What is Indexing

Indexing = search engine crawler visits your site and adds pages to its index database. Only indexed pages can appear in search results. Check: search site:yourdomain.com on Baidu/Google. New sites typically take days to weeks for first index. If nothing indexed after 1 month, investigate.

Common Causes and Fixes

Cause 1 No external links: crawlers discover sites mainly through links. Fix: Manual submit URLs via Baidu Search Resource Platform and Google Search Console. Submit sitemap.xml. Post links on high-authority platforms (Weibo/Zhihu/Tieba/industry B2B sites).

Cause 2 robots.txt misconfiguration: Disallow: / blocks entire site. Fix: check /robots.txt, ensure proper allow rules (User-agent: * Allow: /).

Cause 3 Poor site quality: all copied content, very few thin pages. Fix: at least 10-20 pages of original substantive content, regular updates.

Cause 4 Server inaccessible from China: overseas server or blocked. Fix: use domestic server or China-accessible CDN. Test crawlability in Baidu diagnostic tool.

Cause 5 Penalty triggered: excessive SEO manipulation (link buying, keyword stuffing, hidden text, cloaking). Fix: identify and remove violations, submit reconsideration request.

Accelerate Indexing

Active push: Baidu Search Resource Platform API for automatic URL submission. New pages typically index within 24-48 hours after push. Sitemap submission: update and submit sitemap.xml regularly. Consistent update frequency: active sites get crawled faster.

A 益阳 enterprise site had only 3 pages indexed after 2 months. Diagnosis: robots.txt blocked product section, all content was copied product descriptions, zero external links. After fixing (correct robots.txt, rewrote all descriptions as original, submitted sitemap, posted links on 5 industry platforms): 22 new pages indexed in one week, 47 of 52 total pages indexed within a month (90% coverage).