The process by which a search engine adds a crawled page to its searchable database, making it eligible to appear in results. Crawling and indexing are distinct steps — a page can be crawled but not indexed (often flagged in Search Console as “crawled, currently not indexed”), usually because the engine judged it low-value, duplicate, or thin. Indexing is the prerequisite for ranking: a page that isn’t indexed can’t show up in search results at all, no matter how well-optimized it is. See indexing best practices and the Page Indexing Report explained.
Part of the Plain Intelligence glossary. See all terms.