What Is Indexing?
Where Search Begins?
Indexing is the process by which search engines store and organize web content.
When a page is indexed:
- It’s eligible to appear in search results
- It’s catalogued based on content, tags, and structure
Crawl vs. Index
Two Steps. One Goal.
Many pages get crawled, but not all get indexed.
- Crawling: Bots follow links to find content
- Indexing: Search engines decide to include the page in their database
How to Check If You’re Indexed?
Test Before You Rank
Use these tools:
- site:yourdomain.com/page-url in Google
- Google Search Console → URL Inspection Tool
Common Indexing Issues
Why Pages Get Ignored
Checklist Format:
- ❌ No internal links pointing to the page
- ❌ Disallowed by robots.txt or meta tag
- ❌ Thin content or near duplicates
- ❌ Canonical tag points elsewhere
- ❌ Server errors (4xx or 5xx)
How to Get Indexed Faster?
Help the Bots Help You?
Checklist Format:
- ✅ Submit XML sitemap to GSC
- ✅ Link to the new page from an indexed one
- ✅ Avoid orphan pages
- ✅ Ensure content is original and valuable
- ✅ Use the Inspect URL tool → Request Indexing
Related Technical SEO Pages
Go Deeper
Robots.txt & Indexing
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XML Sitemaps
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Canonical Tags
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