Following on from this post, you should have at least looked at your Google Search Console (you DID go and look, didn’t you? And if you realised you didn’t have a GSC, you got in touch with me so I could help you, right? 😉) and have an idea of which of your website pages aren’t indexed by Google.
In the example I gave you, 535 pages weren’t indexed for 7 reasons.
So let’s go through reason one:
Pages Excluded By The Noindex Tag.
This means that either you or someone in charge of your site has specifically told Google not to index these pages.
If you have a WordPress or similar website, this will (or should) usually include category and tag pages, feeds, and pages that don’t need to be indexed (such as your Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy pages).
It can, however, include pages you really do want to be indexed, so be sure to look through every so often.
Tasks:
1) Check through the pages listed to make sure that nothing is being restricted that shouldn’t be. If you see pages that shouldn’t be restricted, talk to your web developer or an SEO expert. Or me.
2) Make sure that pages such as /category, /tags, /author, /page1/2/3/4/etc are noindexed, as you don’t want them to appear in the search because of duplicate content issues. If you’re not sure how, send me a message and let me know what platform your site is built upon.
3) Your T&C, Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy can also be noindexed, because they’re of no use to you by appearing in search and waste crawl budget (Google only allocates so much computer power to crawling your site, may as well make sure it crawls the pages you actually want it to!)
Read more about ‘Excluded by ‘no index’ tag here
Struggling with the issues that are arising in Google Search Console and looking for some help? Book in for a 1:1 SEO chat and let’s go through your GSC with a fine tooth comb
