How to Check If My Website Indexed By Google

Introduction

Getting a website indexed by Google is crucial for driving organic search traffic, leads, and sales. However, many website owners don’t realize that creating a website does not guarantee instant indexing by Google. You have to put in consistent efforts to get Google to crawl, index, and rank your site.

This comprehensive guide will teach you how to check if your website is indexed by Google and troubleshoot any indexing issues.

Importance of Google Indexing

Google processes over 3.5 billion searches per day. Ranking on the first page of Google for relevant keywords can send thousands of visitors to your site every month.

However, for that to happen, Google first needs to discover and index your website content. Indexing refers to adding your web pages into Google’s massive database of web content.

Here are some key reasons why getting indexed by Google matters:

• Increased Site Traffic: Indexing allows your content to appear in search results, directing qualified organic traffic to your site.
• Boosts Brand Visibility: Indexing makes your brand name, products, and services more discoverable in Google search.
• Drives Revenue Opportunities: More traffic and visibility ultimately lead to more sales and revenue.
• Creates Authority: Indexing signals Google to trust your site as an authority in your niche.

Simply put, if your site is not indexed, you are missing out on a prime channel for free and qualified traffic.

Brief Overview of Google’s Indexing Process

To understand indexing, you need a basic grasp of how Google indexes websites:

• Googlebot crawls the web to discover new pages. It extracts info from websites to be added to Google’s index.
• Various signals like links, content, and site speed indicate a page’s importance.
• Important pages indexed by Google can then start ranking in search results.

The key steps for getting a page indexed include:

1. Getting discovered by Googlebot through sitemaps or links
2. Getting crawled successfully to extract page content
3. Getting into the Google index to show up in search

Now let’s see how you can confirm if your site has passed these critical stages.

How to Check if Your Website is Indexed

There are several methods to determine if Google has indexed your site, such as:

• Using Google Search Operators: Special search queries help find your pages.
• Checking Google Search Console: Review vital indexing info in your Search Console.
• Using Third-Party SEO Tools: Online audit tools examine indexing status.

Let’s explore the specifics of each approach:

Using the Google Search Operator

Google Search operators or commands allow searching for specific sites or pages. Some useful operators for checking indexing include:

1. site: Shows if any page from a site is indexed:

site:yourwebsite.com

2. inurl: Reveals if a specific URL or file is indexed:

inurl:yourwebsite.com/file-name

3. “url”: Enter your exact URL in quotes to see if that page is indexed:

"https://www.yourwebsite.com/blog/sample-post"

4. url: Enter your exact URL without quotes to see if that page is indexed:

https://www.yourwebsite.com/blog/sample-post

If Google returns search results for your operators, it means your site is indexed. No search results mean pages are not indexed yet.

Google Search Console

The Google Search Console offers more conclusive indexing insights:

1. Add your website’s property in Search Console
2. Navigate to the Coverage Report
3. Review the Index Status and number of indexed pages
4. Use the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console to check if your website link is indexed or not.

Third-Party Tools

SEO tools like Indexsor.com, Ahrefs, Moz, and Semrush also indicate if your site is indexed.

For example:

• Index Checker The best and cheapest option to check you website links are indexed or not, if not then you can index them using their indexing service provider.
• Ahrefs Site Explorer shows indexed pages/links
• Moz Link Explorer reveals inbound links and mentions
• Semrush Domain Overview displays high-level indexing stats

So use these along with Search Console to validate if Google has discovered your site.

Common Reasons Your Website Might Not Be Indexed

If your site isn’t indexed even after months of launching/updating it, some common roadblocks could be:

Mistakes with Robots.txt File

The robots.txt file guides search bots on what to crawl. If misconfigured, it could block Googlebot, preventing indexing.

Noindex Meta Tags

The noindex tag tells Google not to index a page. Accidentally adding it via plugins/theme can affect indexing.

Canonical Tag Issues

Canonical tags indicate the “master” page version to index. Improper canonicals can confuse Googlebot leading to indexing issues.

