How to Use Google Search Console To Check for Missing Website Pages and Get Found Online
Blog Overview: Getting found in Google search results is becoming harder than ever. There are a few easy steps using Google Search Console you can take each time you make a website update or add new content to amplify your chances of getting seen.
Did you know that every time you add new content to your website like blog posts, portfolio pages, update your copy and adjust your keywords (basically anything that affects how you want to show up on Google), you need to TELL GOOGLE IT’S THERE.
If you miss this step you are relying on Google bots to crawl your website organically to find new information and with billions of websites, I bet you might appreciate some help.
Before you can check for missing pages, make sure your website is connected to Google Search Console
If you haven’t already, be sure to connect your website to Google Search Console. You can do this in Squarespace under Settings > Connected Accounts > Google Search Console and be sure to submit your sitemap. If you’re not showing up on Google, you’ve missed this step!
After you have completed this, wait 30 days or so for initial sitemap indexing and then go back in to check for missing pages.
If you’ve already done this and been around for a while, it’s good practice to go in and check to see if there is any un-indexed content on your site you may have updated that isn’t recognized.
What is Indexing?
Google indexing is Google's way of checking out (crawling) and saving info about web pages (indexing). The idea is to keep things organized so that when you search on Google, it can quickly find and show you what you're looking for on the internet.
With billions of websites, it takes time to find it organically so you want to give it a hand and tell it what to do.
Tip: You can (re) index a page quickly by ‘inspecting any URL’ on your site and then request indexing.
This is located at the very top of the Google Search Console dashboard (see image below). Do this every time you add something new or want to check on one page and request indexing again.
How to Check for Un-Indexed Webpages on Your Website
(see the video below for a visual)
1. Go into your Google Search Console (see above if you skipped to this part)
2. Click on Pages on the left sidebar under Indexing
3. Under the Not Indexed section scroll down to ‘Discovered - currently not indexed’
4. Open that tab and scroll through to find URLs that aren’t shown like blog posts, portfolios, etc. Don’t worry about things like tag sub-categories, we don’t want those showing
5. Select a page URL that’s live on your website you want shown and on the right, click Inspect the URL
6. If it confirms it’s not shown on Google then you’re going to click Request Indexing
That’s it! Within 48 hours (ish) those pages will now be found on Google without typing out the exact URL to find the page.
The more keyword optimized and relevant that page is, the higher it will begin to rank as it starts to get found on Google.
Still learning about search engine optimization? Check out my post on writing alt text for accessibility and SEO to help your website rank on Google and be kind to those with accessibility needs.
