when you’ve launched a new product category or published dozens of new posts, as it tells Google to check your entire site structure for updates.

For this step, we recommend using the All in One SEO plugin, which includes flexible options to properly set up your XML sitemaps in WordPress.

AIOSEO creates an XML sitemap by default as soon as the plugin is installed.

To change your sitemap settings, you need to go to All in One SEO » Sitemaps in your WordPress admin area. You will see that the XML sitemaps setting is on by default.

You can view your sitemap by clicking on the ‘Open Sitemap’ button.

If your new links are visible in this sitemap file, then you can go ahead and submit it to Google Search Console.

To submit the XML sitemaps, you need to visit the Google Search Console website and click ‘Sitemaps’ in the left menu.

Simply add your XML sitemap link and click on ‘Submit’ button.

This updated sitemap will ask Google bots to quickly recrawl your new URLs and display them in the search results.

Frequently Asked Questions About Google Recrawling

Here are the answers to some of the most common questions we get about asking Google to recrawl URLs.

1. How long does it take Google to recrawl a URL after a request?

The time it takes can range from a few hours to several days. Using the URL Inspection tool is often the fastest method, but there is no guaranteed timeframe. The speed depends on factors like your site’s authority and overall crawl budget.

2. Can I request a recrawl too many times?

Yes, Google has a quota for individual URL submissions. It’s best to only request indexing for new or significantly updated pages. If you have updated many URLs at once, submitting your XML sitemap is the more efficient approach.

3. What is the difference between crawling and indexing?

Crawling is the discovery process where Google’s bots find new and updated content. Indexing is the process of analyzing and storing that content in Google’s database so it can be shown in search results. A page must be crawled before it can be indexed.

4. Why is my URL not indexed after requesting a recrawl?

A recrawl request does not guarantee indexing. Your page may not be indexed due to technical issues like a ‘noindex’ tag, low-quality content, or manual penalties. The URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console can help you diagnose these problems.

Additional Resources to Boost Your SEO

We hope this guide helped you learn how to ask Google to recrawl your URLs. Now that your content is getting indexed faster, check out these other guides to further improve your search rankings:

• Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners – A comprehensive guide covering all the essential SEO practices to rank higher.
• Best SEO Rank Tracker Tools – Our expert picks for the best tools to monitor your keyword performance in search results.
• How to Install Google Analytics in WordPress for Beginners – Learn how to use MonsterInsights to see how your content is performing right from your WordPress dashboard.

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