Getting Your Vue Site Indexed

Deployed your Vue site to production? Two steps remain: get Google to crawl it, then get Google to index it.

SSR vs SPA: The Indexing Reality

If your Vue app is a Single Page Application (SPA), Google needs to execute JavaScript to see your content. This delays indexing—sometimes by weeks.

For faster, more reliable indexing:

• Use SSR with Vite SSR or Nuxt
• Pre-render critical pages at build time
• Set meta tags before hydration using Unhead

If staying with SPA, use dynamic rendering or a service like Prerender.io. Test your pages with Google's URL Inspection tool to verify content is visible.

Canonical URL Configuration

Multiple domains or subdomains pointing to your site? Only one version should be indexed.

Example: www.example.com and example.com both serve your app, but only example.com should appear in Google.

Solutions:

1. Server-level redirect (preferred): 301 redirect all non-canonical URLs
2. Canonical tags: Tell Google which version is authoritative

import { useHead } from '@unhead/vue'
import { useRoute } from 'vue-router'

const route = useRoute()

useHead({
  link: [
    { rel: 'canonical', href: `https://example.com${route.path}` }
  ]
})

See Canonical URLs guide for implementation details.

Set Up Google Search Console

Google Search Console is required for monitoring indexing. Set it up before launch:

1. Visit search.google.com/search-console
2. Add your property (Domain property recommended)
3. Verify ownership via DNS, HTML file, or meta tag
4. Submit your sitemap at Indexing > Sitemaps

For Vue apps, generate a sitemap using:

• Static file in public/ directory
• Build-time generation with vite-plugin-sitemap
• Server-side generation if using SSR

Request Indexing

After sitemap submission, request indexing for important pages:

Manual method:

1. Open URL Inspection in Search Console
2. Enter your URL
3. Click Request Indexing

You get ~10 requests per day. Use them for homepage and critical pages.

Bulk method: Use RequestIndexing by @harlan_zw to submit multiple URLs automatically.

Instant notification (Bing/Yandex):IndexNow notifies search engines immediately when content changes. Google doesn't support it, but Bing and Yandex do.

Core Web Vitals Check

Google uses Core Web Vitals as a ranking signal. Check your scores before launch:

Use PageSpeed Insights or Lighthouse to test. Don't chase perfect scores—fix red flags and move on.

See Core Web Vitals for Vue for optimization techniques.

Lighthouse SEO Audit

Run Lighthouse on your key pages. Focus on the SEO and Accessibility categories—they catch issues Google cares about:

• Missing meta descriptions
• Images without alt text
• Missing lang attribute
• Low contrast text
• Non-crawlable links

Use Unlighthouse to audit your entire site in bulk.

Build Initial Backlinks

New sites have zero authority. Google is skeptical of them. Signal legitimacy with a few quality backlinks:

• Share on Twitter/X, LinkedIn, Reddit (relevant subreddits)
• Submit to industry directories
• Write guest posts on established sites
• Build open-source tools that get linked

Quality over quantity. One link from a respected site beats 100 from spam directories.

Common Vue-Specific Issues

Meta tags not updating on navigation:

• Use @unhead/vue with reactive values
• Verify tags appear in View Page Source (not DevTools)
• Check Mastering Meta guides

SPA content not indexed:

• Google may not execute JavaScript properly
• Use URL Inspection to see rendered HTML
• Consider SSR or prerendering
• See Indexing Issues for debugging

Slow Time to First Byte (TTFB):

• Optimize server response time
• Use a CDN for static assets
• Consider static hosting for SPA builds
• Check Core Web Vitals for LCP fixes

Pages "Crawled - currently not indexed":

• Content may be too thin or duplicate
• Site may lack authority (needs backlinks)
• See Debugging Indexing Issues

After Launch

1. Check Search Console weekly for errors
2. Monitor Core Web Vitals in field data
3. Track organic traffic with SEO Monitoring tools
4. Keep publishing content and building backlinks

SEO is a long game. Most sites take 3-6 months to see meaningful organic traffic. Don't panic if rankings don't appear immediately.

Using Nuxt?

Nuxt SEO handles sitemap generation, robots.txt, OG images, and many SEO tasks automatically.

Learn more about going live with Nuxt →