Indexed Pages- a term commonly used in the world of Web Technologies, refers to the number of webpages that exist on your website and have been crawled by search engines like Google, Bing or Yahoo. These pages are stored in a database, which enables search engines to retrieve information from them quickly and efficiently.
When it comes to website ranking, the number of indexed pages plays a crucial role. In simple words, the more pages you have indexed, the greater are your chances of being ranked higher on search engine result pages (SERPs) - this means better online visibility for your business.
Having said that, it's important to note that not all pages need to be indexed. For instance, duplicate content, thin content or low-quality content may harm your website's SEO performance rather than improve it. Therefore, it's important to only index relevant and valuable webpages while no-indexing those that can negatively impact your website's performance.
The Benefits of Having More Indexed Pages
The benefits of having more indexed pages go beyond just higher page rankings on search engines. One major advantage is that it allows users to find more information about your brand as they navigate through different sections of your website.
Having an extensive list of webpages also helps increase user engagement by providing more opportunities for internal linking within your site structure – this not only offers users additional relevant reading materials but also signals search engine crawlers to explore deeper into your site’s hierarchy structure resulting in better crawlability and indexing rates.
Additionally, having numerous high-quality indexed pages is crucial when targeting long-tail keywords related to specific products or services offered by businesses - which rarely work with broad topical mentions alone. The benefit here is two-fold: these targeted queries usually receive lower traffic volumes than generic terms therefore easier competition; and they often drive higher conversion rates because their relevance matches searcher expectations better than broader queries.
The Pitfalls of Having Too Many Indexed Pages
While having more indexed pages can be beneficial, it's important to bear in mind that this metric should not be viewed as an end goal. In fact, if you have too many low-quality or irrelevant webpages indexed, it can negatively impact your website’s SEO performance – leading to lower rankings on search engines.
Furthermore, excessive indexation may result in "crawl budget" issues where search engine bots spend unnecessary time crawling through multiple low-value pages on your site instead of indexing the pages you want them to crawl - like those with important information and high-value content. This could ultimately harm user experience by slowing down page load times, which often leads to a negative experience for visitors who abandon the site before completing their desired actions.
In conclusion, while the number of indexed pages plays an essential role in ranking higher on SERPs and driving more traffic from organic searches - it shouldn't be overvalued at the expense of quality or relevance. It is essential for webmasters/marketers/SEO professionals alike to strike a balance between indexing only relevant/high-quality content whilst avoiding indexation bloat & bottlenecks that hurts your visibility goals.