Google indexing without indexing?

[mawells]

I've just had this happen to one of my client's sites. When I do a search at Google to find out how many pages they have indexed of the site, the home page comes up BUT the title tag information is not showing (shows the URL instead) and there is no link to cached. What's going on? I think it's apparent that Google has not actually indexed the site, but adding the URL because I submitted it?

Anyone else ever come across this who can shed some light on the subject?

[mawells]

Oh, I think I may have answered my own question. I just did a site index search for my site and lo and behold, many of my site's pages which go back as far as 2003 are not showing the actual page titles or the "cached" link.

It's also nowhere to be found under "New England Internet Marketing Company" - so I'm guessing this is all part of the great Jagger update.

(The IP of the Google data center I'm seeing is 64.233.167.104)

[whipnet]

Glad to be a service. :)

*

[DMC_34]

This just goes to show, Google ranks pages based mainly on IBL's. I have seen a few top 5 listings for very competitive keywords in which Google is only showing the link and no title or cache. Google is ranking these pages on pure IBL's and content is optional. Kind of a farce. I see an independance 4th of July card ranking in the top 3 for Christmas cards. Google has gone to far with link power and now it starting to show with the crappy results.

DMC

[crankydave]

This sounds like the page has only been partially indexed. This generally happens on internal pages. Google is aware the page exists, but hasn't taken the time to index the actual content of the page. Hence the URL only listing and the lack of a cache.

Dave

[mawells]

It does seems that it's only been partially indexed EXCEPT it's the home page!

On my site, there are tons of online newsletter pages that are showing like this - but not my home page.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by mawells

It does seems that it's only been partially indexed EXCEPT it's the home page!

On my site, there are tons of online newsletter pages that are showing like this - but not my home page.

Probably depends upon how it's linked and where Google followed the link from. This is probably the first time they found the site? Yes? They know it's there and will be back to fully index the page.

Dave

[mawells]

This is not the first time they have found the site. They have 2 pages indexed - the inside page has the title tag and the cached link. The home page does not. They used to have a third page, but that seems to have disappeared. I'm not really sure what's going on, but I agree with you - I think they just stuck this in for now and will go back and index it at some later date. (At least I hope so.)

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by mawells

This is not the first time they have found the site. They have 2 pages indexed - the inside page has the title tag and the cached link. The home page does not. They used to have a third page, but that seems to have disappeared. I'm not really sure what's going on, but I agree with you - I think they just stuck this in for now and will go back and index it at some later date. (At least I hope so.)

If the internal page that's been indexed has an external link, they may have found it first and then followed it to the home page.

Dave

[mawells]

Nope this site doesn't have any links to any page except the home page (and there aren't many there, either).

The site is www.tanstaafl-cable.com, if you'd like to check out how it's indexed. Both Google and Yahoo seem to be having some difficulty indexing this site, but MSN has it all with no problems.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by mawells

Nope this site doesn't have any links to any page except the home page (and there aren't many there, either).

The site is www.tanstaafl-cable.com, if you'd like to check out how it's indexed. Both Google and Yahoo seem to be having some difficulty indexing this site, but MSN has it all with no problems.

Check this out...

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...pliances%2C%22

Dave

[DMC_34]

The following is the reason for URL's showing only in the index

1. Google knows of the page because it has found a link leading to the page but currently does not have it in its index. That is discovery. It records the URL as To be Indexed later by another bot. This is typical with new sites and sites in which the page has been removed from the index for various reasons.

If your site or a particular document had been removed from the index for any number of reasons, some intention and some not intentional, OR your site is new then you will see the URL only in the SERP's until it is indexed. There is no partially indexed. Its either indexed or not.

DMC

[incrediblehelp]

FYI if you see the URL appearing instead of the title happeing in Yahoo SERP's, those particular URLs are more than likely being demoted.

[crankydave]

Originally Posted by DMC_34

There is no partially indexed. Its either indexed or not.

Google Information for Webmasters

3. There's no description of my site.

The Google index contains two types of pages -- fully indexed and partially indexed pages. Your page is currently partially indexed, which means that although we know about your site, our robots haven't read all the content on your pages in past crawls. This doesn't adversely affect your PageRank or your inclusion in our index. It does mean that we don't have detailed information about your page, so we display its URL as the title and omit a description. We understand the frustration this may cause you, and we're always working to increase the number of fully indexed pages in our search results.

Dave