Google Index Report

[UnderMe]

Hi,

I have just checked my google webmaster tools account and viewed the index status of my website and it produced the attached graph, which show quite a big spike in indexing during July and August 2012.

Does this look normal or does it reveal anything peculiar?

We did have a new website launched in June 2012 and I re-submitted the sites URL's to google as part of the re-launch and so I am unsure if this may account for the spike.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks

indexing.png

[TextMarketing]

Oh if webmaster tools is showing 404's for those pages that is most likely why Google has removed them from the index. It's hard to dig in without accessing your tools but here's what I would do.

1. Find out what urls are returning a 404. It could be an error in the sitemap due to a change in the website?
2. Set up 301 redirects for these broken links to point where the content actually is.

[UnderMe]

Thanks for taking the time to reply. I am very grateful.

It is reassuring to know the spike is due to the resubmission. However, I am at a total about how to go about a) identifying if the pages dropped are product pages sowing different content based on string query values and b) how to address this using the URL parameters.

Are you able to provide further guidance or point me in the direction of further information.

I have attached a screenshot of the URL Parameters listed in my webmaster tools account, which is all 'gobble-di-gook' to me

Also, I have discovered that I have 1,054 pages showing in webmasters crawl error reports because they are showing 404 response code if this helps shed any further light on the drop in indexed pages

Thanks

URL-Parameters.png

[TextMarketing]

Your resubmission of the sitemaps for a new website is a perfect explanation for what you see in the graph.

It looks, however, like Google decided to exclude many pages of that spike soon after. If they are product pages that show different content based on query string values, you should tell Google that using the URL Parameters section of Webmaster Tools. This will help to ensure that Google knows these aren't all the same pages and should all be indexed.

Hope that helps!