What are the reasons why a site is not indexed in Google?
A site not being indexed in Google can occur for a variety of reasons, each of which has a significant impact on the visibility of the website in search results. Some of the main reasons are technical problems such as server errors, incorrectly written robots.txt file or improper URL structure that prevent search bots from accessing the site’s content. Also, lack of content optimization, low quality, SEO-related problems such as lack of sufficient inbound links or use of incorrect techniques can reduce the credibility of a site and, as a result, its non-indexation in Google. By using professional SEO services and understanding the reasons for the site not being indexed in Google, you can successfully bring your website to the top of Google’s rankings.
What does site indexing mean in Google?
Indexing a site in Google means registering and storing your site pages in Google’s index. In simpler terms, when your site pages are indexed by Google, it means that Google has identified them, read their content, and stored them in its database. For this reason, you should pay attention to this point when compiling categories and sitemaps, and benefit from the experiences of SEO services in Mashhad or other cities and receive technical advice.
How does Google index a website?
Google robots visit websites and identify and read the accessible files and pages and index them. This process consists of two main steps: first, “crawl”, which means finding web pages through the links between them. Second, “index”, which refers to extracting and storing information related to the pages. Therefore, in order for pages to appear in Google search results, they must first be identified by robots and then indexed.
How do I know if my website is not indexed?
Before we get into the reasons why a site is not indexed in Google, it’s best to learn how to check the index status of your site’s pages. Indexing refers to the process of indexing web pages, meaning that search engines read the pages and record them individually in their database. One quick way to check indexing is to use the “site:” operator (:site) in Google search. By entering the domain in question in this way, you can see all the pages on that domain that have been indexed by Google.
You can also enter the URL of a specific page to see if that page has been indexed individually. These methods help SEOs and site owners check the index status of their pages.
How to add pages to Google’s index
If you want to submit pages that are not yet indexed to Google, you should first check your sitemap and robots.txt file. Then you can use the “Request Indexing” option in Google Search Console. This option is located in the left-hand menu, under the “URL Inspection” subcategory. After entering this section, a page will open for you where you can enter the address of the unindexed pages.
The address must be entered completely and accurately, for example: http://example.com/adobe/photoshop/retouch.aspx. By clicking the “Request Indexing” button, a faster process of requesting indexing of that page will begin. These steps will help you submit your pages to Google and possibly speed up their indexing.
What are the most important reasons why a site is not indexed in Google?
What are the most important reasons why a site is not indexed in Google?
No response code 200
If your website pages don’t have a 200 (OK) response code, search engines won’t index them. This code indicates that the request was successfully processed on the server and the content was sent to the browser. Sometimes URLs can be broken for various reasons, such as accidental redirects, 404 or 500 errors, which can be caused by content management system (CMS) issues, or user errors. To make sure that the page URL is loading properly, you can verify its status with a quick check or by using tools like HTTPStatus.io.
Blocked by robots.txt
The robots.txt file on your website gives search engines instructions about how to crawl your site. If a page on your website is not indexed, this file should be checked first. If, by mistake, a previously indexed page is now blocked in robots.txt, Google may display a message stating “The page is not available because the URL is in the robots.txt file.” This can be considered one of the most important reasons why a site is not indexed in Google.
noindex robots meta tag
When Google sees a robots meta tag on a page, it receives an explicit instruction not to index that page. Google respects this instruction and it can be coded in a few different ways:
- Noindex, follow: The page is not indexed, but the links on it are still followed.
- Noindex, nofollow: The page and its links are not indexed or followed.
- Noindex, follow, noodp: The page is not indexed, the links are followed, and the ODP directory is not used.
- Noindex, nofollow, noodp: The page and its links are not indexed or followed, and the ODP directory is not used.
x-robots noindex tag
The X-robots tag is similar to the robots meta tag and allows you to control the indexing of pages in Google through page tags. However, this tag is used in the header of a specific page or document and is usually used for non-HTML files such as PDF and DOC that do not have a <head> section. Webmasters can easily manage pages or files that they do not want to be indexed by Google using this tag.
Internal duplicate content
Internal duplicate content can be a major reason why your site isn’t indexed in Google. To identify duplicate content, use the Siteliner tool, which scans your website and reports pages with similar content.
External duplicate content
External duplicate content means that your website content is copied from other sites, which can be a sign of low-quality content and should be avoided. To identify duplicate content, you can search for a piece of content in Google. Reputable brands may rank well with duplicate content, but low-reputation sites may not be indexed or may rank lower. To check for external duplicate content, it is recommended to use the Copyscape tool, which provides a useful report on how much duplicate content your site has compared to other sites.
Worthless page content
It’s also possible that a specific page or your entire website is so weak that Google doesn’t have enough value to index it. For example, affiliate marketing sites that only create dynamic ads are usually of little value to users. For this reason, Google has updated its algorithms to prevent these types of sites from ranking. This type of content is one of the main reasons why a site isn’t indexed in Google.
Incorrect use of Google sitemaps
Sitemaps play a key role in the indexing of website pages and allow you to declare your site pages to search engines, so that Google bots can examine them more carefully. Every time the content of a page changes, the sitemap must also be updated. However, many website administrators submit a static file to Google instead of using a dynamic sitemap, which causes their pages to be indexed either late or not at all.
Slow information update speed
Frequent website updates with high-quality content attract the attention of search engines to your site. Search engines generally value regular content updates; so Google adjusts its crawling speed based on the frequency of your site updates. If you publish one article a day, Google crawler visits your site once a day, and if you have 10 articles a day, its crawling speed increases. Therefore, the indexing time of the content depends on the update rate of your website. This can be one of the reasons why the site is not indexed in Google, which occurs over a long period of time.
Internet server outage
Server outages can have a significant impact on the performance and accessibility of websites. Sudden and unstable server outages can cause page loading problems and disconnect users from the site. This not only affects the user experience, but can also lead to a site ranking drop in search engine results, as search engines are less likely to trust sites that are frequently unavailable. Therefore, ensuring server stability and resolving downtime issues is essential to maintaining optimal website performance and attracting users.
Final words
Not indexing your site pages in Google can have a negative impact on your traffic and rankings. To avoid this problem, using SEO services in Mashhad can help you improve your website performance and introduce your pages correctly to Google. Some of the reasons why a site is not indexed in Google include the lack of internal and external links, the use of various robots, duplicated useless content, and even slow page loading speed. Note that the responsiveness of the website is one of the most important factors in Google not recognizing pages.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I index pages manually?
Using “URL Inspection” in Google Search Console, you can submit a request to re-index the page. However, note that this may not be done quickly and depends on Google’s algorithms.
How often does Google index new pages?
The time it takes for pages to be indexed varies and depends on factors such as site popularity, link structure, and content updates. Some pages may be indexed quickly, while others may take longer.
Does not indexing pages hurt SEO?
If your important, high-quality pages are not indexed, your site traffic and rankings may be affected. Therefore, it is important to identify and fix the reason why the pages are not indexed.