Any website can start monitoring in 5 easy steps:
Log in: Start by logging into your account.
Pick a domain: Choose the domain property you want to monitor.
Pick a time zone: Choose a time zone to help keep your app updates timely.
Select Sitemaps: Select your important XML sitemaps.
Add web properties: Create web properties based on your folder structure.
Step 1: Log in to Indexing Insight
Go to the indexinginsight.com website and log in to your account.
In your account's main dashboard, click “+ New website”.
This will start you on the 3 step process of setting up a monitoring project.
Step 2: Pick a Domain
In step 1, you’ll need to pick the domain property of the website you want to monitor. We’ll check whether you’re the Owner or Delegated Owner of that domain property.
Learn more about our minimum technical requirements.
Step 3: Pick a Time Zone
Also, in step 1, you must pick a time zone.
You need only select your location's time zone so our scheduler will run locally to your time. You can also search for the closest capital city or enter the time zone.
The time zone setting is at an account level.
This means the time zone you choose will be applied to all the projects you monitor in your account.
Learn more about the time zone account settings.
Step 4: Select Sitemaps
Next, in step 2, you need to select your XML sitemaps.
The XML sitemaps shown in step 2 are taken from the domain properties sitemap report.
If you think sitemaps are missing, you need to submit them to the Search Console Sitemap Report before you can select them in step 2.
You can select a sitemap index or individual sitemaps within a sitemap index.
Be aware that any URLs we download will count toward your Account URL limit. If you hit this limit, you won’t be able to add any more URLs or websites to the account.
Selecting XML Sitemap vs Sitemap Index: What’s the difference?
Please be aware of the difference between an individual sitemap file and a sitemap index:
Sitemap Index: If you select an XML sitemap index, we will download and monitor all sitemap files within it, and any new XML sitemaps added will be automatically downloaded.
Individual XML Sitemap: If you select a sitemap file within a sitemap index, then our tool will not monitor the sitemap index file (or any new sitemaps added to the index file).
Step 5: Add web properties
Finally, in step 3, you must add the web properties for the site sections you want to monitor.
This is relatively easy to do. All you need to do is copy and paste the absolute URL of the subdirectory you want to monitor. Then hit “+ Add property”.
The new web property will be added to the list (it can take up to 1 minute to appear).
Don’t try to add all your web properties in this step.
Instead, try to add the level 1 subdirectories you want to monitor. Then, when the project starts to monitor your website, add web properties at scale.
For example, an e-commerce website like Decthlon.co.uk would add the following level 1 web properties. But if they wanted to add anymore we’d recommend using the Property setting page.
Subdirectories | URLs |
1,500 | |
2,500 | |
12,000 | |
1,000 | |
4,000 | |
1,800 | |
2,600 | |
1,200 | |
800 | |
157,000 |
That’s it!
Once you’ve added all your web properties, you can start monitoring. And you will see this page.
Our tool is working in the background to monitor your website using all the data from your domain property, XML sitemaps and web properties.
Next Steps
Once you’ve set up your project, we recommend the next steps:
How to add web properties at scale