Google indexed my category page?

[Johnathan]

When I first started the site I didn't have all-in-one-seo installed so Google naturally decided to indexed my category, now that I have more content up and the plugin functioning I'm wondering if Google will eventually deindex the page or if I have to do something about it.

Google hasn't been crawling my site though, as I haven't been really building links. So for the past 3 weeks or so the same 8 pages have been indexed.

Should I be worried about duplication, or will Google deindex it after it starts to crawl my site more often (as I build links)?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[CCarter]

I allow Google and search engines to index all my categories and tags. I dunno, people have a weird misunderstanding of this particular matter. Google knows the most popular CMS and won't show your categories or tags unless there truly is nothing else that matches what the user is looking for.

A lot of weird things happen when you don't know the full algo of Google. I recall one time people were no-following internal links to their homepage, so the juice always flowed down and not back up. Wild speculation, they don't do that anymore, but they did for a while. Just because a group of people says it's so, doesn't make it so. Do your own research and test it.

Did you submit your sitemap to Google Webmaster Tools (WMT)?​

 

[Johnathan]

I originally just installed a Google xml sitemap plugin and left it at that. I've been in the process of backtracking your posts along with a few other members and implementing what I read. (thank you very much by the way for all you share)

I was under the assumption that WMT would somehow give too much information to Google, but I do have analytics installed so maybe I'm being paranoid for no reason?

 

[shiftymcnab]

I allow all my tags and categories to be index and in some SERPS a few of mine are top 3. I also 'optimise' my category and tag titles and metas, mainly for CTR and call to action. I've never seen a negative effect in doing so, in fact more positive than anything else...

I was under the assumption that WMT would somehow give too much information to Google.

If your site is whiter than white or borderline grey I wouldn't worry. I have found the GWT does help getting indexed especially when submitting sitemaps. If you have nothing to hide from Google show everything. That's what I'd do anyway.

 

[golan]

You don't need to worry. If you want to be 100% protected, there is some thing called [canonical]. This way you tell Google clearly that content in the post is dominant over one in the category page. I think there is such plugin for WP out there.

A minor possible problem - is when you see the category page higher in the SERP than the actual post. So do proper onsite SEO and build more backlinks to all inner pages - and you are good protected.