I have a small website 65 Pages were Indexed, but on 1st July Now only 1 page is indexed

Sudden Drop in Indexed Pages: Understanding the Challenges and Solutions

Overview

Website owners often face fluctuations in their site’s visibility within search engine results. A common concern is when a previously well-indexed site experiences a dramatic decrease in the number of indexed pages, impacting traffic and overall online presence. This article explores a real-world scenario where a website’s indexing status sharply declined, analyzes potential causes, and offers actionable recommendations to remedy the issue.

Case Study: From 65 to 1 Indexed Page

A website launched in January had a stable indexation record, with approximately 65 pages appearing in Google Search Console (GSC). Over the next several months, the site owner published 114 articles, significantly enriching the content. However, as of July 1st, the number of indexed pages plummeted to just a single page, despite GSC indicating that most pages have been crawled but not indexed. Interestingly, Bing continues to index the site normally, suggesting that the problem is specific to Google.

Understanding the Issue

Such a sudden and severe drop in indexed pages can be caused by a range of factors, including:

1. Technical Website Issues
2. Robots.txt restrictions
3. Noindex tags inadvertently added
4. Canonicalization errors

5. Server errors during crawling

6. Google Penalties or Algorithmic Changes

7. Manual actions due to policy violations

8. Algorithmic filters devaluing your content

9. Indexing Limits or Crawling Budget Issues

10. Overly complex site architecture
11. URL parameters causing duplicate content

12. Crawl budget restrictions

13. Content Quality and Policy Compliance

14. Thin or duplicate content

15. Violations of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines

16. Recent Changes to Website or Server

17. Site migration or hosting changes
18. Changes in URL structure

Steps to Diagnose and Resolve

1. Check Google Search Console Error Reports
2. Review the ‘Coverage’ report for errors, warnings, or manual actions.

3. Identify if specific pages are excluded due to noindex directives or errors.

4. Verify Robots.txt and Meta Tags

5. Ensure there are no disallow rules blocking Googlebot.

6. Confirm that pages are not unintentionally marked with noindex.

7. Examine Website Structure and URL Integrity

8. Check for duplicate URLs or canonical issues.

9. Ensure URL consistency and proper sitemap inclusion.

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