How to Check Search Engine Evaluation: Strategies for Inspecting Indexing Status and Ranking of Your Posts
We provide a step-by-step guide on how to check search engine evaluations to see how your written posts are being assessed by search engines. From verifying indexing status to checking search rankings, we help you objectively grasp your SEO optimization status, diagnose low-quality issues, and suggest solutions. This is a fundamental inspection method particularly for establishing long-tail keyword strategies.
The Importance of Search Engine Evaluation Checks and Step-by-Step Inspection Methods
This material covers how to check search engine evaluations to see how search engines assess your written content. First, you must check the indexing status within 12 days after writing a post. If it is indexed, proceed to verify the exposure status. Search using your site address to check indexing status directly, and search for the exact title of your post to understand its visibility. Evaluate SEO by searching for core keywords as well. If there are issues with search exposure, you must take immediate action.
No matter how hard a creator works to produce high-quality content, if a search engine deems it low-quality and assigns a low rank, that post will struggle to gain traffic. Therefore, it is crucial for new creators to pay attention to search engine evaluations, judge the fairness of those assessments, and learn how to solve problems. The following is a simple and common-sense method for checking how search engines evaluate your posts, which is essential for understanding the relationship between website performance and SEO.
3 Stages of Search Exposure Inspection and Diagnosis
The core of checking search engine evaluations is verifying exposure after indexing. This process is divided into three detailed stages to determine what issues exist regarding exposure ranking. This diagnosis helps distinguish between technical SEO issues and content quality problems.
Verifying Indexing Status (Stage 1: Basics of Crawling and Indexing)
This is the first step in checking search evaluation. After writing a post, allow a period of 12 days (time for search engine crawling) and then check if your post has been indexed on search sites. If the search engine did not automatically index the post after creation, you can assume there is a structural problem with the site or a crawling obstruction exists.
In such cases, you need to readjust the overall site structure and remove obstructing elements. It is important to note that if you artificially perform forced indexing, that page is highly likely to be undervalued. In other words, there is a higher probability that it will be indexed but not exposed. You should request forced indexing only after identifying and fixing the problem.
- Posting frequency and indexing frequency are proportional. A common mistake is assuming there is a problem just because a post isn't indexed immediately after writing.
Presence of structural problems and crawling obstructions preventing automatic indexing.
Verifying Exposure After Indexing (Stage 2: SITE Search and Title Search)
If you have confirmed that indexing proceeded automatically, check the exposure status. It is important to determine what technical issues are affecting the exposure ranking.
SITE: Searching Your Site Address (Basic Exposure Check)
Enter SITE: your site address in the search bar. This is a request to show all indexed materials to date. This is the most basic way to directly check the indexing status of your site. For a healthy site, almost all normal posts should be visible. If some posts are missing or nothing appears at all, you can assume there is a general technical problem with the site.
If there is no exposure at all, it means the site is indexed but not being exposed. This case involves a more serious problem than not being indexed. It indicates a state where exposure itself is being artificially rejected. This usually happens when a person has intervened directly or there is a major issue with the search engine resulting in restricted exposure. If this state cannot be resolved, you may need to rebuild the site or delete all posts.
Direct intervention for exposure blocking and critical policy violations regarding exposure.
Searching the Full Title (In-depth Exposure Ranking Check)
Search for the exact title of your post. If you search using the exact title including typos and spaces and it appears as the 1st result, it is normal. However, if your post is pushed back or not visible despite searching for the exact title, you can assume there is a canonicalization error or technical error on that page and proceed with modification or deletion.
If you write titles using only highly competitive keywords, exposure may fail. This indicates a partial exposure restriction due to various issues. If the content itself is fine, we recommend deleting and rewriting the post. Unless the title is stuffed with top search keywords, this problem is mostly due to database errors, errors during the indexing process, or issues with elements on the page. While it might be fixed through modification, it is often not time-efficient.
Error state of a normally indexed site (Check for canonicalization issues).
Searching Core Keywords (Stage 3: SEO Optimization Evaluation)
Search using the core keywords included in the title. If the post does not appear within at least the first 3 pages when searching for core keywords, you must check your SEO. This is the final stage of evaluating content quality and keyword competitiveness.
Sites with low evaluation in SEO (Insufficient content or high competition).
Once optimization is complete, content quality and user experience data are reflected to determine search exposure. if your post appears within the first 3 pages for a core keyword search, you can consider SEO to be mostly complete. If it does not reach the top rankings, you should upgrade the content and information or supplement your content strategy by utilizing long-tail keywords to attract potential traffic.
Sites providing unpopular content and information (Lack of content competitiveness).
Summary of the 3-Stage Search Evaluation and Priority Actions
Through these simple methods, you can review how search engines evaluate and reflect your posts in search results. Based on this information, you can easily identify the problems with your writing. This is an objective and verified method that anyone can perform.
| Stage | Inspection Method | Diagnosis & Action |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Check for automatic indexing within 1-2 days after posting | If failed: Structural site problems or crawling obstructions. Check robots.txt and sitemaps, then request forced indexing. |
| Stage 2 | SITE:address search and full title search (Check for 1st rank) |
If pushed back:Page errors or canonicalization issues. If content is fine, deletion and rewriting are recommended. |
| Stage 3 | Core keyword search (Verify exposure within 3 pages) | If failed: Insufficient SEO optimization. Requires content quality improvement and re-evaluation of long-tail keyword strategy. |
There is one part you must never compromise, even if you sacrifice other elements for content quality: the CLS evaluation. Since CLS (Cumulative Layout Shift) directly impacts user experience, search engines prioritize CLS above all else. Additionally, Core Web Vitals indicators such as LCP and FID should be checked regularly.
Q: What is the problem if indexing does not happen automatically after writing a post?
A: The most common problems are missing sitemap submission, crawling blockage due to robots.txt configuration errors, or search engines giving up on crawling because the site loading speed is too slow. You should check for crawling errors via Webmaster Tools and modify the structure. Additionally, a lack of internal links to the post from other important pages can cause indexing delays.
Q: If I search for the full title and it's not the 1st result, do I have to delete it?
A: It is not absolutely necessary to delete it, but there is a high possibility of quality issues or technical errors on that page. The most common case is when a page is 'indexed' but not recognized as a 'canonical page.' Since the efficiency is low compared to the time spent on modification, for important posts, reinforcing the content or deleting and writing as a new post might be faster. Especially if title competition is high, rewriting using long-tail keywords is effective.
Q: If it doesn't rank within 3 pages for a core keyword, has SEO failed?
A: It's not a complete failure, but you have lost in the competition for that specific core keyword. In this case, it's highly likely that the content quality is lower than competitors or the long-tail keyword strategy for that keyword was insufficient. You should significantly reinforce the content, strengthen the topic cluster by connecting related articles via internal links, and continue efforts for search visibility.