Please don't be misled to believe that I am any kind of techie. I know enough to get around, and probably enough to be dangerous. But here's something simple that I do know - how to see if a post on your website has been indexed by Google. Since several people have asked, let me share what I know, and if someone with more knowledge than I have can give more insight, please do.
My IT guy is always telling me to let a blog post index on my site before I post to ActiveRain. I recently wrote a post that got a lot of attention, not only from ActiveRain, but it was plagiarized a ridiculous number of times. http://cospringsrealestatenews.com/10-commandments-sellers-need-follow/ Because I let it index on my site first, it will always show up first when you Google the title. (I have had several dozen plagiarized versions removed, but just discovered a video and three more posts on others' sites that used the post word for word - but I digress).
Take the URL of the post you want to see whether or not has been indexed. For example, the one above. In the search bar on your computer, put in "site:" immediately in front of the URL. The example in this case is: site:http://cospringsrealestatenews.com/10-commandments-sellers-need-follow/. If you click on the "site:http" link, it will take you to a Google page with two 'boxes' like this:
If your post has been indexed by Google, it will show up in the second box with your article, like it does above with 10 Commandments Sellers Need to Follow. In this case, it HAS been indexed, so something shows up in the lower box. If it HASN'T indexed yet, it will say something like "Be sure you've entered the right URL." It will continue to show you that until it gets indexed, and then your article will show up.
How long does it take to index? That all depends on how often you blog. For me, I don't blog as much as I should, and it can take 24 to 36 hours. I posted a listing the other day on Real Bird and it indexed in about ten minutes. Same with ActiveRain, it indexes within minutes instead of hours because of their 'authority.'
HOWEVER, you want your post on your site to be the authority, so let it index there, and then you can cut and paste it to ActiveRain. At the end of the post you put on ActiveRain, you can put "Originally posted as 10 Commandments Sellers Need to Follow" with a link back to the original post. I usually put that in much smaller letters.
So no matter how many times that post gets copied by you (or anyone else) you will always have the first ranking.
I also do this with my listings before I put them on the MLS. Write a blog post with the address of your new listing as your title, let it index, then put it live on the MLS and push it out. If not first place, you will still rank up there with the 'big guys' - T & Z - when all the syndications start picking it up.
In a nutshell, in your search bar, put > site:URL > enter > voila.
Good luck. If you have any more questions, I'd probably ask Craig Daniels. LOL
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