What indexing a website means and how to get Google to index your site step by step: Search Console, sitemap, requesting indexing and what blocks it.
If you've ever wondered how to index your website on Google, you're not alone: it's one of the most common questions among business owners and content creators. The good news is that the process is simple. Here we explain what indexing is and how to get Google to index your site, step by step.
What does it mean to index a website? Indexing is the process by which a search engine like Google crawls, catalogues and stores your pages in its index so it can show them in the results. Put simply: if your page isn't indexed, it doesn't exist for Google and no one will find it by searching. That's why indexing is the first step of any SEO strategy.
Step 1. Verify your site in Google Search Console and submit your XML sitemap. The sitemap is the list of all the URLs you want Google to index; you'll usually find it at yourdomain.com/sitemap.xml. Submitting it gives Google a clear map of your website so it knows which pages to crawl.
Step 2. Use Search Console's URL Inspection tool to request indexing of specific pages. You paste the URL, Google checks whether it can crawl it and, if everything is fine, you click "Request indexing". It's the fastest way to get a new page into the index.
Step 3. Make sure you're not blocking Google. Check that the page doesn't have a noindex tag and that your robots.txt file isn't preventing crawling. Finally, it helps a lot to earn links from other quality sites and to link your own pages to each other: the better connected your site is, the easier it is for Google to discover and prioritize your content.
In short, indexing is what lets Google show your content when someone searches. Verify your site in Search Console, submit your sitemap, request indexing of your key pages and keep your content accessible: over the coming weeks you should start to see your pages in the results.