Reasons For The Downfall of Indexed Pages

Indexing is the process where you add webpages into Google search. Based on the meta tag that you use, whether it is index or no-index, Google will crawl and index on your webpages. When the page is no-index, then that page will not be present in the web search’s index. Google would recognize indexed pages and rank them more. You must index your pages by Google. There would be no rank for the page when it is not indexed. Top Digital Marketing Companies help you with steps to index your page. You can see the pages that are indexed by the following ways:

• Use the site: operator
• In the Google search console, check for the status of your XML Sitemap Submissions
• Check for the overall indexation status

When indexed pages are not set properly, the website will end up appearing less in search result. It is also a sign that Google may not like the webpage and not available to crawl it. Indexed Pages by Google tend to get more rank so that your website could be easily available for the browsers.

The following could be the reason for your indexed pages to go down:

• Your website is been slapped with Google penalty
• Google feels that your webpages are not relevant
• Google is not able to crawl your pages

You can fix this up to ensure that your website does not faces any issues. Here are some points that helps you to diagnose and fix up the issues that cause the decreasing numbers of indexed pages.

• Pages Load – Ensure that the pages load properly. Check for the following:
  1. See that you have a proper 200 HTTP Header Status
  2. Find out whether the server faces downtime issues.
  3. Whether the domain is active or expired, or renewed late

(Mobile1st)

To check out these issues, you can make use of a free HTTP Header Status check tool. This would determine there is a proper status. When the website is massive, it can be tested using crawling tool like Xenu, Screaming Frog, DeepCrawl, or Botify. The right header status is 200. You might come across some errors like 3xx, 4xx, or 5xx. These does not match with the URLs that you prefer to be indexed.

• Check If The URL Has Changed Recently – At times, when there is a change in backend programming, CMS, or server setting, it would result in domain, sub-domain, or folder change. It could consequently update the URL of a site. Search engine would recall the old URLs, but if it is not redirected properly, many pages would become de-indexed.

(PSafe)

To ensure that it does not happen, you can have a copy of the old website to be visited in some way or the other. You can then take note of all the old URLs and then map out the 301 redirects to the respective URLs

• Check For Duplicate Content Issues – Fixing of duplicate content involves implementing established tags, 301 redirects, or no index meta tags. These could result in decreasing of the indexed page.

(Search Industry)

To ensure that there are no such errors, the only remedy that you could do for your website is to double check. Check that it is certainly the cause for decrease in indexed pages and not related to anything else.

• Check For The Pages Time out – Some servers face bandwidth restrictions due to the fact of the cost related to a higher bandwidth. Such servers should be upgraded. It could also be related to hardware that could be resolved by hardware upgrade or memory limitation. Some websites block IP addresses when a visitor access many web pages at a certain rate. Even though this takes of hacking attempts, it leads to a negative implication on your website. This is monitored at a webpage’s second setting and when the threshold is low, crawling tends to hit the threshold and the bots would not be able to crawl the website properly.

If this issue is related to limitation in server bandwidth, then it is time to upgrade the services. If there is memory issue or server processing, you need to check whether you have the server caching technology in place. This ensures less stress on the server.

• Check Whether Search Engine Bots View You Website In A Different Manner – At times the way search engine spiders see the website is different than what we see. Some website developers build websites without being aware of the SEO implications. The following scenario could have been possible on various occasions:
  1. A preferred out-of-the-box CMS will be in use without being aware that it is search engine friendly
  2. It would have been done intentionally by an SEO who tried to do content cloaking and trying with gaming the search engines.
  3. The website would have been compromised by hackers, where a different page gets displayed to Google to promote the hidden links. It could also cloak the 301 re-directions to their website.

There could be a situation where Google automatically de-indexes pages when it detects that the pages are infected.

To overcome this, using the fetch and render feature of Google search console is the best way to check if the content viewed by Google bot and you are the same. As another option, you can also try to translate the page in Google Translate or check at the Google’s cached page.

However, index pages are not used as typical Key Performance Indicator (KPIs). KPIs are used to measure the SEO success. It is often revolved around organic search ranking and traffic. KPIs focuses on the business goals and are always tied to revenue. When there is an increase in indexed pages, it may increase the possible number of keywords for ranking that will eventually lead to higher profits. But, the point to look at the indexed pages is mainly to check whether search engines can crawl and be able to index your pages correctly. You should always remember that your web pages would not be able to rank when search engines are not able to see, crawl, or index them.

To check what pages are indexed by Google, use the Google Indexed Page Checker. Perform the following steps for the same:

• In the Google Indexed Page Checker, enter your URL
• The URL entered is the website that you wish to check for its rank
• Click on the continue to scan the result and get the scan result

To maintain Google-friendly website, check with the following to have your pages indexed for better rank:

• Google would have indexed your web page under a different version of your domain name. Hence, check for the data of the website.
• If your website is new, it would not be indexed as it would have got the chance to crawl and index it.

If your website is not getting listed in Google search result, you need to ask Google to reconsider the website for indexing.

Conclusion

Many times, when there is a decrease in the indexed pages it could mean a bad thing. But considering fixing a duplicate, thin, or low-quality content would also result in reducing the number of indexed pages. This is eventually a good thing. Take up the above-listed points along with the possible reasons for finding out and fixing a low indexed page.