For those who have already mastered the art of SEO, this post might not bring a lot of insight on the matter. But we are pretty sure that you’ve encountered problems at some point in your career. Mistakes happen all the time, even if you have years of experience, so today we will explain to you a few reasons why pages aren’t being indexed on Google. First of all you should check if your page is indexed or not. This can be done by typing the name of your website on Google. If it doesn’t appear in the first pages then you are doing something wrong. Without further ado here are the main reasons why pages aren’t indexed:
- NOINDEX in robots.text:This issues is easy to spot when you check in Robots.txt. Basically, if you only capitalize the N, then your page will not be indexed. You can call it an implementation glitch, which can be solved with minimal efforts.
- Rel canonical in <head>: Another blatant mistake has to do with the HTML code of the page. Check the <head> section of the text, and if it has the „canonical” property, it will tell Google that its value should be passed on to another page.
- Delayed Meta refresh ( over 0 ): Once again, you have to check the source code, in the <head> section, in order to spot this error. When this property is active, Google sends the browser on a road trip. You will have to set a delay greater than 0 for your page to be indexed.
- Parameter canonicalization in GWMT: This issue is extremely difficult to spot, especially if you are a beginner. Look for the best seo agency online and ask for their help. In order to remedy this problem you need access to the webmaster tools. If it isn’t set up the right way it might de-index all of your pages. It is a powerful tool so you should be extra careful with it.
- URL removal request in Webmaster Tools removes the page from the index within 24 hours. It cannot be spotted unless you specifically look for this problem in the Webmaster Tools.
- The No Index directive in the HTTP header can
also cause problems with page indexing. Once again, contact a seo agency if you
can’t solve the problem.
All in all, you should make a checklist of all the possible problems that might make your page non-indexable. The truth is that search engines sometimes behave in ways that we cannot understand. Nevertheless, you should try to be careful with every aspect that can cause anomalies in your website’s behavior.