Frequently Asked Questions

Up at the top here, some of the more frequent questions and then moving down there will a copy of the index detector page for illustration. Each section will be explained as to what it entails and where the information is coming from.

What Is This Doing?

Unlike a tool that you would looking for information solely pertaining to your website, this is a test  where a new page is published every day to get answers to the following questions:

Is Google indexing new content with simple html (content visible on the page)?

Is Google indexing new content by javascript rendering? (content that lives somewhere else on your site).

What is the time between publishing and indexation?

As a friend of the site said “This is almost like a “is it me or is indexing off today” type of diagnostic.

We Already Know Google Doesn’t Index All Pages.

OK, that’s not a question. And that implied question is not what this project is testing – please see above. The question is whether or not Google is INDEXING AT ALL. This question has huge implications in any online operation. Those who will get immediate advantage are those doing seo testing which requires new pages to get indexed as per Google’s instructions and developers How Search Works – Indexing Plus if a site is built on a javascript framework, if Google isn’t rendering javascript – whatever optimization you have in that javascript, won’t be counted in your on page optimization.

Is This Site The Domain You Are Testing For Indexation?

No. But more importantly, I’m not testing ANY site, this project is testing GOOGLE. What is the time between publishing to indexation. The actual test domain will not be shared publicly. That’s the number one rule of testing, do things that don’t contaminant the test environment.

My Site Is Getting Indexing, Your Site must have a low Domain Authority.

Again, not a question. But much like when an SEO weather tool says that volatility is high and your site is like a rock, it’s not that the weather tool is wrong. It’s reporting what it’s seeing over a large number of sites. One of the purposes of this test is to gather data, A LOT of data. Prior to starting this project the idea was 6 months of daily data points – time and dates of publishing, requesting indexing, arrival of the bots, the cache dates and then the first date in the index are being recorded. Then the data can be analyzed to see if we can spot a pattern prior to updates or get a better feel for times when indexing is off and when it is on.

So How Does This Help Me and My Site?

Now that’s a question! It may not. If your site is large enough and you have a sizable amount of traffic, this may not impact you as severely as others.

If you have a large amount of javascript on your site and Google turns off their ability to render javascript – now THAT might be how this data can help you from a diagnostic standpoint. For sites that are dropping off into an abyss like some were earlier in 2021, then you be proactive at least in establishing that the drop off isn’t related to your SEO activity.

When emotions are high and revenue is dropping, that’s typically the time when executives want answers yesterday and they don’t care how good you were, they care about today.

While no one can promise anything, it’s likely that if you brought forth 3-party data demonstrating a validation with your in-house testing – two points of data to someone who wants answers vs someone to blame – that is also what this project intends to provide. If you need corroboration, reach out, we’d be happy to help by sharing the full data with you.

What Do These Colors Represent?

Couldn’t help it. While not subscribing to the “green light” “red light” theory of SEO, the green means that on the day listed below a new page was found in the index by searching for one of the fake keywords on the page.

Each page has two (2) keywords – one that appears on the page and another that lives in a javascript format that only is visible if Google is rendering javascript. 

Once every day the fake keywords are searched. 40 webpages is 80 searches. It’s possible that the simple indexing could be green and the javascript red. For example, most of the spring of 2021 javascript was mostly off. 

Complex Rendering

Essential For Javascript Frameworks

Oct 17 2021

This Section containes the embed of the google sheet where the different bits of data are recorded. Tried to embed the entire doc made up of multiple sheets but there are limitations that only a developer can fix and to date there is no budget for this other than a domain, hosting and the time every day and week to maintain the project. So only the current week is included in the current embed as of Oct 19, 2021.

Requests to be added to the google sheet are being honored on a first come, first serve basis. While this is an ongoing project, please be aware that access can be revoked at any time for any reason. 

This is an image of the most recent full week of data

Notes

This section contains my notes, comments, thoughts and any specific details about what happened in the previous 24 hours. These are being updated every day and are being collected in a separate document as part of the project.

Postcards from the Edge:

SUN: Very interesting that a new page indexed – simple indexing only. The data on the page was updated – it was published on Oct 4, google bots visit recorded same time requested, cache date of Oct 16 and showing in the index Oct 17th today. That’s how it’s supposed to work, right? If you are having indexation issues, and have published within the last 12 days – check your page to see if it’s showing – look for the title of your article or try the site:domain.com operator and put the title in the search bar. See what you get.

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