I have been struggling for a while now with Google not indexing my site properly. The Google bot scans a good proportion of my products but doesn’t index them, however it does seem to index my categories. I have unique meta descriptions and content on my products so when google does index them I rank well for each product.
As only about a tenth of my products get indexed I am thinking that this may be a problem with CScart and not my data.
I am working on getting inbound links but when I look at my competition most haven’t got many and as I say when I do get indexed I rank well.
Any Ideas?
Mike
[quote name=‘windowleaper’]I have been struggling for a while now with Google not indexing my site properly. The Google bot scans a good proportion of my products but doesn’t index them, however it does seem to index my categories. I have unique meta descriptions and content on my products so when google does index them I rank well for each product.
As only about a tenth of my products get indexed I am thinking that this may be a problem with CScart and not my data.
I am working on getting inbound links but when I look at my competition most haven’t got many and as I say when I do get indexed I rank well.
Any Ideas?
Mike[/QUOTE]
Do you upload products to “Google Merchant Centre” was “Google Base”?
[quote name=‘BarryH’]Do you upload products to “Google Merchant Centre” was “Google Base”?[/QUOTE]
Yes we do. Does this affect indexing?
Hi
Not sure, but it doesn’t hurt.
We have approx 980 pages in our sitemap and initially about 870 were indexed, but then it drops off over a period of time. it has always done this so when ever we add significant content we resubmit the sitemap.
Not really sure how it works with Google!!! 
Just checked and we have 966 submitted urls and only 486 indexed!
I have read that external and internal links count for a lot with Google. We have 5,500 external links and 26,500 internal links but doesn’t seem to have changed anything.
Also I think it’s a pain that you can’t list your indexed pages (in webmaster) so you can decide what is wrong.
[quote name=‘BarryH’]Hi
Not sure, but it doesn’t hurt.
We have approx 980 pages in our sitemap and initially about 870 were indexed, but then it drops off over a period of time. it has always done this so when ever we add significant content we resubmit the sitemap.
Not really sure how it works with Google!!! [/QUOTE]
I have the sitemap Addon set to always on but noticed a drop in pages indexed since using it. Maybe just coincidence but might switch it off and delete the map and see what Google does. Have you a link to your site so I can take a peek to see if there are any major differences. Our is http://www.bluehare.co.uk
Also wondering if it has something to do with robot.txt, what do you disallow in yours?
It looks to me as though Google is ignoring most pages bellow category. I have read page load times can harm indexing and my load times are relatively slow but I assume this is true of all cs cart product pages.
Cheers, Mike
After update to 2.1.1, Google Webmaster Sitemap send 1.104 pages but only 5 pages appears to be reflected .
[quote name=‘dustundag’]After update to 2.1.1, Google Webmaster Sitemap send 1.104 pages but only 5 pages appears to be reflected .[/QUOTE]
How many got indexed before the upgrade?
Previously, It was generally 400- 600
[quote name=‘dustundag’]Previously, It was generally 400- 600[/QUOTE]
There seems to be an issue here. Before did your products get Indexed or was it mainly the categories and sub categories and other pages?
- I have uploaded new version all cs-cart files except config.local and htaccess as I used update only previously.
- I have disabled Seo
- I have resent sitemap by Google webmaster
It did inexed only five pages at the begining.
After 3 hours, I have checked again 500 pages pages were indexed back.
I feel the issue was due to seo enabled sitemap?
I have enabled Seo again yesterday.
Today, I have checked the Google webmaster
There were only 5 pages index again.
I have disabled Seo again.
I have resubmitted sitemap to see if the pages are indexed back.
There were 493 pages index after 5 minutes.
This is apparently a sitemap issue with seo enabled.
Either something wrong with my configuration or a bug?
I have seo configuration
Product/page SEF URL format: product_name.html
Categories SEF URL format: 2nd line
Use single URL for all languages: not clicked
Show language in the URL: not clicked
It won’t be indexed that quick.
We have 876 pages in the sitemap and 617 have been indexed which is pretty good i think, try typing “site:www.youdomain.com” into google and see how many pages are listed within google mate.
I have meant the list "URL for a site " out of number "Sent " by the site map using the google webmaster
I am confused now and not sure if this is a CS CART or Google issue. I Turned off the SEO and sitemap addon. Then submitted a new sitmap with the non seo’d URL’s to Google manually.
Result!
The number of pages indexed did not change!
Now is Google not indexing the pages due to content because their criteria has changed or is it not indexing them because of the fact the pages are classed as “too deep” or another reason such as page rank, links etc? Either way something is stopping Google indexing pages that previously it had done!
If any one out there can shed any light on this as I think there is a bunch of us here who need assistance?
[quote name=‘windowleaper’]I am confused now and not sure if this is a CS CART or Google issue. I Turned off the SEO and sitemap addon. Then submitted a new sitmap with the non seo’d URL’s to Google manually.
Result!
The number of pages indexed did not change!
Now is Google not indexing the pages due to content because their criteria has changed or is it not indexing them because of the fact the pages are classed as “too deep” or another reason such as page rank, links etc? Either way something is stopping Google indexing pages that previously it had done!
If any one out there can shed any light on this as I think there is a bunch of us here who need assistance?[/QUOTE]
How long did you wait?
Page indexing can take some time to happen. Just because you re-submit doesn’t mean that the pages already indexed changed, it will have the indexed pages from the previous version. It will only change after a period of time (unknown length)!
If you search within google webmaster tools you find a section on page indexing and page ranking.
They explain that it unlikely that all your pages will be indexed any way.
Hi windowleaper,
When you updated to 2.1.1 did you change the url structure of your products? or where they kept the same?
If the URL structure of some of your pages has changed it could take a few weeks for all the pages to be indexed, and anything up to 6 months for you to start seeing them higher up in google, you should put some rewrites in place if you have changed the url structure.
You will also have to be careful how often you submit your sitemap, if you keep submitting it (even while trying to figure out this issue) google could penalise you meaning it would take even longer for your website to be indexed.
I personally use 2.1.1 on a live store and only have seen improvement in my rank / positioning since updating.
Another thing google do like is unique content, the more unique content you have the higher you will rank.
I’ve found the best way over my years of work in the web development and seo industry that to rank high in google, bing, yahoo etc is to just build your website with the users/customers in mind, keep the code clean and to web standards and you should never really get any problems.
You should try running your website through google webmaster tools as this will help you diagnose any problems and also will tell you if google have penalised you for anything.
Hope this helps some.