\n<\/span><\/p>\n
But some pages never get automatically indexed by search engines<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 or the indexing is removed.<\/p>\n
This content is\u00a0invisible<\/b>\u00a0to search engines<\/b>, so people browsing the net can\u2019t find it either.<\/p>\n
Many business owners don\u2019t realise when their pages aren\u2019t indexed.<\/p>\n
This article shows you how to quickly check that each web page has been indexed by Google (the most popular search engine). And if any pages aren\u2019t indexed, we explain possible causes, and how to fix it.<\/p>\n
This is crucial \u2013 so Google search bots can find your pages. You then have a shot at competing for the top-ranking spots that attract the most traffic because of high visibility.<\/p>\n
But you have to be in the race to win it (only possible if indexed, of course)!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
How to check if a page is indexed on Google<\/b><\/h2>\n
Here are two techniques you can use.<\/p>\n
1. Check the indexing of a single page in Google:<\/b><\/h5>\n
Open a new window in \u201cprivate browser\u201d (incognito) mode<\/p>\n
Type in\u00a0site:page url with no spaces<\/b><\/p>\n
If the page has been indexed, it will show up here:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/site-index-check.png\")
<\/p>\n
If the page hasn\u2019t been indexed, it will look like this:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ewab.png\")
<\/p>\n
2. Check the indexing of a single page in Google Search Console:<\/b><\/h5>\n\n- Open your\u00a0Google Search Console<\/a>\u00a0account (free to use)<\/li>\n
- There\u2019s a search bar at the top of the page: [inspect any URL in \u201cwebsite\u201d]<\/li>\n
- Type the exact URL of the page you want to inspect in that search bar<\/li>\n
- Press enter<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/request-indexing-google-search-console.png\")
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If your page isn\u2019t indexed, you will see \u201cURL is not on Google\u201d.<\/p>\n
3. Check what pages (multiple) haven\u2019t been indexed:<\/b><\/h5>\n
Open your Google Search Console account and select \u201ccoverage\u201d in the menu on the left side.<\/p>\n
Tick the \u201cerror\u201d box.<\/p>\n
Any pages that were unable to be indexed will be listed (there are none in this example).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/ERROR.png\")
<\/p>\n
If any errors are listed, click on the error to find out what specific pages are impacted.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screenshot-2021-05-12-155429.png\")
<\/p>\n
Give us a call if you don\u2019t already have a free Google Search Console account, and need help setting one up (we plan to publish a guide on how to do this in the future).<\/p>\n
Note:<\/b><\/p>\n
All search engines have their own listings, so a page that\u2019s indexed on Google isn\u2019t necessarily indexed on others like Yahoo and Bing. However, usually pages that are indexed on one search engine eventually show up on the others too. If it is taking a long time you may want to contact us to sort it out.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/shutterstock_1323626738.png\")
<\/p>\n
Common reasons why your page isn\u2019t indexed (and how to fix it)<\/b><\/h2>\n1. The page was only recently published:<\/b><\/h5>\n
It usually takes Google between four days and four weeks to index a page. This duration is influenced by a number of factors, such as:<\/p>\n
\n- Site domain age<\/li>\n
- Level of site authority<\/li>\n
- Website size<\/li>\n
- Quality of website content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As a general rule of thumb, new and large websites take longer to index.<\/p>\n
Is it possible to speed up this process?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like your page to get indexed faster, you can ask Google to make this a priority.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how to do that in Google Search Console:<\/b><\/p>\n
Enter the URL in the search bar at the top of the page<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/PUT-THE-URL-HERE.png\")
<\/p>\n
If the page hasn\u2019t been indexed, you will see a message \u201cURL is not on Google\u201d. Click the \u201crequest indexing\u201d button to get the page listed by Google.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/url-is-not-on-google.png\")
<\/p>\n
Note:<\/b>\u00a0this particular technique only speeds up indexing on Google, as Google Search Console doesn\u2019t link to other search engines.<\/p>\n
By the way, it\u2019s tempting to request indexing for every page, straight after publishing. However, don\u2019t get carried away by submitting too many requests at the same time \u2013 as Google may not appreciate this influx. It\u2019s best to use this tool if your page doesn\u2019t get indexed after a reasonable amount of time (a week or so).<\/p>\n
2. You accidentally set the page to \u201cno index\u201d when publishing:<\/b><\/h5>\n
