Google shows more pages indexed

I’ve come accross many sites where Google estimates there are more pages indexed, than pages available on the server.

For example, one of our clients has a site with about 10,000 informational pages. Google says that their site has over 200K pages indexed.

If this happens to you, here’s what you can do:

Go over the pages you can find in the Google index. Make notes of the ones that seem odd to you in any way and inspect those pages manually. Use a server header checker, and make sure they return a “200 OK” code (or perhaps “304 Not Modified”). If Google has pages listed as belonging to your site, but they are not there, request a removal. Obviously, you can’t do this with 200k pages, but if you have a smaller site, this would work for you.

Then, go over your site with a fine tooth comb. Even try to break it by entering URLs that you know isn’t there, and/or url’s that look a lot like those that are there (eg. “.htm” in stead of “.html” or “index” in stead of “index.php”, or “filename.htm/foldername/filename.htm”). Whenever you manage to get a page shown on an URL that shouldn’t show anything, close that hole.

You may want to also write to Google explaining the situation to make sure nothing happens to the site. A simple letter explaining the situation may help get the site reviewed and added to the “safe” list.

Google, SEO, Search engine optimization