What is Indexing?
The short answer
Indexing is when a search engine stores a crawled page in its database so it can appear in results; a page that is not indexed cannot rank.
What people say: “my site isn't on Google”.
Indexing, explained
Search Console shows which pages are indexed and why others are not, such as duplicates, noindex tags, errors or low perceived value.
Questions people ask about Indexing
What is Indexing?
Indexing is when a search engine stores a crawled page in its database so it can appear in results; a page that is not indexed cannot rank.
Why is my website not showing up on Google?
It may be new, blocked by robots.txt or noindex, not linked from anywhere, or judged a duplicate; check the page in Google Search Console.
Related terms
Crawling is how search engines discover pages: automated bots follow links and sitemaps, fetch pages and pass them on to be analysed and indexed.
Google Search ConsoleGoogle Search Console is Google's free tool for site owners that shows search performance, indexing status and problems, and accepts sitemap submissions.
NoindexNoindex is an instruction, set in a meta tag or HTTP header, that tells search engines not to show a page in their results.
SEOSEO is the practice of making a website easier for search engines to crawl, understand and rank, so it appears for the searches its audience actually makes.
Part of the Web Encyclopedia by Apex Flow Digital. Definitions are general knowledge, kept current, with no invented statistics.