You may not realise that \u201cno index\u201d tags are embedded in your code, while uploading content. This code may have been added by someone who designed your site.<\/p>\n
If your page isn\u2019t getting indexed, open the content management system that you\u2019re using and check the code.<\/p>\n
Find and remove:<\/p>\n
\n- \u201cnoindex\u201d meta tags in the pages HTML code<\/li>\n
- \u201cnoindex\u201d header tags in the HTTP request<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A quick way to see if \u201cnoindex\u201d codes are embedded into your code:<\/p>\n
\n- CTRL + U (on windows) to open the page source code document<\/li>\n
- CTRL + F search for \u201cnoindex\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
If you don\u2019t remove this code from pages that you want to index, Google crawlers will eliminate that page from the search results, and users won\u2019t be able to find it.<\/p>\n
Note:<\/b>\u00a0this strategy should resolve indexing for all search engines (not just Google)<\/p>\n3. The googlebot crawler is blocked in your robots.txt<\/b><\/h5>\n
The robots.txt file instructs crawlers to avoid or follow certain pages and elements on a website.<\/p>\n
Has your file blocked Google\u2019s crawlers from particular pages?<\/p>\n
This doesn\u2019t stop\u00a0search engines from indexing the page, but they won\u2019t crawl it \u2013 which means no page description will show up in the search results. However, this rarely happens (it would only be an issue if an SEO technician had previously set it up this way by mistake).<\/p>\n
If you want to be sure:<\/p>\n
Find out by opening your Google Search Console account and use\u00a0this tool<\/a>\u00a0to identify any errors on a nominated URL.<\/p>\nType the URL in the toolbar and click \u201ctest\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/submit-the-url.png\")
<\/p>\n
This is what you want the page to look like for indexing reasons:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/googlebot-crawler.png\")
<\/p>\n
A \u201cblocked\u201d description means that search engine crawlers have been told not to request that page from your site (to prevent your site from being overloaded with requests).<\/p>\n
A faster way to find multiple blocked pages on your website:<\/b><\/p>\n
Type\u00a0\/robots.txt<\/b>\u00a0after your URL in Google\u2019s search bar.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example from The Washington Post (all blocked pages are identified with \u201cdisallow\u201d).<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/washington-post-robots.png\")
<\/p>\n
How to fix this:<\/b><\/p>\n
You will need to access the robots.txt file on the server to edit it. If you\u2019re using WordPress, SEO plugins like Yoast have functionality to fix this.<\/p>\n
Note: this strategy should resolve indexing for all search engines (not just Google).<\/p>\n
4. Your website has been penalised by Google:<\/b><\/h5>\n
Google may deindex your page if you breach its\u00a0Quality Guidelines<\/a>, spam links or break any other rules \u2013 whether intentionally or not. If your site has been hacked, you could also incur a penalty (even though this wasn\u2019t your fault).<\/p>\nTo find out if your site has been penalised, open the\u00a0Manual Actions report<\/a>\u00a0on your Google Search Console account.<\/p>\nThis is what you want to see:<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.digitalburst.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/no-issues-detected.png\")
<\/p>\n
If your website has been penalised, the issue will be listed in the report.<\/p>\n
The penalty should be removed after you\u2019ve fixed the violation and explained the resolution to Google.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If your page isn\u2019t indexed, you will see \u201cURL is not on Google\u201d.<\/p>\n
3. Check what pages (multiple) haven\u2019t been indexed:<\/b><\/h5>\n
Open your Google Search Console account and select \u201ccoverage\u201d in the menu on the left side.<\/p>\n
Tick the \u201cerror\u201d box.<\/p>\n
Any pages that were unable to be indexed will be listed (there are none in this example).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
If any errors are listed, click on the error to find out what specific pages are impacted.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Give us a call if you don\u2019t already have a free Google Search Console account, and need help setting one up (we plan to publish a guide on how to do this in the future).<\/p>\n
Note:<\/b><\/p>\n
All search engines have their own listings, so a page that\u2019s indexed on Google isn\u2019t necessarily indexed on others like Yahoo and Bing. However, usually pages that are indexed on one search engine eventually show up on the others too. If it is taking a long time you may want to contact us to sort it out.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Common reasons why your page isn\u2019t indexed (and how to fix it)<\/b><\/h2>\n1. The page was only recently published:<\/b><\/h5>\n
It usually takes Google between four days and four weeks to index a page. This duration is influenced by a number of factors, such as:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Site domain age<\/li>\n
