Skip to content
Get in touch

Google indexing

For your website to be shown in the search results, it needs to be stored in the Google index.

The Google index is essentially a database that stores all the web pages that Google has come across. When Google visits your website, it will detect new and updated pages and update its index accordingly.
Image of notebook that showcases indexing

What is indexing in Google?

Google indexing is when robots crawl websites and analyse them to understand what they’re about. Once the Google crawler visits, a page is indexed and used in the Google search results if they follow certain guidelines. 

  1. Crawling: Google bots explore the web and look for new or updated content.
  2. Indexing: After analysing the page, Google stores them in their database.
  3. Ranking: The Google algorithm then picks the best and most helpful content from its index to show users.

Can Google index my site?

If your page isn’t indexed, it won’t show in the search engine results. You can do certain things to help Google find your pages more quickly.

Icon image of flow chart representing a site map

Create a sitemap

A sitemap is a list of URLs that you want Google to index. Submitting this to Google will tell it that these pages are important and help users to find your main pages faster.

Icon image of checklist representing fixing indexing issues

Find and fix indexing issues

If your website has deeper issues, technical SEO teams can find any underlying issues that might prevent it from being indexed.

Icon image of a pen and note pad representing page crawling by search engine

Check your page is set to be crawled

Your robots.txt file or ‘noindex’ meta tags instruct search engines not to crawl certain parts of a website to avoid duplicate pages. Check to see if any pages are affected by this that shouldn’t be.

Icon image of pages linked together representing internal linking

Improve internal linking

A good internal linking strategy will help crawlers to find your website and speed up the process of indexing.

Icon image of arrow and a target representing importance of valuable content

Create valuable content

If there is nothing technical preventing your page from being indexed, ensure your content is truly helpful and unique and benefits users.

How long does it take for Google to index my site?

New websites or pages can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks to be crawled by Google. The best way to get your page indexed is to request it through Google Search Console. 

Want to know more? Fill in the form to speak to the team.

Speak to the team