According to Google, your page will be deindexed if your site is down for just a couple of days.

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If you are a Digital Marketer, or more specifically, if you have some knowledge about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) and you use it in your strategies, there is a good chance that you are always trying to have your pages at the top of Google Searches.

Using the right keywords and terms related to the main topic lawyer database throughout the content is one of the most important premises to rank well in a search. However, on December 10th, John Mueller mentioned some important updates for SEO specialists and digital marketers to keep in mind, during the Google Search Central SEO Hangouts .

During the meeting, Mueller received a question from Aakash Singh, who asked how to reduce the potential impacts of keeping his website down for a week or two while fixing some bugs. The answer was clear and might surprise other specialists.

According to Mueller, if your website is down for a few days, it will be deindexed from the search engine . This is most likely done because Google might try to deliver results that are actually relevant to the user, not pages with errors.

Here are some important things you should know about this, so you can try to reduce the impact of this news on your SEO strategies.

How to avoid deindexing
Keep your eyes wide open
Always check if your pages are running correctly , make sure there are no errors, and schedule regular inspections to keep them up to date.

Fix things as quickly as you can
If you need to fix something on your website, try to do it within a day and use a 503 result code, so Google "knows" it's a temporary outage and will check back. If it doesn't come back online within a short period, the page will most likely be deindexed.

Have a plan B
Try everything you can to avoid disruptions, but if it's planned maintenance or the site is down for any other reason, another thing you can do is follow Mueller's advice: “...set up a static version of the website somewhere and just show that to users for the time being.”

Once your page is down, you'll have a long road to get back to the top.
If Google has deindexed one of your pages for more than a few days, there is no guarantee that when it comes back, it will rank exactly as it was. It may experience strong fluctuations for some time.

Implications of being deindexed
It is important to note that a deindexed page or fluctuating ranking on Google can result in multiple negative effects, which you will not only notice in the total visitors indicator. There are many other metrics that can be affected, such as converted leads, deals, new business opportunities, and impact on other internal and external pages when it comes to Link Building strategies.

John Mueller made a huge contribution to the world of SEO, so now marketers can have a better idea of ​​how Google works with pages that are under maintenance or have errors. Remember to keep your eyes open and do your best to keep your pages up and running.

If this is not possible, fix everything as quickly as possible to ensure that your rankings do not fluctuate.

And if you want to stay up to date with Google updates (and use them to your advantage), such as the main trends in the business and marketing world, I invite you to subscribe to our newsletter below . You will receive a weekly email straight to the point with the latest trends and our expert opinion on how they impact your brand.