Why bother?

I wrote four entries related to Cyber Deception, submitted March 2021, yet none are found on Google with the exact title search. Instead, the Cyber-Observatory & Hackernoon versions (same titles & contents) came out on Google-search first page.

Even if an article were to be featured (it's transient btw) within Hashnode listing, chances are they have "nofollow" links such that Google robots will NOT follow to further index (I might be wrong). After which, most articles are likely to fade into oblivion.

For your articles to be found, Google needs to crawl your pages & index them. When it's not indexed, no one finds your articles, then no chance for anyone to "backlink" (organically) unless you share it on platforms (e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, Quora, StackOverflow or whatever, most of these platform are using NOfollow tag on external URLs). My Cyber Deception articles were quite well received with my LinkedIn crowd, but yet none were indexed (for almost a year)!

Assumptions

You have a Google account
You know where & how to get your (G)oogle (A)nalytics Tracking ID
You can search Youtube for (2)

Overview

Check that your site is NOT in Google search, if it is, don't bother with the rest
Create a GA Universal Property ID (not going to elaborate, see assumptions)
Paste the GA Tracking ID into: Hashnode-Dashboard > Third Party Integrations > Google Analytics Tracking ID
Add new property related to your blog with (G)oogle (S)earch (C)onsole
Add GSC verification meta tags through your Hashnode Dashboard to prove ownership
Submit your sitemap.xml through GSC
Submit your blog URL for indexing

Check that your site is NOT in Google search

Use operator site:
Replace domain with yours
So we know it is not within Google Search before we proceed with the rest of the steps

Paste GA Tracking ID into Third Party Integrations

Assuming you copied the GA Tracking ID string
Get to your dashboard

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 4.44.38 PM.png

Locate Hashnode-Dashboard > Third Party Integrations > Google Analytics Tracking ID

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 5.44.11 PM.png

Paste your GA Tracking ID there
Locate Update button & click it

Go to https://search.google.com/search-console

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 5.38.21 PM.png

Click Add Property, you will see:

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 5.51.53 PM.png

Fill in the URL to your Hashnode blog
Use HTML tag option (why not Domain property type? Not everyone owns custom domain, many are using Hashnode subdomains. HTML tag option is somewhat easier than messing with DNS, which is often slower to propagate):

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 5.22.48 PM.png

Copy the tag with the copy-button
Paste the tag into Hashnode-Dashboard > Third Party Integrations > Meta Tags (this is applicable to other tag-based integrations for Facebook Pixel or whatever, just make sure you append to existing tags)

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 5.57.04 PM.png

Click Update button within the Hashnode Dashboard
Switch to GSC - Verify ownership interface
Click Verify to complete the ownership checks (scroll up to the HTML tag step to see screenshot)

Submit sitemap.xml

Hashnode automatically generates sitemap.xml for all their blogs
It is located at root path /sitemap.xml for search engine robots to find other pages
Switch to GSC to add sitemap

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Click Submit

Submit your blog URL for indexing

Switch to GSC & key in your blog URL for inspection:

Screenshot 2022-03-01 at 6.13.29 PM.png

Click Request Indexing:

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Closing

Indexing can take a week or two depending on Google's load
You only need to do this ONCE since robots will use sitemap.xml to update
Use site: Google search operator to check again after 2 weeks
There can be cases where hosting issues result in errors that prevent indexing, use GSC to troubleshoot

Good luck!

P.S. Check out Miklós Szeles comment below related to other search engines & SEO tools!

How to add Google Analytics & submit Hashnode blog for indexing?

Comments (4)

More from this blog

A Systematic Approach to Cyber Deception (Part 4 of 4)

A Systematic Approach to Cyber Deception (Part 3 of 4)

A Systematic Approach to Cyber Deception (Part 2 of 4)

A Systematic Approach to Cyber Deception (Part 1 of 4)

Why bother?

Assumptions

Overview

Check that your site is NOT in Google search

Paste GA Tracking ID into Third Party Integrations

Submit sitemap.xml

Submit your blog URL for indexing

Closing

Command Palette

Comments (4)

More from this blog

Why bother?

Assumptions

Overview

Check that your site is NOT in Google search

Paste GA Tracking ID into Third Party Integrations

Add new property related to your blog with GSC

Submit sitemap.xml

Submit your blog URL for indexing

Closing