Is Google Webmaster Tools Index Status Completely Correct?
-
So I was thrilled when Webmaster tools released the little graph telling you how many pages are indexed. However, I noticed with one of my sites, that it was actually going down over the past year. I've only been doing the SEO on the site for a few months, so it wasn't anything I did.
The chart is attached to this post.
Now here's the funny part. I haven't really noticed anything out of the ordinary for keyword ranking dropping off. I also tested my most recent page that I put up. 3 days after I posted it, I could find it in a Google search. Shouldn't this mean that's it's indexed? I can also find any other page I've posted in the last few months.
Another oddity is that I submitted a sitemap a while ago when the site was only 22 pages. The sitemap index count says 20 of those pages are indexed.
The chart only says that there are 3 indexed pages right now. However, I can clearly find dozens of pages in Google searches. Is there something I'm missing? Is my chart for this website broken? Should I report this to Google? Has anyone had a similar issue?
-
Thanks for letting me know that I'm not the only one seeing this. In Analytics, I've got a nice upward line of traffic, so as you said, I'm not too worried about it. Maybe someone else will have more knowledge about the graph itself.
-
Hey Andrew,
Yeah, I've seen the same kinds of issues where that seems to be somewhat inexact. So far, I've not been able to find an explanation. In terms of the large drop off, I did see a similar drop off on one of my sites shortly after correcting a duplicate content issue.
However, like you said, you need to watch for things out of the ordinary. For now, I'm not worrying too much about the graph. It is interesting, but I'll pay more attention to the graph in Google Analytics telling me how much traffic I have from Google. If I see a large drop there, then I'll worry.
Matthew
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Looking for Third Party Tool Like Google Tag Manager
Hi All, Like google tag manager is there any tool or software or service available who can track my visitors each actions, events, clicks, after click what they do? But at same time like google tag manager it not slow down my site speed? I can say I am looking for tool which can main track different - different click on my pages. Any other suggestion pls share. Thanks!
Reporting & Analytics | | pragnesh96390 -
How is Google Analytics defining page depth?
We run two websites and as part of our KPIs we are treating those who visit 3 or more pages of our website as a client served. As a digital team we are not convinced that this is the best metric to use as the improvements we are making to the sites mean that people are able to find the information quicker. Additionally other organisations including forums etc link to us so those users will get the info they need in one click. What I would like to know is how Google calculates page depth in GA. Are they treating the landing page as ground zero and then when users clicks a link they go one page deep? Or is the landing page, page depth 1 . Is page depth a measure of how many clicks a user needs to find their information?
Reporting & Analytics | | MATOnlineServices0 -
Google Analytics to sub domains
Hi, I have a site xyz.com and two separate sites on sub domains xyz.com/abc and xyz.com/def. What's the best way to go about with GA such that I can get all the data in the same place. Should I use the GA code for xyz.com on sub domains as well? Or should I create separate profiles?
Reporting & Analytics | | mayanksaxena0 -
Shall I 301 a Url that has a discontinued product or shall we remove from Googles index
My web site sells shoes. These items go out of fashion and are replaced. Shall I 301 a Url that has a discontinued product or shall we remove from Googles index using webmaster tools. I seem to have a massive 301 list that carries on growing and Im concerned that to carry on doing 301s is not the right way.
Reporting & Analytics | | weddingshoesandaccessories0 -
What are some good SERP visibility tools?
With keyword data from Google on its way out, we're losing our ability to discover what keywords a website is ranking for (you can do ranking checks, but only if you already know what keywords the site is ranking for). What are some good SERP visibility tools? (i.e. you enter the domain name, and the tool lists which keywords the site ranks for organically, etc.) I know SpyFu offers this, but they seem to be PPC focused and perhaps not very accurate. I know other companies offer it, but I'm blanking on which ones.
Reporting & Analytics | | AdamThompson0 -
Have we been penalised by Google?
Hello guys, Looking for some help here hope someone will be able to point us to the right direction, we have been scratching our heads for months! Basically our Google rankings and organic traffic from Google have dropped signficantly in the last 12 months. At one point we ranked as high as page 3 with the term "holiday lettings". Now we are on page 16, and sometimes not found at all... This has been the case for months now. Curiously, Bing and Yahoo have been much more generous to us, we have been and still consistently rank at No. 2 with the same term. We are in the vacation rental industry - our website is www.alphaholidaylettings.com and most of the sites that rank above us are of much less relevancy, quality and authority. We just could not understand why we would rank so poorly on Google (both US and UK). Organic traffic has also dropped by more than 50% steadily in the last 12 months. One thing we thought might have affected our site is the quality of content. Most content/listings on our site are user generated, and it is not uncommon for users to copy and paste details from an existing listing that they have on another site. Having said that, the same would apply to our competitors too. In this case, might Panda or Penguin have had any negative effects on our seo? We have been adding unique content to the site in the form of a blog and "Holiday Feature" articles. Could the actual design/structure/coding of our pages contribute to our poor rankings too? Any opinions or feedback is much appreciated! Thanks guys, Tom
Reporting & Analytics | | forgottenlife0 -
Google anomaly
Hi, As per Google's Keyword Tool , the exact search volume for a particular keyword is 22000. As per Google's Webmaster Tool , my SER for the same keyword is 5.8 BUT , I see only 500 impressions for this keyword in webmaster ! Can someone help decipher this behavior ?
Reporting & Analytics | | iamnew0 -
Correlation between google and yahoo indexed pages
My blog ocpatentlawyer.com has about 130 pages or so. Google has indexed most if not all of the posts and pages. In contrast, yahoo has only indexed about 1/4 of the pages and posts. Are there any actions that can be taken based on this information? For example, if i prepare a blog post should I prepare it so that it will most likely be indexed into yahoo knowing that google will also index it. If so, how can i prepare blog posts that will most likely be indexed into yahoo's index?
Reporting & Analytics | | jamesjd70