- Level of site authority<\/li>\n
- Website size<\/li>\n
- Quality of website content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As a general rule of thumb, new and large websites take longer to index.<\/p>\n
Is it possible to speed up this process?<\/b><\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d like your page to get indexed faster, you can ask Google to make this a priority.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s how to do that in Google Search Console:<\/b><\/p>\n
Enter the URL in the search bar at the top of the page<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIf the page hasn\u2019t been indexed, you will see a message \u201cURL is not on Google\u201d. Click the \u201crequest indexing\u201d button to get the page listed by Google.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nNote:<\/b>\u00a0this particular technique only speeds up indexing on Google, as Google Search Console doesn\u2019t link to other search engines.<\/p>\n
By the way, it\u2019s tempting to request indexing for every page, straight after publishing. However, don\u2019t get carried away by submitting too many requests at the same time \u2013 as Google may not appreciate this influx. It\u2019s best to use this tool if your page doesn\u2019t get indexed after a reasonable amount of time (a week or so).<\/p>\n
2. You accidentally set the page to \u201cno index\u201d when publishing:<\/b><\/h5>\n
You may not realise that \u201cno index\u201d tags are embedded in your code, while uploading content. This code may have been added by someone who designed your site.<\/p>\n
If your page isn\u2019t getting indexed, open the content management system that you\u2019re using and check the code.<\/p>\n
Find and remove:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cnoindex\u201d meta tags in the pages HTML code<\/li>\n
- \u201cnoindex\u201d header tags in the HTTP request<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
A quick way to see if \u201cnoindex\u201d codes are embedded into your code:<\/p>\n
- \n
- CTRL + U (on windows) to open the page source code document<\/li>\n
- CTRL + F search for \u201cnoindex\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
If you don\u2019t remove this code from pages that you want to index, Google crawlers will eliminate that page from the search results, and users won\u2019t be able to find it.<\/p>\n
Note:<\/b>\u00a0this strategy should resolve indexing for all search engines (not just Google)<\/p>\n
3. The googlebot crawler is blocked in your robots.txt<\/b><\/h5>\n
The robots.txt file instructs crawlers to avoid or follow certain pages and elements on a website.<\/p>\n
Has your file blocked Google\u2019s crawlers from particular pages?<\/p>\n
This doesn\u2019t stop\u00a0search engines from indexing the page, but they won\u2019t crawl it \u2013 which means no page description will show up in the search results. However, this rarely happens (it would only be an issue if an SEO technician had previously set it up this way by mistake).<\/p>\n
If you want to be sure:<\/p>\n
Find out by opening your Google Search Console account and use\u00a0this tool<\/a>\u00a0to identify any errors on a nominated URL.<\/p>\n
Type the URL in the toolbar and click \u201ctest\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThis is what you want the page to look like for indexing reasons:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nA \u201cblocked\u201d description means that search engine crawlers have been told not to request that page from your site (to prevent your site from being overloaded with requests).<\/p>\n
A faster way to find multiple blocked pages on your website:<\/b><\/p>\n
Type\u00a0\/robots.txt<\/b>\u00a0after your URL in Google\u2019s search bar.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s an example from The Washington Post (all blocked pages are identified with \u201cdisallow\u201d).<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nHow to fix this:<\/b><\/p>\n
You will need to access the robots.txt file on the server to edit it. If you\u2019re using WordPress, SEO plugins like Yoast have functionality to fix this.<\/p>\n
Note: this strategy should resolve indexing for all search engines (not just Google).<\/p>\n
4. Your website has been penalised by Google:<\/b><\/h5>\n
Google may deindex your page if you breach its\u00a0Quality Guidelines<\/a>, spam links or break any other rules \u2013 whether intentionally or not. If your site has been hacked, you could also incur a penalty (even though this wasn\u2019t your fault).<\/p>\n
To find out if your site has been penalised, open the\u00a0Manual Actions report<\/a>\u00a0on your Google Search Console account.<\/p>\n
This is what you want to see:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIf your website has been penalised, the issue will be listed in the report.<\/p>\n
The penalty should be removed after you\u2019ve fixed the violation and explained the resolution to Google.<\/p>\n