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Ecommerce · Technical SEO

Getting a deindexed ecommerce site back into Google in two weeks

A development error had removed every page of a specialty ecommerce retailer from Google. Once the pages came back, so did four million search URLs that were never meant to be indexed. We restored the 980 pages that matter, cut the junk out of the index, and had the site crawlable again within two weeks.

  • 4M → 980Indexed URLs
  • 2wksBack in the index
  • 100%Of priority pages indexed
  • 6moTo pre-incident organic visibility

The client

A custom-built store where search drives sales

A specialty home and kitchen ecommerce retailer running a fully custom-built store, with around 980 product, category and content pages. Organic search is a core sales channel for the business.

The engagement began in March 2024 and is ongoing. Work runs directly with the owner, on a bi-weekly cadence, alongside the client’s in-house development team.

The challenge

Gone from Google, then buried in its own search pages

The site had disappeared from Google. A development change had accidentally told search engines not to index any page on the site, and for an ecommerce business that means the sales that normally arrive from search simply stop.

Fixing that exposed a second problem. Once the site was indexable again, Google also began indexing the store’s internal search results: every combination of filters and search terms generated its own URL. The site has around 980 real pages. Google was crawling and indexing roughly four million.

That kind of index bloat does real damage. Google spends its crawl effort on millions of near-duplicate pages instead of the ones that sell, and the pages that matter compete with thousands of thin copies of themselves.

The owner’s brief was simple: make the site crawlable again, and get the junk out of the index.

The approach

Three decisions that got it back in two weeks

  1. 1

    Handing the developers the fix, not a report

    Because the store is a fully custom build, there was no plugin setting to switch back on. We found the exact code causing the deindexing, identified where it lived, and gave the development team the replacement to write in. That removed the usual back-and-forth between an SEO audit and an engineering ticket, and it is why the fix shipped quickly.

  2. 2

    Auditing all four million URLs

    Before writing a single rule, we audited the full set of indexed URLs to separate the 980 pages that should rank from the search and filter pages that should not. Crawl rules written without that audit risk blocking pages that matter.

  3. 3

    Doing it in the right order

    Removing pages from Google’s index and stopping Google from crawling them are two different instructions, and the sequence matters. Block crawling too early and Google can never see the instruction to drop a page, so it stays indexed. We sequenced the changes so Google could process the removals first, then applied the crawl rules that point it at the 980 pages that sell. The site was back in the index, with the rules in place, within two weeks.

The results

From four million URLs to the 980 that sell

The index went from roughly four million URLs to the 980 pages that matter, with every priority page indexed. Organic visibility was back to its pre-incident level within six months, and has held since.

  • 4M → 980Indexed URLsevery priority page indexed
  • 2 weeksBack in the indexwith the crawl rules in place
  • 268KClicks from Googlelast 16 months, Search Console
  • 9.8Average positionled by non-brand category searches

The numbers, visualized

  • Estimated monthly organic visits

    Semrush estimates, US database. January 2024 is before the incident; February is deindexed; the engagement starts in March.

    Estimated monthly organic visits
    Jan 2024106,000
    Feb 20241,300
    Mar 202445,400
    Jun 202483,500
    Sep 2024101,800

  • Ranking keywords

    Semrush estimates, US database, same months.

    Ranking keywords
    Jan 202421,900
    Feb 20243,200
    Mar 20248,100
    Jun 202418,700
    Sep 202420,200

Traffic on the terms buyers use

Over the last 16 months the site received 268,000 clicks from Google at an average position of 9.8, led by non-brand category searches rather than people searching for the store by name.

More proof

More case studies

Client reviews

What other clients say

  • Andrew was amazing to work with from the first time we meet. He was very efficient in updating our existing website to create more activity from our website. I highly recommend Andrew to anyone looking to improve their SEO for better results.

    Owner, Silco Plumbing

Read more success stories

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