Google Webmaster Tools

[FrazerPart]

What are the differences between a "Submitted" and an "Indexed" URL in Google Webmaster Tools?

Is it normal on the dashboard display (and also under the Sitemaps section) of Webmaster Tools to have about a tenth of your URLs "indexed" when compared to the "submitted" total?

Under the Health>Index Status, there's also a different "Index Status" value.

I don't understand what any of this means.......I'm only a dumb Webmaster Jedi.....I'm looking for Obi Wan Webmaster to impart some of thier knowledge and experience.

Any takers?

[Mike Hughes]

I've never submitted to Google so don't see this but it doesn't sound normal.

Go to Health > Index Status and click the 'advanced' tab.

This should show you the number of pages indexed and the number of pages 'Not Selected'. The number of pages 'not selected' are those that google deems not worthy of including in the index. You should really have far more pages 'indexed' than 'not selected'.

Mike

[FrazerPart]

Thanks Mike.
This shows completely different results and figures that don't even stack up with the total number of urls

....I'm missing fundamental knowledge here, or, my site is in very bad shape

[Mike Hughes]

I wouldn't be too surprised if a lot of your pages aren't being indexed. You have to look at your site a bit like a real shop.

Imagine someone comes into your shop, has a look around and has to produce a list of the main things you sell.

If you have a product on display right in front of the entrance door then it's reasonable to assume it's an important product for you and will be on the list.

On the other hand if the product is stored out back, on a high shelf, hidden away behind a bunch of other products then you know it's not going to be on the list.

Add to this that the more important the shop, the more things that are allowed on your list of products and you'll start to get a picture of what's going on here.

Google have stopped including pages in the index just because they're there and now only include pages that are worthy of inclusion. To be worthy of inclusion they need to have unique, relevant content that people want to see and be shown to be important enough by their link authority.

Each step (link) away from the homepage reduces the link authority of that page and the weaker the authority of the home page the fewer steps you can go before google decides it's not worth bothering with.

Mike