Ensuring your web pages remain indexed by Google is crucial for maintaining online visibility and driving organic traffic. However, there are situations where your pages may get removed from Google’s index, leading to a significant setback in search rankings and website performance.
So, what is deindexing, how can you even get deindexed and what do you do once there?
What is Deindexing and Why Does It Happen?
Deindexing refers to the process of search engines, such as Google, removing web pages from their catalogs, essentially. When a page is deindexed, it will no longer appear in search results, which naturally decreases the live traffic and visibility of your pages.
Common Reasons for Deindexing
- Technical errors on your website can prevent search engines from crawling and indexing your pages properly. These issues may include server errors, incorrect robots.txt configurations, or misconfigured meta tags.
- Search engines prioritize unique and valuable content. If your website has duplicate content across multiple pages or domains, search engines may deindex the duplicate pages to avoid serving redundant results to users.
- Pages with thin or low-quality content, lacking substantial value to users, are at risk of deindexing. Google aims to provide users with the most relevant and helpful results, and pages that do not meet these criteria may be excluded from the index.
- In some cases, Google may manually penalize websites for violating its Webmaster Guidelines. If your website engages in spammy practices or violates search engine rules, it could face a manual penalty leading to deindexing.
- If your website falls victim to hacking or contains malware, Google may deindex it to protect users from potential security risks.
Now that you know what makes Google hate your pages, you might want to check your website for any deindexing threats.
Rush Analytics Indexing Checker
“The simplest tool you can use to check the indexing situation for your pages is by using the Google Indexing Tool offered by Rush Analytics. It offers digestible data on this matter, and does it quickly. If you aren’t tech-friendly, it’s an especially good find for you: you can expect a good deal of precision from it, and it will also save you a lot of time”, says George Rossoshansky, an SEO consultant.
Steps to Take When Pages are Deindexed
If your web pages get deindexed, it’s important o take immediate action to fix the issues and regain your website’s visibility in search results. Here’s what you need to do.
Diagnosing the Issue and Root Cause Analysis
You can review the situation using the Rush indexing tool. This will let you identify the extent of deindexing and any associated errors or warnings. Conduct a comprehensive site audit to identify technical issues, duplicate content, or potential manual actions that may have led to deindexing.
Fixing Technical Errors and Site-wide Issues Affecting Indexing
Address server errors, faulty redirects, and other technical issues that hinder search engine crawlers from accessing and indexing your pages. Check and optimize your robots.txt file to ensure that search engines can crawl and index the intended pages. Verify that your website is mobile-friendly and accessible to both desktop and mobile users. For assistance with generating a robots.txt file, you can use the tool available at Keysearch.
Addressing Content-Related Issues and Optimizing for Relevance
Identify pages with thin or low-quality content and enhance them with valuable and unique information that aligns with user intent. Resolve duplicate content problems by implementing canonical tags or consolidating similar pages. Focus on creating engaging and relevant content that targets relevant keywords and provides value to your audience.
<H3> Submitting Sitemaps and Reindexing Requests
Generate an up-to-date XML sitemap and submit it to Google Search Console to ensure that all your essential pages are discoverable by search engines. There’s a good guide for it on Google Blog. Then request reindexing for fixed or updated pages using the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console. This accelerates the process of getting your pages back into the index.
Preventative Measures to Avoid Deindexing
Preventing deindexing is vital for maintaining your website’s online visibility and SEO performance. Implementing proactive measures can safeguard your web pages from being removed from Google’s index. Here are key strategies to consider:
Regularly Use the Indexing Checker
Use the Indexing Checker all the time to detect and address potential indexing issues promptly. Use the URL Inspection tool regularly to ensure individual pages are indexed correctly.
Identifying and Resolving Duplicate Content
Conduct regular content audits to identify and consolidate duplicate or similar content across your website. Implement canonical tags to specify the preferred version of pages with identical content.
Avoiding Spammy Practices and Abiding by Guidelines
Adhere to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines, avoiding practices like keyword stuffing, link schemes, and cloaking. Refrain from using hidden text or other deceptive techniques that violate search engine rules.
Reindex Updated Pages
It’s always a smart idea to request re-indexing of specific pages on your website when you make major changes, such as transforming the URL structure or shifting from http to https.
