Website Not Indexed On Google

[Poppy7]

My website has not been indexed by Google despite being published over a year ago.

I have used site:(mywebsite) to check if any pages are indexed and the results were nil - Google has not indexed any pages.

Is it not possible to get indexed by Google with a .square.site website?

[Sineaid]

Hi @Poppy7,

Thanks for coming to the Community with this!

While the guidance we can offer for SEO issues is limited, there are a few great resources on our support centre that you can refer to. 

Our guide to Indexing with Search Engines, is a great starting point and covers off what you can do from your Square Dashboard in terms of SEO.

To Index your entire site:

1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and go to Sales channels > Online > Website > SEO.
2. Under “Search Engine Optimization (SEO),” select Update SEO.
3. Add your SEO details and select Save when finished.
4. Publish your site from the editor to see the changes live.

To Index individual pages:

1. Sign in to your Square Dashboard and go to Sales channels > Online > Website > Edit site.
2. Open the page you want to index.
3. Select the gear icon in the editing panel and select View page settings.
4. Select SEO in the pop-up window to add your SEO details. Select Save.
5. Publish your site to see the changes live.

I'd suggest you also check out the advice on Verifying your website with search engines like Google, to get your site indexed into their search results. The majority of the steps you need to complete here are taken from the Google Search Console, outside of the Square Dashboard.

If you encounter any issues on your Dashboard, or the Google Search Console returns any errors that you're unsure about, feel free to share a link to your site and some screenshots. I'll do my best to help! 

[Poppy7]

I have checked Google Search Console and it states that pages are being crawled but they are not being indexed.  It says they will not be indexed in the future so it seems that there is a problem with Square that is stopping the pages being indexed. 

What is the problem with Square?  Why is Square preventing .square.site websites from being indexed?

[Sineaid]

Thanks for the update @Poppy.

I've been taking a look at the various Indexing outcomes on this Page Indexing Report on the Google Help Centre. 

So that I can look into it further for you, would you mind sharing a link to your site, and a screenshot of the Index Report that was generated on your Google Search Console? 

[Poppy7]

Crawled - currently not indexed

The page was crawled by Google but not indexed. It may or may not be indexed in the future.

[Sineaid]

Thanks for confirming that Googles crawlers were able to access the site, and that no technical errors have been detected, @Poppy7.

Unfortunately Google does not Index every site that it crawls, and there are certain parameters that a site must meet in order to be served and indexed. You can learn more about Google Search Essentials from their support centre. 

It may also be worth taking a look at how the Crawl, Index and Serve processes work, to gain a better insight into why Google has opted against indexing your site. 

If you make any changes to your site after reviewing these articles, you can request a re-crawl from Google. 

If any technical errors are returned after the re-crawl, please do let us know. 

[Poppy7]

This is the response after requesting a re-crawl.  Google cannot validate my site.  This is clearly a problem with Square and the fact that my site is a .square.site website.

Why can't Google validate and index Square websites that are .square.site websites?  If you cannot fix this I will have to leave Square.

[Sineaid]

Thanks for your reply @Poppy7,

Apologies if it was unclear, there isn't anything preventing Google from indexing .square.sites. However, as discussed there are a number of factors that could impact Googles ability, or decision not to index a particular site. 

Could I ask if you submitted a sitemap to Google prior to requesting a re-crawl? If not, that would be my suggestion. 

If you could then send across a screenshot of any errors that are returned, alongside a link to your site, I'd be happy to bring it across to our eCom team. 

[Poppy7]

The sitemap already existed but I resubmitted it and then requested the re-crawl.  The error I pasted into my previous reply was returned after that.

My site has existed for over a year but Google still cannot validate it nor index it.

Please contact me via my registered email address.  If you cannot fix this issue I will have to leave Square.

[Sineaid]

Hi @Poppy7, 

Thanks for the update.

Unfortunately due to the nature of the Community being a public forum, and to protect your privacy, us moderators do have a limited view of your account and do not provide account level support. 

If you wish to share a link to your site, I can ask our engineers to take a look. However, if you believe after reviewing the resources I've shared that the indexing issue is a result of an issue on the Square side, I'd encourage you to reach out to our Customer Success team so they can investigate further.

You can call Square Support at 0800 098 8008 - Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM.

Or, from your desktop computer:

1. Go to the Square Support Centre and select Sign In.
2. Enter your account email and password.
3. Click Contact us under Still need help?, and click Message Us to start a chat.

[Poppy7]

This is an issue with Square.  I will file a formal complaint with your engineers.