There are many options for internet users to find out how many pages any given website has, whether it’s one you own, the site of a competitor, or you’re just curious. The best part is that most of these options are completely free and easy to figure out. This blog will give you the top four methods to check the indexed or total number of pages on websites.
Why Is Total Page Count Important?
Whether you’re checking your own website or trying to analyze data on your competitor’s web pages, it’s important to understand the processes behind websites and why the total number of indexed pages on sites matters.
Before we explain their importance, let’s unpack what indexed or indexable pages are. When a web page is published, search engines will use what is called a web crawler, also known as a spider, spider bot, or automatic indexer, to “crawl” along the page and retrieve the content of that page for the search engines in a process called web indexing. This index tells search engines what pages to show on the search engine results page (SERP) when an internet user types a specific keyword. For example, if someone searches “cute cat” on Google, the Google index will pull up web pages that contain the term “cute cat” or that the search algorithm deems relevant to the term.
However, it is crucial to understand that search engines won’t pull up just any page that includes that keyword. If the web crawler sees that the search term is repeated too many times or that the overall page content doesn’t relate to the keyword, then the page will either show up lower on the SERP, or it won’t show up at all. When a page doesn’t appear on the SERP, it’s considered unindexable or irrelevant.
Now that we have that out of the way, we can explain why knowing the number of indexed pages on your or your competitor’s site is important. Each indexed page is a potential hit on the SERP, so having more indexed pages increases the likelihood of your site (and, therefore, your brand) getting views and conversions. On the other hand, if a site has a high total page count but a low number of indexed pages, that means two things. Firstly, most of the information on the site is not being viewed because search engines are not promoting it. Secondly, it likely means that if a user enters that site, most of the pages are going to have low-quality content or will be difficult to navigate.
In short, the page count is important because a site with a high number of indexed pages is likely to be more visible on search engine results pages, as their pages are more likely to rank highly and show up to more users.
Quick and Easy Solutions
The good news is that finding out the number of indexed pages on a website is fairly easy. Here are some of the most common ways that internet users can find out the number of pages on their own sites and those of sites all over the internet.
Site Operator Google Search
When you search for something on Google, it will pull from every source on the internet to find the best possible answer to your query. If you want to find information from one source, you must get a little specific with the search engine. Typing “site:sitename.com” into the search bar will inform the search engine that you only want results from that website. While this can be used to search a broad topic on one page when combined with an SEO keyword, it can also be used without any keywords to pull up every page on that website.
When you do this, the total number of results will equal the number of indexed pages on that site. Remember, this will not include unindexable or unindexed pages.
Google Search Console
If you want information about your own website, you can use a free service called Google Search Console. This service only works on websites that you own, so it can’t be used to analyze competitors’ web pages, but it does work for telling you how many pages are on your website in addition to providing data that can be used to improve rankings. This service will allow you to not only monitor, but maintain and troubleshoot your site’s performance in Google’s search results.
XML Sitemap
An XML sitemap might sound technical, but the process is actually very simple. Typing “sitename.com/sitemap.xml” will pull up the sitemap for most webpages. If the webpage has more than one sitemap, type “sitename.com/sitemap_index.xml,” and the service that hosts the XML sitemap service, such as Yoast SEO, can show you every sitemap on the page.
For some websites that use advanced sitemap plugins, the total number of pages will automatically show at the top of the page. For sites that do not, you will need to count the number of pages by hand—but the sitemap will still show you every URL.
Free Page Checker Tool
If none of the above resources work for you, there are some free SEO page count checking tools, like this one from Small SEO Tools, on the internet that can provide you with a counted list of web page URLs for any given website. This may not have as much information as some of the other methods, like Google Search Console, but you can evaluate any site this way to determine the number of pages on their site. Some of these tools will tell you how many pages are indexable vs. unindexable.
Website Audit with Versa Creative
Whether you’ve just completed a competitor analysis or you were doing research to improve your own site, once you check how many pages a website is it’s likely that you’ll be in the mood to upgrade your site.
Luckily, there are professionals who know exactly how to get your web pages to the top of the SERP. Full-service marketing agencies like Versa Creative have SEO, web development, copy, design, and marketing teams who are experts in their field and ready to dedicate those skills to making your website the best it can be. Get a free website audit from Versa Creative today to see what we can do for you!
