Whether you are auditing your own website or conducting research on a competitor’s, it is sometimes useful to determine how many pages a website has.
To help you with this, we have covered all the possible methods to find the total number of pages on a website, using:
- XML Sitemap
- Search Engine Query
- Google Search Console
- SE Ranking (Recommended)
How Many Pages Should a Website Have for SEO Purposes?
There is no real correct answer for how many pages your website should have for SEO purposes as it depends entirely on your business and the goal of your website.
However, as a general rule, you should ensure you have 10-30 pages of engaging and unique content on your website to give yourself a good platform.
How To Check How Many Pages a Website Has
There are three main ways to check how many pages a website has which we will detail below.
Method 1: The XML Sitemap
The most accurate way is checking the XML sitemap.
This can be done with very little effort.
Simply, type in the website’s URL, followed by sitemap.xml or sitemap_index.xml (for example, https://siteefy.com/sitemap_index.xml).
This will open the sitemap of a given website.
Here is what a sitemap looks like:
The sitemap (especially if a website uses WordPress and has an SEO plugin like Yoast installed) will likely show a count of all website URLs right away.
Here is an example:
If the website uses a less advanced sitemap, then you may be required to manually count each URL or use some sort of automation.
Method 2: Search Engine Query
Another quick way to check a website’s page count is using a Bing search query.
All you need to do is open Bing, and enter site:sitename.com, obviously replacing ‘sitename.com’ with the website you want to check.
Once you click return, the number of indexed pages will be shown on the results page.
📝 Note
This method can be inaccurate due to uncrawled pages, robots.txt blocks, or other technical issues. However, it still provides a general estimate of the website’s size.
Method 3: Google Search Console
⚠️ This method cannot be used to check a competitor’s website because you either need to verify ownership yourself or have the owner grant you access.
Open Search Console and navigate to Indexing > Pages in the left sidebar menu.
Here, you can see the total number of pages on a website that Google knows about, including both indexed and non-indexed pages.
Here is an example:
While this method offers a detailed view of your indexed pages, it’s limited to websites you own or have access to.
Additionally, the Index Status page may show various types of pages like categories, tags, and archives, which could be confusing if you’re not familiar with website structure.
💡 Bonus tip
Page Counter by Sitechecker is a dedicated tool that shows the exact number of pages a website has. However, you need to create an account to use it.
Method 4: Using SE Ranking (Recommended)
SE Ranking is an affordable SEO tool that allows you to check website pages and provides many other features as well. We highly recommend using this tool, as the other methods mentioned have their limitations.
For example, XML sitemap don’t include “no-indexed” pages. Secondly, it’s not a straightforward option and may be hard work for beginners.
With the Search engine query method, you can miss the new posts or pages that have been published but are not currently indexed. Moreover, with Google Search Console, you can only view the pages of your sites or those for which you have administrative access.
Therefore, we recommend using SE Ranking, which scans all the website’s pages and also shows some useful data for SEO.
Steps to check the number of pages on a website using SE Ranking:
- Sign up for SE Ranking 14 Days Free Trail.
- Add the Website in the project section.
- Go to Website Audit > Overview.
- Click on the Gear icon⚙️.
- Go to “source of pages for website audit” and enable “Site Pages”, “Sub-Domains” & “XML-Sitemap”.
- Afterward, go to the “Rules for scanning pages” section and enable “Take into account the robots.txt directives”.
- Click on Apply Changes.
- Now, on the overview tab, click on the “Restart audit ⟳” sign.
- After finishing the audit, go to Crawled Pages to view the full list of pages found.
For each URL, you will also see additional data such as the number of links, any errors, the server response, the status of the robots.txt file, and more.
Conclusion
So, there you have it—three easy ways to find out how many pages a website has.
All three methods work, but the XML sitemap method is usually the most accurate.
🔔 Check also:
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Thank you for this short but comprehensible guide, Nick
There is also an alternative nice tool for generating XML sitemaps Octopus.do
Hope you’ll find it helpful.
The site:website.com is not working in Google. Google doesn’t list the number of web pages.
Yes, you’re correct. Google used to display an estimated number of indexed pages at the top of the results page, but it no longer shows that total count.
Now, you’ll have to scroll through the search results manually to get a sense of how many pages are indexed, as there’s no longer a quick way to see the total number of pages.
Alternatively, you can try using other search engines like Bing, which still display the number of results. Simply use the same search string (
site:sitename.com), and Bing will show the total number of pages, similar to how Google used to.