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Problem:

I've created a free Google Sites website without a custom domain and am facing issues with Google indexing my subpages. The website is accessible via the official link, unfortunately I can't find the website and its individual pages via Google search.

Current Approach:

I've followed the standard steps to make the Website available online:

  1. I create the Google Site and published it.
  2. I then created a Google Analytics tag and added it to my Google site.
  3. I registered the main URL https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall in the Google Search Console as a property (and only the main page)
  4. By putting my URL in the URL Inspection in the Search Console it was detected started indexing (months ago) -> i now i get a checkmark for "URL is on Google" (so the main URL is found and indexed).

When i use the search operator 'site:' in Google it detects my main URL (https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall). But when trying to to the same with the subpages (https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall/about-me or https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall/news) it finds no site (Your search did not match any documents)

Indexing main page (property)

Indexing main page on Google search console

Supbpages

Indexing site on Google search console for subpages

Question

What I do not understand is if and how the subpages of my Google site page are indexed. I mean https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall, https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall/news, https://sites.google.com/view/alexandergall/my-publications... and so on.

When I try to list them under Indexing/Sitemaps, it complains that these subpages have errors because the sitemap is HTML. But I don't get an XML sitemap from Google pages. So how do I index the main page (https://sites.google.com/view/NameOfPage/) and all its subpages (.../NameOfPage/SubPage1)? Do I need a property in the Google search console for each subpage? I can only add one Google Analytics tag for the whole Google site.

Any help would be appreciated!

Edit 26.11: After being asked, I provided the actual web address to help solve the problem. I also added additional images

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9
  • Is Google Search Console showing the pages as found but not indexed? At the moment, Google appear to be indexing a lot less pages than they used to do.
    – RichardB
    Commented Oct 22 at 8:27
  • It shows my main URL (my property) as found and indexed. Thanks for the hint, I have extended the question accordingly.
    – Alex
    Commented Oct 23 at 5:56
  • What does the Pages tab show in Google Search Console? Does it only show one page?
    – RichardB
    Commented Oct 23 at 8:49
  • How are you linking to your sub-page? Are you using relative links? Can you show an example of your links on your site?
    – Stephen Ostermiller ♦
    Commented Oct 28 at 10:29
  • @RichardB Under Indexing ->Pages it writes Affected pages 1 (in green as it is indexed)
    – Alex
    Commented Nov 18 at 15:14

2 Answers 2

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Have you tried to find your site through the search operator site: in Google?

In general, as far as I know, it is not necessary to index all subpages, it is enough to index the main URL on which there will be links to subpages.

As for XML, you will not get it on a free site in principle, so try my option.

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1
  • Thanks for the tip (I improved my question)! If I use the search operator ‘site: ‘ i find my main URL. But if I use a subpage (.../NameOfPage/SubPage) nothing is found. That's why I'm worried that people won't find my site via the search because a lot of information (keywords) can be found on the subpages. Should I have specified the page that Google Sites uses as the home button? That would be .../NameOfPage/Homepage but I assume that .../NameOfPage/ is the parent URL.
    – Alex
    Commented Oct 23 at 5:54
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There may be several reasons why your subpages are not being indexed on Google.

  • Low-quality content: Google is increasingly focused on combating low-quality, low-value content.

  • Low crawl rate: Google's crawl rate depends on several factors, such as update frequency, website authority, and content quality. Your site’s crawl rate may be low, leading to slow indexing.

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