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One of the most frustrating things in SEO is waiting for Google to index your site. If you’ve ever added a new page or post to your site and then checked its status several times and found that it still hasn’t been indexed, you know what I’m talking about! Ba, nowadays it even happens that pages escape from the index.
The process of indexing a page is simple: the Google robot crawls the Internet, discovers new pages and adds them to the search engine’s index. However, sometimes things can go wrong and pages can be missed. This has been happening mostly recently, in a world where resources are becoming limited. In turn, if your pages are not indexed properly, they will not rank well. Most likely, they will not be in Google’s search index at all.
Luckily, there are several things you can do to speed up the URL indexing process. In this post, we’ll take a look at these ways and what the most common reasons for a lack of indexing are.
The most common reasons for a lack of indexing are.
How can you check if your URLs have been indexed?
The best and fastest way to check if your URLs have been indexed is to use the site command in Google.
For example, if you want to check if a URL https://flyhunter.pl/apartamenty-z-jacuzzi-polska/ has been indexed, just type the phrase “site:https://flyhunter.pl/apartamenty-z-jacuzzi-polska/” (omitting the quotation marks) into Google.
If the URL has been indexed by Google, a block of search engine results containing that URL will appear in response to this command. If a subpage with this address has not been indexed, you will not see any results.
Why does Google have problems indexing resources?
Google has trouble indexing more addresses and sites because it has limited resources. The indexing process is complicated and time-consuming, and it is becoming even more challenging as the amount of content grows exponentially due to, among other things, the development AI
New content is being produced at a dizzying pace, so Google has to prioritize which content to index first. That’s why it’s so important for webmasters to optimize their sites for SEO, so that their content is discovered and ranked by Google.
The content is not just for SEO.
Today it’s not enough to just create content.
Make sure your website is indexable
The first step is to make sure your site is indexable, which means that Google can access and read your site code. If your site is not indexable, then Google will not be able to index your content!
There are several things you can do to make sure your site is indexable:
#1 Check the robots.txt file
The robots.txt is a text file that tells search engine robots which pages on your site should or should not be indexed. You can use the robots.txt file to exclude pages you don’t want Google to index, such as duplicate content or low-quality content.
#2 Check your .htaccess file
Directives noindex are lines of code that tell search engine robots not to index a page. The noindex directives can be added to the robots.txt file or the htaccess file.
Other reasons for not indexing a page
The robots tag is an HTML tag you can use to tell search engine robots whether or not they should index a page, and whether or not they should follow links from it.
If you want a page to be indexed, you should usually see a robots tag in the page code containing the phrase: index, follow
Check the canonical tag
The canonical tag (rel=”canonical”) is an HTML element that tells search engines which URL they should index when there are multiple versions of the same page.
Use SEO tools
Screaming Frog is a great tool you can use to check if your site is indexable. Simply type in your URL and hit “start” and Screaming Frog will analyze your site and tell you which pages are indexable and which are not.
Server errors
Page indexing is also affected by the server. To check if it is the cause of your page indexing problems, consult your hosting provider or server administrator to see if there are any server configuration issues. You can also check it yourself using Google Search Console.
Connect your site with Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that you can use to monitor the organic traffic and effectiveness of search results for your site You can also test individual sub-pages within Google Search Console. Just enter the URL of the page you want to test and press “test,” and Google will tell you whether the page has been indexed or not, and even how Googlebot sees it.
Having trouble indexing your site?
If you need help with SEO, be sure to contact us. Together we will find a solution to your site’s problems!
Identify and resolve any technical issues
If you’ve checked all of the above and your pagesstill aren’t being indexed, there may be some technical issues that you need to resolve. Technical problems that may prevent your pages from being indexed could be low Core Web Vitals results, a slow site, poor internal linking, or even a bug that only Googlebot can see.
There may be some technical problems that you need to fix.
Google Search Console can be very helpful here, as it can indicate what the state of your site is and show you the errors that Google’s robots see when they try to index your pages. You can also see how your site’s positioning is on mobile devices.
Google Search Console can also show you how your site is positioning on mobile devices.
Submit a site map to Google Search Console
If you still can’t get your site indexed, one thing you can try is to submit your site map to Google through their Search Console.
A site sitemap is an XML file that lists all the URLs on your site. Submitting a sitemap is a great way to tell Google which pages on your site you want them to index. It also helps Google’s search engine robots find new pages on your site.
