Technical signals that affect Google indexing

Sarah Mathews

Sarah Mathews

Supreme Member
Jr. VIP
Joined
Sep 1, 2009
Messages
1,343
Reaction score
361
Good Day everyone, Google indexing seems to behave differently depending on the site and page.

When a page isnt getting indexed, which technical signals do you check first?
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt
  • Xml sitemap
  • Internal linking
  • Http status codes
  • Duplicate content
  • Crawlability
  • Page rendering

Have you noticed any particular technical fix consistently helping pages get indexed faster?
 
Advertise on BHW
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt

    Yep these two here have the main copyright most of the time and unfortunately there are plugins that you can mistakenly set noindex on some internal pages. This has recently happened to one of our clients
 
Last edited:
Topiano said:
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt

    Yep these two here have the main copyright most of the time and unfortunately that's on plugins that you can mistakenly set noindex on some internal pages. This has recently happened to one of our clients
Click to expand...
I have an expired domain I got and restored some of its pages, trying to get it indexed but having weird results. Some internal pages are indexed and show up on Google but homepage is not.

Though I haven't had time to properly scrutinize it, none of these are the issues.
 
HenryObi said:
I have an expired domain I got and restored some of its pages, trying to get it indexed but having weird results. Some internal pages are indexed and show up on Google but homepage is not.

Though I haven't had time to properly scrutinize it, none of these are the issues.
Click to expand...


  1. Audit it for canonical index. You can use free plugins or some random tool to test if you have any issue with canonicalization.
  2. You probably just want to force index it. That's going to work as well. If the page is indexable then force index it. Most of the time it pops up and works.
Let me know if you need some help. We can run over it together
 
Topiano said:
  1. Audit it for canonical index. You can use free plugins or some random tool to test if you have any issue with canonicalization.
  2. You probably just want to force index it. That's going to work as well. If the page is indexable then force index it. Most of the time it pops up and works.
Click to expand...
To be honest I haven't actually had time to do anything serious about it as I was going for it because one nice DF link it has.
Topiano said:
Let me know if you need some help. We can run over it together
Click to expand...
Would be glad if you'd like to have a look at it.
 
Sarah Mathews said:
Good Day everyone, Google indexing seems to behave differently depending on the site and page.

When a page isnt getting indexed, which technical signals do you check first?
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt
  • Xml sitemap
  • Internal linking
  • Http status codes
  • Duplicate content
  • Crawlability
  • Page rendering

Have you noticed any particular technical fix consistently helping pages get indexed faster?
Click to expand...
I would check whether you have the canonical link robots.txt, and noindex tags on the page then i would pay attention to internal linking and the HTTP status of the page it may seem like a good starting point.
 
Check server response headers and js rendering first. If google bot fetches a clean 200 ok via GSC inspection but drops it into discovered currently not indexed, missing contextual internal links from high crawl rate pages is usually the culprit.
 
I am not yet familiar with the technical aspects of SEO but I will look first into no index tag canonical tags and robots txt file After that i will check on internal links and sitemap
sometimes a website is accessible but may not have enough value to be indexed by Google.
 
Sarah Mathews said:
Good Day everyone, Google indexing seems to behave differently depending on the site and page.

When a page isnt getting indexed, which technical signals do you check first?
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt
  • Xml sitemap
  • Internal linking
  • Http status codes
  • Duplicate content
  • Crawlability
  • Page rendering

Have you noticed any particular technical fix consistently helping pages get indexed faster?
Click to expand...
Hi,
I first check the canonical tags and robots.txt file. Then I check the XML sitemap and internal linking. In most cases, these four checks work.
 
Topiano said:
  1. Audit it for canonical index. You can use free plugins or some random tool to test if you have any issue with canonicalization.
  2. You probably just want to force index it. That's going to work as well. If the page is indexable then force index it. Most of the time it pops up and works.
Let me know if you need some help. We can run over it together
Click to expand...
The approach is correct, but simply requesting indexing wont fix every indexing problem. Its better to diagnose the issue first and then request indexing :)
 
Sarah Mathews said:
Good Day everyone, Google indexing seems to behave differently depending on the site and page.

When a page isnt getting indexed, which technical signals do you check first?
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt
  • Xml sitemap
  • Internal linking
  • Http status codes
  • Duplicate content
  • Crawlability
  • Page rendering

Have you noticed any particular technical fix consistently helping pages get indexed faster?
Click to expand...
Internal linking as my choice, check when a page isn’t getting indexed, assuming there are no technical blocks. Adding relevant links from pages google crawls regularly helps it to discover the page, but I’d still check GSC for actual issue.
 
I would identify the issue in GSC first and then take action accordingly. If it says “Crawled, currently not indexed,” I would review the content for quality issues, duplication, etc.
It depends on the situation and what is causing the issue.
 
- Internal linking
bc if Google can’t find a page through links from yer already-indexed pages, it’s basically sayin “this page doesn’t matter,” n no sitemap submit or canonical fix will override that signal.
 
Sarah Mathews said:
Good Day everyone, Google indexing seems to behave differently depending on the site and page.

When a page isnt getting indexed, which technical signals do you check first?
  • Canonical setup
  • noindex / robots.txt
  • Xml sitemap
  • Internal linking
  • Http status codes
  • Duplicate content
  • Crawlability
  • Page rendering

Have you noticed any particular technical fix consistently helping pages get indexed faster?
Click to expand...
Generally, I tend to look for canonical tags, noindex commands, HTTP status codes, and internal links first. Crawlability, uniqueness, and linking from indexed, relevant pages can sometimes make Google find the webpage easier.
 
One approach is to compare indexed and non-indexed URLs using a technical SEO crawler such as KWT Spider. It can help identify differences in canonical tags, robots directives, HTTP status codes, metadata, and internal linking that may be worth investigating. Comparing both groups can reveal patterns that a general site-wide audit might miss. It won’t explain Google’s indexing decision by itself, but it can provide useful technical evidence alongside Search Console data
 
Advertise on BHW
You must log in or register to reply here.
Sign up now!

Main Menu

Home Main Forum List Black Hat SEO White Hat SEO BHW Newbie Guide Blogging Black Hat Tools Social Media Downloads

Marketplace

Account Selling Content / Copywriting EBooks / Methods Hosting Misc Proxies For Sale SEO - Link building SEO - Packages Social Media Social Media - Panels Web Design More

Making Money

Affiliate Programs Hire a Freelancer IM Journeys Making Money Pay Per Click Site Flipping Want to Buy

BlackHat World

Dispute Resolution Forum Suggestions & Feedback Introductions Lounge
Back
Top