One SEO professional asked John Mueller in a Reddit discussion about their latest publishing run and the indexing of their content.
They were concerned about their articles not being indexed, even when manually submitting them in Google Search Console.
They mentioned that at the end of their recent publishing run, articles were being indexed within 10 minutes once they were manually submitted.
By comparison, now, when they publish articles, less than half of their articles are being indexed, even with manual submission in Search Console.
They know it’s not a quality issue, because they believe their content to be superior and they were driving around 2,000 organic page views per article per month for their old articles. They were all ranking very well on average. Now, less than half of their articles are being indexed.
They were curious whether they should be waiting a few more weeks before they should be concerned.
John Mueller explained that he did not see anything broken when it came to how Google is indexing new content.
He is, however, seeing Google being more critical about the types of articles they pick up for indexing, however. He believes that any search engine should be as critical as they are.
John explained that indexing is adaptive, and examines your content velocity over time, as opposed to the batch of articles you just published.
He also said that it’s hard to call a site authoritative after just 30 articles. This is especially true if you have stopped publishing to your site for a while. Then Google may be more conservative regarding indexing more.
As Google understands your site over time, and they see that your site is better than just 30 average quality posts, and is actually something more that Google would be interested in sending to as many users as possible, they will speed up the indexing process on your site.
This isn’t something that can be manipulated through technical modifications, however. It’s not the button push that causes Google to want to index your site.
Making your site just like everyone else is not compelling enough for Google to index it. You have to aim significantly higher, and not just regarding the text on your pages. You have to consider everything across your site, and how it fits into the rest of the web.
Other users are also reporting significant indexing issues lately, however. We will see how this plays out and keep you updated.
Here is a link to the forum discussion over on Reddit.
FollowMe22’s original question:
We started publishing twice daily again starting one week ago, after taking around three months off. Our site has only become more authoritative in the meantime, having been linked to and referenced by various major industry players.
For whatever reason now less than half of our new articles are indexing, even with me manually submitting them all right after publishing.
I know this isn’t a content quality issue as our content is superior and we were driving around 2,000 organic pageviews per article per month for our old articles, and they were all ranking very well on average, so Google clearly values our content and nothing has changed about the content type/strategy.
Any ideas? Should I wait a few more weeks before being concerned? It’s super frustrating to have all this great content not reach Google search.
John Mueller’s response:
It’s really hard to call a site authoritative after 30 articles, and especially if you’ve stopped publishing for a while, I can see how Google might be a bit more conservative with regards to indexing more. Over time, as we see that your site is more than just “30 ok posts”, and instead something we’re keen on sending as many users to as possible, then indexing will pick up. This isn’t something you can push through technical means though, it’s not the button-push before indexing that makes your site by far the best of its kind. Making your site “just as good / bad as others” is not compelling — you should really aim significantly higher, and not just with regards to the text on your pages, but in regards to everything across your site, and its embedding within the rest of the world / web.