You can read more about sitemap in the post about the impact of sitemap on SEO
How long does it take for a site to be indexed in Google Search Console?
If you want to submit a specific URL for indexing, the fastest way is to do it via Google Search Console. Simply enter the URL into the bar at the top of “Check any URL” and click “submit indexing request.” The whole operation takes about 1-2 minutes. Google will then index the site and if everything looks good, it will index it within a few days.
Indexing a page in Google Indexing Api
The most efficient way, however, is to use Google Indexing API The Indexing API allows you to directly notify Google when your site’s content changes or new content appears. This is the preferred way that works with killer efficiency and effectiveness. Google Indexing API works especially well when you want to report a dozen or more addresses or want to resubmit. In this case, not only can we collectively submit addresses for indexing (many at a time), but the whole operation takes a second.
Google’s Indexing API can be used to submit URLs for page indexing, but it can also be used to de-index (remove a page from Google’s index) pages.
If you want to submit a URL for indexing within the Google Indexing API, you must have access to the site’s Google Search Console. The user defined in the Google Indexing API must have the rights of the site owner in the Google Search Console tool.
The user defined in the Google Indexing API must have the rights of the site owner in the Google Search Console tool.
If the Indexing API fails or the URL disappears from Google after some time, try submitting it again. If that fails, it’s time to investigate and look for technical problems that may be closely related to the technology on which the site is built.
Factors that affect how fast a website indexes
- One of the things Google looks at when deciding how quickly to index new content is the authority of the page, on which it is published. Therefore, it is generally a good idea to publish content on an established site with good domain authority. Then usually the indexing problem disappears.
- Another factor that can affect how quickly Google indexes pages and your URLs isthe number of other websites linking to them. If there are many other websites linking to your content, Google is likely to index it faster. If you’re starting a business, it’s a good idea to submit your site to valuable business directories.
- Finally, if you submit your URL to Google via Google Search Console or use the Indexing API, then it will generallyindex faster.
Regularly add fresh, high-quality content
One of the best things you can do to help your site get indexed isto regularly add fresh, high-quality content. Google loves fresh content and is more likely to favor indexing sites that are updated regularly.
So if you want your sites to be indexed quickly, make sure you add new content at least twice a week.
Use internal linking to link pages to each other
Another great way to ensure that your pages are indexed quickly is to use internal linking to link articles or subpages.
Internal links are links that point from one page on your site to another page on your site. They help Google understand your site’s structure and find new subpages on your site. In addition, sites that have such linking are more frequently visited by Google’s robots. If you don’t use internal linking, Google is likely to miss some of the subpages. It is also likely to underestimate their real value.
Remove duplicate content from your site
If you have duplicate or low-quality content on your site, then Google may have trouble indexing your pages. Doubled content can occur for a variety of reasons, but the most common is that people copy and paste content from other websites.
To avoid this problem, make sure that all content on your site is original, unique and valuable. You can use a tool like Copyscape to check for duplicate content on your site.
The following is a good way to avoid this problem.
Promotion, promotion, promotion!
When you’ve published your content, don’t sit around waiting for Google to find it. Go out there and promote it! The more people who see and share your content, the more likely Google will pay attention to it and give it a boost in the SERPs.
So start tweeting, emailing and sharing!
Applications
So, what can you do to make sure your pages are indexed quickly? The best thing you can do is to add fresh, high-quality content. Make sure you use internal linking to link your articles.
If you observe problems with page indexing use Search Console or Indexing API tools by submitting new URLs.
Finally, promote your content! If you follow these tips, you’ll be well on your way to having all of your pages permanently indexed by Google.
For the most part, you’ll be on your way to having all of your pages permanently indexed by Google.
Don’t want to do it yourself?
If you need help indexing and optimizing your site on Google, our SEO experts at Up&More can help. We offer a range of services, including content marketing, link building, SEO auditing and site optimization.
Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you!
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Hello! My name is Piotr Starzynski and it's a pleasure to meet you in the SEO industry. I have been officially working in SEO since 2006, while I have been working in analytics for several years. I have about 400 analytics implementations for client websites, hundreds of SEO projects and dozens of analytics projects for mobile applications. At Up&More, I am responsible for the Search Engine Optimization and Web Analytics team. If you feel like working with me, I invite you to contact me!