Every blogger and website owner faces a hard time when they see that their web pages are not getting indexed on the search engine servers. This is one of the most confusing moments that it is a common tendency behaviour to possess. But there are some instances that you need to look forward to fixing and check whether you can relate yourself with that. We present you with the reasons and possible solutions to deal with website crawlability issues.
The majority of the time the website can be new and because of the sandbox tenure, you can’t see your web pages getting indexed on search engine servers. Apart from that, if your website is old and you still don’t see your pages getting reflected on search engines then there can be some serious crawling issue.
The reasons can range from the content that you have posted on the website to the technical aspects of the way you have built it. There is a list of parameters in which you need to address so that you don’t face the crawlability issues.
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Website crawlability issues and solutions
Here is the list of scenarios from which you can compare with your website and see if it has been addressed on your site or not. Through this technique, you will understand what was the crawlability issue that did not index your web pages on search engines.
1. Your website or blog is brand new
If you have recently launched your website or blog, then Google or any other search engine will take some time to understand what your website is all about. This period is commonly called a sandbox. The search engine imposes the rule on every new website that has been published for the web. The intention behind this is to check the quality of the website and see if it is not a random spam website that is unethical in nature. They test the consistency of web publishing and see whether the content published on the website matters to the audience or not.
The best solution for this issue would be to give some time. The sandbox period ranges up to 6 to 12 months. Even if you still don’t find any results or see that the page is not getting indexed, there are other factors that you need to evaluate.
2. Pages are getting blocked by robots.txt
This is one of the most common scenarios that web publishers have faced major issues in crawlability. If your web pages are listed in robots.txt that has been mentioned as disallowed. Then the search engine will not be able to access your web pages and it won’t get indexed on the database.
You need to see if your pages are getting blocked by robots.txt. Because it is a file that directs the search engine what to do and what not to do when it encounters your website. Visit the robots.txt on your website and see whether any links or something has been mentioned in the disallowed section. You can also take the help of online robots.txt check tools.
3. Website page errors
Google or any other search engine hates websites that have severe page errors. If you notice that your website has broken links or page 404 errors or server-related errors such as 500, it affects the quality of the website. This is the reason search engines hesitate to index websites that have page errors because they cannot be reliable for the target audience.
The basic way to check for any page error would be by visiting the search engine webmaster tools. Google and Bing have their own webmaster tool from which you can fetch the data and closely evaluate whether there are any broken pages or links.
The second method would be using third-party tools to check whether there are any broken pages. The tools range from a free plan to paid, but they serve the purpose when it comes to checking for errors.
Related: What are crawl errors?
4. Sitemap is not integrated
Sitemap acts like a foundation roadmap of your website. This is used so that the search engines will understand what kind of structure that your website is developed for. And accordingly, the web crawler will scan and index all the web pages. Thanks to its convenience and the way it has been structured, it is essential for a website to be associated with sitemap.
Sitemaps are generally found in two formats which are XML sitemap and HTML sitemap. HTML sitemap focuses on the user’s perspective whereas the XML-sitemap focuses on the search engine purpose. There are many online tools where you can generate a free sitemap and you can upload it on your web server.
5. Duplicate content
Another common scenario for your web pages not getting indexed is because of the usage of duplicate content. The duplicate content issue is one of the major aspects that every blogger and website owner is facing across the globe. Search engines penalise websites that have used duplicate content, whether they have taken it from an external source or internal source.
If it is from an internal source, you can make use of the canonicalization so that the internal duplication issue is solved. When the issue is from an external source, your websites need to get the entire content revamped so that the duplicate content issue will be sorted out.
6. Pages that are not linked
If you have web pages on the website that are not properly linked then this is also a major reason for the crawlability issue. Because search engines appreciate it if your web pages have been properly interlinked. The interlinking can happen from an internal source and an external source. But you need to ensure that all the web pages are aligned with each other so that it is easy for your audience to find the content as well as the search engine.
The best way to sort out this issue is by using third-party tools or plugins. The software automatically tells which pages are often pages and which pages have been linked. You can use the same strategy across every webpage and see if all the pages are interlinked and also use external links for better crawlability.
7. Thin content
Thin content is a major issue when it comes to getting your web pages indexed on a server. The thin content can be anything. It can be because of the length of the content or it can be because of the quality of content that you have published for the web. When search engines observe that the content holds no value for the end-user because of credibility, they don’t crawl the web pages.
You can make use of SEO tools to check which are the webpage content that has lesser word count and doesn’t hold a good amount of anchor text. You can either revamp the entire content or optimize it by adding additional sections so that it creates more value for the end-user. You can also make use of well-designed infographics and videos. It is one of the best solutions to overcome the thin content issue.
8. Website is not using SSL certificate
As the search engine is making it a more refined and quality-driven platform for the audience, they are making it mandatory for websites to include SSL certificates. Because the SSL certificate makes the website more secure and the majority of threats are eliminated. Whether you are a small-time blogger or a big business, every website needs to be equipped with security certifications. This will make Google find your website more engaging.
There are plenty of free and paid SSL certificates that are available for you to install. If you are an E-Commerce brand or have online transaction platforms, then it is recommended to proceed with an SSL certificate that is from a paid platform with better capabilities. Because there are many types of SSL certificates that can be found for all types of requirements.
9. Poor page experience
The page experience has become one of the major criteria for a search engine to evaluate the quality of the website. Page performance or experience completely depends on how the user is interacting with your website. It can be the type of buttons that you have integrated within the web, menu structure, color, and even the font. Other factors can be the usage of flash content and HTML frames that tend to slow the website and cause a huge issue in indexing.
You can find the page experience audit tools from third-party applications as well as from the Webmaster. It will give you out all the details like the readability or accessibility issues for the end-user. According to that, you need to fix all issues.
10. Issue with the server
The website or blog which you have hosted on the server can also be a possible crawlability issue. Because of the type of server configuration that you have opted for or it can be the capacity of a server or other if there are any server-related errors. These all impact crawlability from the search engine perspective.
The first thing that you need to do is check for any server-related errors like if the page that is getting timed out, then it is solely due to the server issue. Secondly, you need to check the bandwidth of the web server that has been allocated for your website or blog. The third thing you need to check is whether there are any configuration issues between your website and the server. When you can address all these issues and see that if everything is aligned, you will not experience any crawlability issue.
To sum it up
I hope that you are now aware of the crawlability issue and found solutions to fix it. The crawlability issue is one of the most common problems faced by web publishers across the globe. There are many other additional reasons for your web pages not getting indexed. But the above reasons are some of the top scenarios that publishers fail to realize in addressing the issue.
When you have optimized your website according to the guidelines of a search engine, then it is guaranteed for you to observe better results organically. The key method in dealing with this problem is properly investigating the issue with patients. Because it is very hard to determine that just one factor is causing the crawlability issue.
You can also take the help of analytics tools and third-party applications in identifying the crawlability problems. It is one of the best steps if you have to optimize the technical SEO aspect of your website.