Glossary · Search and local visibility
Indexability
A page's technical eligibility to be considered for a search index.
Also called: indexable
Definition
Indexability depends on crawler access, response status, robots directives, canonical signals, content availability, and search-system policy. A technically indexable page may still be excluded, consolidated, or never selected for an index.
Why it matters
Separating eligibility from actual indexing prevents technical checks from being mistaken for search outcomes.
Common misunderstanding
Removing a noindex directive does not force a search engine to crawl, index, rank, or display a page.
Related terms
Related system family: Measurement & Search Signals
Sources
- Crawling and indexing (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central
- Robots meta tag and X-Robots-Tag specifications (opens in a new tab) · Google Search Central
Last reviewed July 16, 2026