Google Explains Why Indexed Pages May Not Appear In Search via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google's Martin Splitt explains why indexed pages may not appear in search results, highlighting relevance and ranking competition. The post Google Explains Why Indexed Pages May Not Appear In Search appeared first on Search Engine Journal.

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Mar 21, 2025 - 21:03
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Google Explains Why Indexed Pages May Not Appear In Search via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

Google's Martin Splitt explains why indexed pages may not appear in search results, highlighting relevance and ranking competition.

Indexed pages may not appear if other pages are more relevant or user engagement is low. Google's process involves discovery, crawling, indexing, and ranking for visibility. Focus on high-quality, user-focused content to improve search visibility.
Google Explains Why Indexed Pages May Not Appear In Search

In a recent video on Google’s Search Central YouTube channel, Developer Advocate Martin Splitt addressed why pages that have been indexed might not appear in search results.

Multiple Factors Affect Search Visibility

During the video, Splitt outlined several reasons why indexed content might not show up in search results:

“It’s either that the query is a bit weird or that the query hasn’t actually been asked that much or that we have other pages that we think will help the user more than yours.”

He continued by noting that user engagement may play a role in some cases:

“Especially if pages fall off the index again, that means that we thought they might be good but we found that users don’t really use them in search results. So we thought like, ‘Yeah, okay, we gave it a chance but, you know, others are doing better here.'”

This statement suggests user engagement might be one consideration in Google’s complex ranking system, though Splitt presented it as one factor among several, not necessarily the primary one.

Understanding Google’s Search Process

Splitt outlined Google’s search process as having several distinct stages:

Discovery: Google learns that a URL exists (sitemaps help with this) Crawling: Google visits the URL to see what’s there Indexing: The page is added to Google’s database Serving/Ranking: When relevant to a query, the page may be shown in results

According to Splitt, pages that make it to the indexing stage still need to compete during the ranking phase to appear in results successfully.

What This Means

Splitt’s advice focuses on content quality:

“You want to have a look at your content because it’s very likely that your content isn’t really serving much in terms of queries coming in, and that’s why it’s not showing up in search results.”

For website owners and content creators, this suggests:

Ensure content meets user needs Create comprehensive resources that address specific queries Consider multiple factors that might affect search visibility, not just user engagement

Splitt’s comments give some insight into Google’s thinking. However, they are only one part of the complex puzzle of Google’s search algorithm.

See the full video below:

Featured Image: Thiar04/Shutterstock

SEJ STAFF Matt G. Southern Senior News Writer at Search Engine Journal

Matt G. Southern, Senior News Writer, has been with Search Engine Journal since 2013. With a bachelor’s degree in communications, ...