Google Sitemap only indexing 50% Is that a problem?

[EcommerceSite]

We have about 18,000 pages submitted on our Google Sitemap and only about 9000 of them are indexed. Is this a problem?

We have a script that creates a sitemap on a daily basis and it is submitted on a daily basis. Am I better off only doing it once a week? Is this why I never get to the full 18,000 indexed?

[EcommerceSite]

My robots, tags and redirects are all good now. Any other things to look at?

[josh-riley]

Have you done some troubleshooting? If there's that much of a % change, did you check your robots, tags, redirects, etc. to see if any of the technical side may be hindering indexing?

[EcommerceSite]

It is a large e-commerce site with pretty much the exact situation described. We re did the site about 6 weeks ago and the site before was always close to 100% indexed. It was about 17900 out of 18000.

[KevinBudzynski]

Great answer Donford. We have a large site, with many items that are basically the same but usually have one different attribute value. So Google will typical index a parent page and list the rest as:

Results 1 - 15 of 15 – Medium Duty - Swivel Top Plate - Capacity to 400 lbs ...

So even though the page may not be in the primary index, it will still help the visitor get to what they are looking for. So I would advise grabbing a snippet of text on a page not indexed and using it as a query to see if this is the case.

[donford]

Google will index more as they find value in more links. The last ecommerce site I worked on had 12,000 pages as of the end of the year they were 85% indexed.

It is quite common from my experience for larger sites to take awhile to be fully indexed if ever at all. Here is what Goolge says about ensuring proper setup, but other then what they say, its all about content and uniqueness. A particular challenge for some e-commerce sites whom sell items that are similar in nature. Like 1/2"x1" screw vs 5/8" x 1" screw. Its very hard to develop unique content for items that similar.