By Shad Super in Questions —

How Can the Page Indexing Report Assist in Monitoring the Indexing Status of Newly Published Content?

Summary

The Page Indexing Report in Google Search Console offers insights into how well your website's pages are being indexed by Google. This tool is invaluable for monitoring the indexing status of newly published content, identifying issues that may prevent indexing, and understanding the overall health of your site's indexing. Here is a detailed guide on how the Page Indexing Report can assist you.

Overview of the Page Indexing Report

The Page Indexing Report is a feature in Google Search Console that provides detailed information on which pages of your site are indexed by Google and which are not. It presents a holistic view of your website's indexing status, highlighting potential issues and offering solutions to improve visibility in search results.

Accessing the Page Indexing Report

To access this report, log in to your Google Search Console account, select your website property, and navigate to the Indexing section in the left-hand menu, then click on Pages [Google Search Console Help, 2023].

Benefits of the Page Indexing Report

Monitoring Newly Published Content

One of the primary uses of the Page Indexing Report is to monitor the indexing status of newly published or updated content. It helps in verifying if new pages have been discovered, crawled, and indexed by Google. Seeing your new pages listed in the report confirms that they are available in search results.

Identifying Indexing Issues

The report categorizes pages into different statuses such as Valid, Excluded, Valid with warnings, and Error. These categories help in quickly identifying specific issues that might be preventing pages from being indexed. Common issues include:

  • Server errors (5xx)
  • Redirect errors
  • Blocked by robots.txt
  • Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag

Understanding these errors allows webmasters to take corrective action promptly. For example, if a page is excluded due to a noindex tag, removing this tag can make the page indexable [Index Coverage Report, 2023].

Enhancing Crawl Budget Allocation

The Page Indexing Report can also aid in optimizing the crawl budget, especially for larger websites. It provides insights into which pages Google is crawling and prioritizing, allowing webmasters to ensure that the most important pages are being crawled and indexed efficiently [Crawl Budget Management, 2023].

Verifying Fixes and Updates

After addressing indexing issues or making updates to your website, the Page Indexing Report can be used to verify if the changes have been recognized by Google. Resubmit the pages for indexing through the report to ensure that your latest content is being displayed in search results.

Specific Examples and Use Cases

Example 1: Fixing a 404 Error

If the report shows that a newly published page is returning a 404 error, this indicates that the page is not accessible to Googlebot. You can fix this by ensuring the page URL is correct and accessible. Once corrected, you can use the URL Inspection Tool to request indexing [Google Search Console Help, 2023].

Example 2: Addressing ‘Blocked by robots.txt’

If a page is blocked by the robots.txt file, it will appear in the report under Excluded. You can modify the robots.txt file to allow Googlebot to access the page, and then resubmit the URL for indexing using the URL Inspection Tool.

Conclusion

The Page Indexing Report is a powerful tool for monitoring and managing the indexing status of your website's content. By regularly checking this report, you can ensure that newly published content is indexed promptly, identify and resolve indexing issues, and optimize your site's performance in search engine results. Utilizing this tool effectively can significantly enhance your website's visibility and organic search traffic.

References