Glossary · Search and local visibility
Indexing
A search system's process of evaluating and storing information about a page for possible retrieval in results.
Definition
After discovery and crawling, a search system may process a page and add information about it to an index. Indexing can be affected by accessibility, canonicalization, duplicate content, page quality, directives, status codes, and search-system decisions.
Why it matters
A published page cannot earn ordinary search visibility if the search system cannot or will not index the preferred version.
Common misunderstanding
Indexing is not ranking. A page can be indexed without appearing prominently for a particular query.
Related terms
Related system family: Measurement & Search Signals
Sources
- Search Console API (opens in a new tab) · Google for Developers
Last reviewed July 16, 2026