How to Check the Indexing Status of Your Website

How to Check the Indexing Status of Your Website

Article 108 From the Complete Do It Yourself SEO Checklist For Small Business

The indexing status of your website tells you whether search engines like Google have discovered and added your web pages to their search results. If your pages aren’t indexed, they won’t appear in search results, no matter how great your content is. Regularly checking your indexing status ensures that your website is visible to potential customers and allows you to spot and fix issues quickly, like pages that are accidentally blocked or poorly optimized.

Indexing is crucial for SEO because it’s the first step in the process of ranking your website. Even if you’ve optimized your content with great keywords, search engines can’t rank what they haven’t indexed. By monitoring your indexing status, you can make sure all your important pages are searchable, helping your site gain visibility and traffic.

How to Check the Indexing Status of Your Website

Here are some simple ways to check if your pages are indexed:

1. Use Google Search Console
   • Sign in to Google Search Console. In the left-hand menu, click “Pages” under the “Indexing” section. This will show you which pages are indexed and highlight any errors or pages excluded from indexing.
   • For individual pages, use the URL Inspection Tool by entering the URL in the search bar. Google will tell you if the page is indexed or not and why.
2. Search for Your Pages on Google
   • Open Google and type site:yourwebsite.com (e.g., site:yourbusiness.com). This shows all indexed pages from your site.
   • If an important page is missing, it may not be indexed yet or there might be an issue preventing indexing.
3. Check Your Robots.txt and Meta Tags
   • Ensure your pages aren’t blocked by the robots.txt file or using a noindex meta tag. Both can prevent indexing unintentionally.

What to Do if Pages Aren’t Indexed

• Submit the Pages Manually: Use the URL Inspection Tool in Google Search Console to request indexing.
• Fix Errors: If Google flags issues (like crawl errors or blocked resources), resolve them and re-submit the page.
• Review Your Sitemap: Make sure your sitemap is updated and submitted to Google Search Console.

By regularly checking your indexing status, you can catch issues early and ensure your website stays visible to search engines—and your customers. For more help, visit Google’s indexing support guide.