Internal Link Problems

If important site sections aren’t internally linked, Googlebot may not discover those pages for indexing.

Duplicate Content

Indexing identical content across domains violates Google guidelines. This could negatively impact indexing.

Low-Quality Pages

Thin content, excessive ads, site errors – these could label your site as low-quality by Google, hampering indexing.

Now that you know why your site may be missing from results, let’s cover how to get indexed.

How to Fix Indexing Issues

Here are proven tactics to diagnose and resolve indexing problems:

Remove Noindex Tags

Examine page source code in SEO tools to identify noindexed pages. Delete noindex meta tags unless you specifically don’t want a page indexed.

Update Robots.txt File

Use an online robots.txt analyzer to spot errors allowing you to update this file correctly.

Fix Canonical Tag Issues

Point all canonical tags to the correct URL you want indexed as per Google guidelines. This will prevent duplicate content penalties and indexing issues.

Improve Internal Linking

Interlink related content across site sections through contextual anchor text links. This allows Googlebot to easily crawl your site for improved indexing.

Enhance Content Quality

Fix site errors, increase page speed, optimize content with unique headers, meta descriptions, etc. High-quality content has better chances of getting indexed.

How to Get Your Website Indexed Quickly

Along with troubleshooting any indexing blocks, here are proven tips to expedite indexing:

Submit Sitemap to Google Search Console

A sitemap provides search engines a list of important pages to be crawled and indexed. Submit XML and HTML sitemaps in Search Console.

Request Indexing through Google Search Console

Search Console allows manually requesting Google to crawl and index specific URLs. Use this to index new or updated pages that you urgently want indexed.

Leverage Social Media and Backlinks

Pages shared on social media or having external sites linking to them are more likely to grab Google’s attention for faster indexing.

Monitor Crawl Errors

Debug crawl errors like site errors, duplicate content, etc. surfaced in Search Console to uncover and fix indexing obstacles.

Regular Maintenance for Continued Indexing

Don’t just optimize your website once and leave it! You must perform ongoing maintenance to sustain indexing:

Regular Content Audits

Audit site content using SEO tools to check for excluded pages, thin pages needing upgrades, indexing lag, etc.

Update and Re-optimize Old Content

Refresh dated content by adding new stats/examples, restructuring layout, updating on-page elements, etc. Great content keeps attracting links and shares which influences indexing.

Monitor Competitors

See what content formats and topics your competitors are targeting, consider creating such content to stay competitively indexed.

Conclusion

Checking if your website is indexed by Google is crucial for unlocking organic search visibility and traffic. Use the various techniques outlined in this guide to confirm your current indexing status.

Pay attention to diagnosing and solving any issues preventing Google from properly crawling or indexing your site’s content.

Consistently create content that provides value to users while employing on-page and off-page SEO best practices. This will ensure the continued discovery, indexing, and ranking of your web pages in Google.

Ultimately, ignore your competitors and focus on understanding users’ search intent so you can provide content that ranks #1 organically!

FAQs

1. How often does Google index new content?

Google indexes new content from websites daily through its ever-crawling Googlebot. Typically, pages with good signals like links, shares, engagements can get indexed within days. Newer sites may take longer to establish trust for indexing.

2. What’s the average time for a new site to get indexed?

It can take anywhere between days to several months for a brand new website to get fully indexed by Google. Several factors like links profile, quality metrics, site updates influence indexing time. So remain patient while employing best practices.

3. How long does it take for new content to appear in Google?

Properly optimized and linked content could start appearing in search results within a week. However, full rankings potential may take over a month. For fresh websites with no reputation, first-page rankings could take over six months via organic channel alone.

4. Does Google index webpages without links?

Yes, Google can index pages without backlinks through discovery via XML sitemaps. However, links serve as citations establishing page authority. So unlinked orphan pages may not rank high. Ensure wider internal linking and external links where possible.

5. How often should you check indexing status?

Ideally, check Google indexing stats every month. Review newly added pages via Google Search Console along with your most important landing pages. Monitoring this monthly allows you to notice and fix any indexing declines on key pages proactively.