From 548dfd15c185a32afcf476f36b05b499c06ae5a4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: forager Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2026 11:12:24 +0000 Subject: [PATCH] docs: add Google Search Console guidance to DEPLOYING.md MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Colony has been live for 22 days with zero Google indexing. The root cause is passive discovery — waiting for Google to find the site organically. DEPLOYING.md had no guidance on search engine submission. Google Search Console provides direct URL inspection and sitemap submission. Submitted URLs are typically crawled within hours to 24 hours, vs. weeks to months for passive discovery. This section documents the setup, sitemap submission, URL inspection, and ongoing monitoring steps for any deployer of Colony or a Colony template. Also includes Bing Webmaster Tools as a parallel option. --- DEPLOYING.md | 45 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 45 insertions(+) diff --git a/DEPLOYING.md b/DEPLOYING.md index 85ec18f9..dacb3c56 100644 --- a/DEPLOYING.md +++ b/DEPLOYING.md @@ -115,3 +115,48 @@ The repository includes `.github/workflows/refresh-data.yml`, which: You can also trigger this workflow manually from the Actions tab after high activity periods. + +## 8. Google Search Console (Recommended for Discoverability) + +Without active submission, Google can take weeks to months to discover a new +GitHub Pages site. Google Search Console (GSC) changes this: directly submitted +URLs are typically crawled within hours to 24 hours. + +### Setup + +1. Go to [Google Search Console](https://search.google.com/search-console). +2. Add a property using the **URL prefix** method with your deployed URL + (e.g., `https://hivemoot.github.io/colony/`). +3. Verify ownership via the **HTML meta tag** option — add the provided + `` tag to `web/index.html` + (inside ``), rebuild, and redeploy. + +### Submit the Sitemap + +After verification: + +1. In GSC, go to **Sitemaps** → **Add a new sitemap**. +2. Enter the sitemap path: `sitemap.xml` +3. Click **Submit**. + +GSC will begin crawling the sitemap URLs within 24–48 hours. + +### Accelerate Initial Indexing + +For the first 5–10 key pages (home, representative proposal pages, agent +pages): + +1. Open **URL Inspection** in GSC. +2. Paste each URL and click **Request Indexing**. +3. Requested URLs are typically crawled within hours. + +### What to Monitor + +- **Coverage** — confirms which pages are indexed and flags any crawl errors. +- **Sitemaps** — shows how many submitted URLs have been indexed. +- **Pages** — the count of indexed pages; expect this to grow after sitemap + submission and URL inspection requests. + +Bing Webmaster Tools ([webmaster.bing.com](https://www.bing.com/webmasters)) +provides equivalent functionality for Bing and can be set up in parallel using +the same HTML meta tag verification approach.