Why Google Omits Results
& How to Fix It

Our clients often ask us, “Why does Google omit search results and how can I get my pages re-indexed?”

Do some of your site pages get omitted from Google’s search results? Is this preventing your website from gaining the organic search engine exposure that you deserve on Google?

In order to maximize your search engine rankings you need to have valuable content (web pages) that are recognized by the search engines. Each of those pages has the potential to rank for multiple keyword phrases within the search engines and bring you valuable traffic.

When Google omits your pages from search results then those pages cannot work for you and are inaccessible to potential visitors.

Why Do Your Pages End Up in Google Omitted Results?

One of the main reasons why Google omits certain pages from their search results is to ensure that multiple pages that are similar or mostly the same do not inundate their results. Google only wants to index pages that are most relevant and have the most ranking power.

From a visitor’s perspective, imagine how it would be if you clicked on 10 pages and found that they were all very similar, just variations of the same content; that would be quite boring. If this happened to you each time search results were delivered, most likely you may decide to complete your searches elsewhere.

In many cases it is fairly easy to correct the problem with omitted pages, as they are usually attributed to webmaster / site owner oversights. Omitted results are in no way considered a penalty, but they can be detrimental in the way that they limit your abilities to gain the exposure your website deserves.

How Do You Check Omitted Search Results in Google?

One really easy way to check if your pages are being omitted is to use Google’s advanced search operator and check what Google says is being included and being omitted.

Below are the steps to check if your pages are being omitted in Google:

1. Go to https://www.google.com in your browser
2. Type in site:yourdomain.com (replace yourdomain.com with your actual website domain).  Select the search button.
3. When the results show up, look at the top to see the total number of results (something like 1 of 10 of about xxx from mydomain.com)
4. At the bottom of the page is a list of numbers representing 10 results from your site, keep selecting the last number to get to the last set of results Google is showing. If you get to the end of the results and see a message “In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to xxx already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.” This would indicate that you indeed have omitted results.  If you do not see this message then all of your web pages are being indexed properly.

Reasons Why Your Pages May Be In Omitted Results

Now that you have determined whether or not you have pages in the Google omitted results, it is time to figure out why your pages are being omitted. Select the text link that allows you to review the omitted results.  You will now be presented with all the pages within your website that have been indexed by Google.

Below are the steps to take to locate the reason why pages are being omitted:

1. Look at the title tag
2. Look at the text snippet / description provided
3. Look at the URL

After you have looked at these areas determine if you see any similarities between them.  Here are the most common problems that cause web pages to be omitted from Google’s results that typically come up in our SEO Site Audits:

• Title Tag replicated across multiple pages
• Meta Description tag replicated across multiple pages
• Title Tag has no meaning (is not relevant) to the content within the page
• Meta Description tag does not accurately represent the content within the page
• Multiple pages within the site have the same (or similar) duplicate content
• Multiple pages have minimal content within them to be considered unique
• Pay Per Click landing pages have accidentally been indexed
• Low quality pages have been indexed
• Content within the site has multiple URL’s

How to Stop Google from Omitting Results

If you have spotted the possible reasons why your pages are falling into the Google omitted results, you need to take the time to correct these areas in order to begin gaining better exposure.  Below are a few tips on how to correct these problematic areas:

• Ensure that each page within your website has a unique title tag
• Ensure that each page within your website has a unique meta description tag
• Ensure that you have not replicated a large portion of your page content across many pages within your website (duplicate content)
• Ensure that your Pay Per Click landing pages are marked “Noindex” or placed within a folder that is disallowed / excluded via the robots.txt file.

Ensure that all pages within your website are created with good quality content…any pages that are created for the visitors and are not good representations of what your site’s theme and content is about should be removed via the “Noindex” or via the robots.txt file

Continue reading Part 2 of this Post: Keeping Your Pages Out of Omitted Results – Tips on Omitted Pages

If after this tutorial you still need assistance in getting your web pages indexed and ranking well you can fill out this Contact Form and have our SEO consultants take a look at your website.

You can also contact us Toll Free at 1-888-262-6687 or send us an email.

General FAQ About Omitted Results

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Carissa Krause

Carissa Krause is a Digital Marketing and Project Specialist at 1st on the List. Over the last 12+ years she has worked in our Abbotsford office with clients on a wide range of projects that include areas like local SEO, project reporting, backlink profile review, content development, strategic planning, and more. Whatever the project may be Carissa focuses on achieving greater efficiencies and putting plans into action. When away from her desk you’ll likely find her drinking all the coffee while sitting on the floor driving cars with her two young boys. Learn more about Carissa.

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