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Ask HN: Website indexed, but not showing up in Google

1 points by CommonGuy 3y ago

The documentation website for our open source project Mapperly [1] is not showing up in Google, regardless of what we have tried to do. The site has been properly indexed, Google Search Console shows no (related) errors. For example the search term "mapperly enum mappings" does not show results from the documentation. With Bing, this works fine. Strangely, results appear in Google when adding a "site:mapperly.riok.app" restriction. Is this just another case of Google getting worse? We honestly don't know what we can try to make our website appear in the Google search results. [1] https://mapperly.riok.app/

mdwalters 3y ago
I would just wait awhile for it to show up.
- CommonGuy 3y ago
  The website is already up for several months...
DamonHD 3y ago
1) It ("mapperly enum mappings") does show results for me in the UK that look plausible. It can take a while for changes to roll around to all data centres.* 2) When you say you've checked GSC, have you specifically also looked under Sitemaps --> SEE PAGE INDEXING --> Why pages aren’t indexed? 3) I think that you could be working harder on your schema.org metadata, whihc may help. 4) I don't think that Google search has been particularly getting worse (other than it being a primary target of gaming) and I have been doing this stuff since AltaVista times... * EDIT these results were from DDG not Google, see below vvv
- CommonGuy 3y ago
  1) Thanks for checking. Are there any results from the mapperly.riok.app domain? 2) Yes, checking individual pages such as https://mapperly.riok.app/docs/configuration/enum/ https://mapperly.riok.app/docs/configuration/enum/ shows that it is indexed, everything is green. It has been indexed for several months, yet does not show up in my searches. 3) That's what we have been thinking until we hit this strange case...
  - DamonHD 3y ago
    Ah, curious, I have misled you! The results (3 of the first for for mapperly.riok.app) that I saw were c/o DuckDuckGo! Indeed I don't see any results in Google for your domain in the first couple of pages. Google seems to be preferring the GitHub pages. Reinforce your links from there so that people can easily get where you want them to go anyway, AND Google might realise which pages you want to be more visible.
belter 3y ago
If it shows up using site: then it's in the index. Did you try the suggestions from here?: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7474347?hl=en https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7474347?hl=en
- CommonGuy 3y ago
  It has been indexed completely, it just doesn't show up in the results. We tried all suggestions from that list, nothings works. No manual actions appear, no security issues, no URL removal requests etc
  - belter 3y ago
    Two other suggestions: - Add another different domain name under .app - Try to register under a .com domain assuming it's available. Are the results somewhat different? Also, Google keeps wanting to send any mapperly search to mapperley. Maybe you are victim of a spell check induced Google indexing bug?

1 points by CommonGuy 3y ago

mdwalters 3y ago

I would just wait awhile for it to show up.

CommonGuy 3y ago
The website is already up for several months...

DamonHD 3y ago

1) It ("mapperly enum mappings") does show results for me in the UK that look plausible. It can take a while for changes to roll around to all data centres.* 2) When you say you've checked GSC, have you specifically also looked under Sitemaps --> SEE PAGE INDEXING --> Why pages aren’t indexed? 3) I think that you could be working harder on your schema.org metadata, whihc may help. 4) I don't think that Google search has been particularly getting worse (other than it being a primary target of gaming) and I have been doing this stuff since AltaVista times... * EDIT these results were from DDG not Google, see below vvv

CommonGuy 3y ago
1) Thanks for checking. Are there any results from the mapperly.riok.app domain? 2) Yes, checking individual pages such as https://mapperly.riok.app/docs/configuration/enum/ https://mapperly.riok.app/docs/configuration/enum/ shows that it is indexed, everything is green. It has been indexed for several months, yet does not show up in my searches. 3) That's what we have been thinking until we hit this strange case...
- DamonHD 3y ago
  Ah, curious, I have misled you! The results (3 of the first for for mapperly.riok.app) that I saw were c/o DuckDuckGo! Indeed I don't see any results in Google for your domain in the first couple of pages. Google seems to be preferring the GitHub pages. Reinforce your links from there so that people can easily get where you want them to go anyway, AND Google might realise which pages you want to be more visible.

belter 3y ago

If it shows up using site: then it's in the index. Did you try the suggestions from here?: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7474347?hl=en https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/7474347?hl=en

CommonGuy 3y ago
It has been indexed completely, it just doesn't show up in the results. We tried all suggestions from that list, nothings works. No manual actions appear, no security issues, no URL removal requests etc
- belter 3y ago
  Two other suggestions: - Add another different domain name under .app - Try to register under a .com domain assuming it's available. Are the results somewhat different? Also, Google keeps wanting to send any mapperly search to mapperley. Maybe you are victim of a spell check induced Google indexing bug?