A page is indexed by Google if it has been visited by the Google crawler (“Googlebot”), analyzed for content and meaning, and stored in the Google index. Indexed pages can be shown in Google Search results (if they follow the Google Search Essentials).
An index is a list of words or phrases and associated pointers to where useful material relating to that heading can be found in a document or collection of documents. Examples are an index in the back matter of a book and an index that serves as a library catalog.
Indexing is the process of search engines visiting and analysing new and updated web pages before adding them to their index (database) of webpages. Indexing can be done in three ways:
A page is indexed by Google if it has been visited by the Google crawler (“Googlebot”), analyzed for content and meaning, and stored in the Google index. Indexed pages can be shown in Google Search results (if they follow the Google Search Essentials).
There are billions of web pages. And each one has a job to do, whether it’s to inspire, promote, sell, advise, they all need to be listed (indexed) by search engines so they can be surfaced in search results.
Google’s index is simply a list of all the web pages that Google has crawled and knows about. If Google doesn’t index your website, it won’t appear in search results.
Here’s how indexing fits into the whole process:
- Crawling: Googlebot crawls the web and looks for new or updated pages
- Indexing: Google analyzes the pages and stores them in a huge database
- Ranking: Google’s algorithm picks the best and most relevant pages from its index and shows them as search results
How Do I Check If Google Has Indexed My Site?
Here’s how to check:
- Go to Google
- In the search bar, type in the “site:” search operator followed by your domain (e.g., site:yourdomain.com)
- When you look under the search bar, you’ll see an estimate of how many of your pages Google has indexed
If zero results show up, none of your pages are indexed.
How to get indexed by Google:
First of all, If you have valuable content for searchers, getting indexed tends to be easy enough. You just need to make sure Google can find your pages, and that you’re signalling their importance. This is a four-step process.
1. Request indexing for your homepage
Sign up for Google Search Console, add your property, plug your homepage into the URL Inspection tool, and hit “Request indexing.” As long as your site structure is sound (more on this shortly), Google will be able to find (and hopefully index) all the pages on your site.
2. Create and submit a sitemap to Google
A sitemap tells Google where to find the pages you consider important on your site. Once you have a sitemap created, go to the Sitemaps tab in Google Search Console, enter the sitemap URL, and hit “Submit.”
3. Structure your site properly
Search engines should be able to reach every important page on your website through internal links. If that’s not possible for a page, it’s known as an orphan page. Google is less likely to index these as they’re harder to find and have fewer signals that they’re important.
4. Build backlinks to your site
Backlinks signal to Google that the content on a website is valuable and deserves indexing.
Google Search Console (GSC) is a free Google toolset that allows you to check your website’s presence on Google and troubleshoot any related issues.
If you don’t have a GSC account yet, you’ll need to:
- Sign in with your Google account
- Add a new property (your website) to your account
- Verify the ownership of the website