Index
The searchable database of pages a search engine may show in results.
Index in plain English
The index is the huge database where a search engine stores the pages it has crawled and decided to keep. When someone searches, results come from the index, not from the live web. Being crawled doesn't guarantee being indexed. Google decides which pages to store, and it may choose one URL from a group of duplicates and skip others.
A worked example
A solicitor publishes forty short pages about legal topics, many of them very similar. Search Console shows only a dozen indexed. Rather than pushing Google to index them all, the firm combines the weak pages into fewer, fuller guides. More of them get indexed, and they're more useful too.
Where it usually goes wrong
- Leaving a noindex tag on pages after a site rebuild.
- Repeatedly requesting indexing instead of improving the page.
- Assuming every URL should be indexed. Filters, search results and thank-you pages usually shouldn't be.
- Reading "not indexed" as a penalty. Usually it's a quality or duplication signal.
Why a small site should care
If a page isn't indexed, it can't appear in search at all. Search Console's page indexing report shows which of your pages are indexed and why others aren't, for example "Crawled, currently not indexed" or "Excluded by noindex tag". It's one of the most useful reports a small business can check.
Being indexed doesn't mean ranking well. A page can be in the index and still never appear for the searches you care about, because Google has judged other pages more useful for those queries. Indexing is the entry ticket, not the result. That's why the first question with any missing page is whether it's indexed at all, and the second is whether it deserves to rank. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console answers the first in seconds.
Connected technical terms
- Crawl: When a search engine bot discovers URLs by following links and sitemaps.
- Canonical URL: The preferred URL for duplicate or similar content, declared with rel=canonical.
- Google Search Console: Google's free property for coverage, queries and enhancements.
- Thin content: Pages with little original value, a common problem with mass-produced pages.
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