how do I know if my page is indexed? It is a question that is going around in your head, you just have to... wait, before solving this doubt, do you already know what an indexed page is? If the answer is no, don't worry, we will explain it to you here.
what is an indexed page?
To make it a little easier, imagine that Google, the king of the internet, is a huge book with a huge index. Now imagine that this index is so big that it has more than thirty pages. Think of your website as a title within this huge index and it appears on page fifteen of the index of this book. That is the Google index. In other words, indexing is the process in which Google adds a website to its index to show it in the results of a search. Once you have your website with all the information you want, it is ready to be visited by thousands and millions of cyber users.
But, high up there, users rarely go beyond the first page shown by Google. The goal is to get your website to appear in the first results and you may wonder how? Google checks its index of websites and shows, according to its SEO positioning, those that contain relevant information according to the search performed. If you pay for ads on Google you will appear on the first page, but do not forget that there is also organic positioning, that is, the one you do not pay for. If your site is not indexed, it will not appear in Google's index and, therefore, when a user performs a search, it will not appear as a search engine result (SERP).
how does indexing work?
This is a method of acquiring information in which pages are collected and classified according to keywords. After this step, an index is formed with the collected information and then a search for a specific document or keyword is performed according to the requested search. Google carries out this process in three stages that we will explain below:
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crawling
Googlebot, Google's crawler software, browses the web looking for new pages or updates to existing pages in its index. This is the first step before a web page appears in the SERPs of search engines, as Googlebot has to go through your URL to discover it and then index it. Therefore, your SEO positioning strategy is very important for this sleuth to find you and index you. If no internal or external link points to your URL, it will not be visible to Googlebot and will not appear on the internet.
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indexing
When Googlebot has done its job, Google will interpret the content, classify it and finally index it. At this point, your page is ready to be found when a Google search is performed. The catch is that your website may be indexed, but it may appear on page 20 and, as we know, most people rarely get past the first or second page.
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publication and positioning
Finally, once the user has made a search, Google's algorithms search its index to find the most relevant option. You should bear in mind that, if you want your website to appear in the first results, you should already have an SEO positioning strategy in place. To do so, we recommend you identify your buyer persona, know the keywords in your sector, analyse the competition, have a blog and use your own links, provide useful, original and creative content, etc.
how do I know if my page is indexed?
Google is getting faster and faster at detecting new content, so pay attention to the following steps to find out if your page is indexed.
- Step 1: Find out how many pages are indexed on your website
It's very simple, just type the following in the Google search engine: site:(your website)
This way you will not only know how many pages Google has indexed, but you will also be able to know which pages it considers most relevant (those that appear in the first positions).
- Step 2: Know which version of a page is indexed by Google
have you modified or updated your page? Do you know if Google has already processed and noticed the changes? Don't get complicated and just type: cache:(your website)
Don't forget that Google takes a little more time to process the changes you make to your page, so take your precautions and don't forget to make the modifications of event dates or others in advance so that Google updates them in time. With this result you will see which page Google takes into account to show the results, as well as the date and time of the last indexing.
- Step 3: Knowing which page Google considers most important for a particular keyword
Google's opinion matters. Have you ever wondered which page Google considers most important for a keyword? You can find this out by typing in the search engine: site:(yoursite) (your keyword)
This way you will know if a keyword of your brand appears in several URLs of your website and blog. This way you will know if the ones you had in mind, are the same ones that Google selects. This will help you to know if the result shown is current or not and how focused it is.
Don't forget to follow these four steps to find out if your website is indexed in Google, what results it shows and in what position they appear. This is very important, as 90% of all Internet traffic is channelled by Google and if your site is not indexed, you will not appear. If you do not appear, users will not get to know your products or services. Do not skip this key step to enter the great library of Google and do not forget to have an SEO positioning strategy in order to appear in the top positions. So run to check if your page is indexed.
what are you waiting for?
