Your website’s Google index is a list of all the pages on your website that are indexed by Google, Yes, even those old pages you’re old marketing team wrote and are mostly forgotten about. This means that Google has found and stored these pages in its database, and they can be returned in a search engine results page (SERP).
Why check your Google index?
It is important to check your business’s Google index regularly to make sure that all of your important pages are indexed and that there are no errors. If there are errors in your index, it can prevent your pages from being found in search results, which can hurt your business’s visibility online.
There are a few things you can do to check your business’s Google index:
Use Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a free tool that allows you to manage your website’s presence in Google search results. You can use Search Console to check your index coverage, find errors, and request that Google reindex your pages.
Use the “site:” search operator
You can use the “site:” search operator in Google to search for pages on your website that are indexed by Google. For example, if your website’s domain name is www.example.com, you could use the following search query to find all of the pages on your website that are indexed by Google:
site:www.example.com
Fun Fact: You can use the “site:” search operator to look at your competitors index pages.
Use a third-party tool
There are a number of third-party tools that can be used to check your Google index. These tools can provide you with more detailed information about your index, such as the number of pages that are indexed, the number of errors, and the last time your index was updated.
By checking your business’s Google index regularly, you can make sure that your website is visible in search results and that there are no errors that are preventing your pages from being found. This will help you to improve your website’s search engine ranking and drive more traffic to your website.
Optimise for better search rankings
In addition to the importance of checking your Google index for errors, it is also important to make sure that your website is optimised for search engines. This means that your website’s content should be well-written and informative, and it should be relevant to the keywords that you want your website to rank for. You can also use SEO (search engine optimisation) techniques to improve your website’s ranking in search results.
By checking your Google index regularly and optimising your website for search engines, you can make sure that your website is visible in search results and that you are reaching your target audience.