Indexingยท
Alternate page with proper canonical tag: is it a problem?
Alternate page with proper canonical tag means Google indexed the URL your canonical names. Learn when the status is fine and when a real page is missing.
Indexing and crawling
Search Console statuses, canonicals, sitemaps and why pages stay out of Google.
Latest guides22 guides, newest first.
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The canonical tag: what it does and how to use it
The canonical tag tells Google which URL to index when pages duplicate each other. How to add rel=canonical, when to self-reference and the mistakes to avoid.
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How to check if a page is indexed by Google
The reliable Google index checker is URL Inspection. How to read its verdict, where site: search misleads, and what to do when a page is missing.
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Crawled, currently not indexed: why it happens
Crawled currently not indexed means Google fetched your page and chose not to index it. Learn the usual causes, a triage order and when to request indexing.
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Excluded by noindex tag: find and fix the cause
Excluded by noindex tag means Google found a noindex on the page. Find which source added it, remove it, and validate the fix in Search Console.
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How to get Google to index your site
How to get Google to index your site. Verify Search Console, submit a sitemap, request indexing, add internal links and clear the blocks that stop it.
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HTTP 200 OK: when a working page still isn't indexed
HTTP status code 200 means the server sent the page, not that Google will index it. A checklist of the seven reasons a 200 page stays out of search.
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IndexNow: get Bing and others to crawl changes fast
How IndexNow works. Set up the API key file, submit one URL or a bulk POST, read the response codes, and turn it on in WordPress or Cloudflare.
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Internal linking for SEO: a practical guide
Internal linking tells Google which pages exist and what they are about. How to plan a link structure, write anchor text and fix broken internal links.
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Mobile-first indexing: what Google sees on your mobile site
Mobile first indexing means Google ranks the version of your page a phone gets. What parity requires, the mismatches that lose content, and how to check.
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Orphan pages: how to find and fix them
Orphan pages have no internal links pointing at them. Learn why they hurt SEO, how to find orphan pages with a URL list and a crawl, and how to fix each one.
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Page size and SEO: how big is too big for Googlebot?
Googlebot reads the first 2 MB of HTML, not 15 MB. What page size actually gets cut off, what inflates HTML, how weight affects LCP and how to trim it.
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Page with redirect in Search Console: what to do
Page with redirect in Search Console is usually fine. Learn when it is harmless, when it hides a real indexing problem, and what to fix on your site.
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Soft 404 errors: what Google means and how to fix them
A soft 404 is a page that returns 200 but looks like an error to Google. The five common causes, the right fix for each, and how to confirm it worked.
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What is a web crawler and how does it read your site?
What a web crawler is, how it finds URLs through links and sitemaps, obeys robots.txt and renders pages, and why pages with no internal links get missed.
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What is noindex? When to use it and when not to
Noindex tells search engines to keep a page out of results. Which pages deserve it, which don't, and when a canonical, 404 or password fits better.
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X-Robots-Tag: the HTTP header version of meta robots
The X-Robots-Tag header carries meta robots rules in the HTTP response. Every directive, crawler targeting, conflicts, CDN setup and how to test it.
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XML sitemap guide: format, limits and examples
How to build an XML sitemap that Google reads, with a minimal example, required tags, lastmod rules, the 50,000 URL limit and a sitemap index example.
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Discovered, currently not indexed: causes and fixes
Discovered currently not indexed means Google knows a URL but has not crawled it yet. Find the cause in order and learn when Request indexing helps.
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Duplicate without user-selected canonical: how to fix it
Duplicate without user-selected canonical means Google kept another URL instead of this one. See which URL it chose, when to ignore it and how to fix it.
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How to check and validate your XML sitemap
A sitemap checker guide with valid XML and sitemap index examples, the 50,000 URL limit, what Google reads, and fixes for Couldn't fetch errors.
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Why is my website not showing up on Google?
Why is my website not showing up on Google? Find out if it is indexed, then check noindex, robots.txt, canonicals and server errors in Search Console.
Check how your site reads to search and AI engines
Enter a URL to see how ready the site is for search engines, answer engines and AI search, with the fixes in order.
Check your website