Make pages crawlable
Return a stable 200 response and remove unintended robots, noindex, login, or rendering barriers.
Free website indexing guides
Free indexing guides
Understand how search engines find, crawl, and index your pages.Help search engines
Understand how search engines find, crawl, and index your pages.Help search engines
find your pages.
Use practical, independent guides to improve discovery, diagnose exclusions, and choose the right official tools.
Practical guidance for discovery, crawling, and indexing.
✓No sign-up
✓No paid plans
✓Clear, honest guidance
Indexing checklist6 core signals
HTTP status200 OK
Crawl accessAllowed
Canonical URLSelf
XML sitemapListed
Internal linksFound
Unique valueReview
The indexing path
Give every important URL a fair chance to be found.
Work through the signals search engines actually use, in the right order.
Choose canonicals
Keep redirects, canonical tags, internal links, and sitemap URLs aligned on one preferred version.
Support discovery
Publish clean XML sitemaps and link important pages through crawlable site navigation.
Inspect and improve
Use official webmaster tools to diagnose exclusions, then fix the underlying signal before resubmitting.
What you can control
Focus on signals, not indexing promises.
Search engines make the final decision. You can make pages accessible, consistent, discoverable, and useful—then verify what the engine reports.
Use first-party evidenceCheck Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools instead of relying on search operators alone.
Treat submission honestlyA provider response or sitemap ping is not proof that a page was crawled, indexed, or ranked.
Fix the actual causeReview access, canonicals, duplication, internal links, rendering, and content quality before resubmitting.
Follow current policiesUse supported tools only for sites you control and confirm provider rules before automating requests.
Indexing resource center
Fix the issues that keep valuable pages out of search.
Use practical guides to improve discovery, diagnose exclusions, and focus your next action.
Choose an indexing tool by the evidence it provides—not the promise it makes.
Compare website indexing tools, sitemaps, Search Console, IndexNow, and submission tracking without confusing a submitted URL with an indexed URL.
Read the guide →SEO indexing is a pipeline, not a button.
Learn how SEO indexing works, why eligible pages remain unindexed, and how to build a measurable workflow from discovery to indexing evidence.
Read the guide →Publish blog posts with an indexing workflow you can verify.
A practical blog indexing workflow for new and updated posts: sitemap setup, internal links, eligibility checks, notifications, and honest verification.
Read the guide →How to index a website without skipping the fundamentals.
Learn how to index a website with a practical checklist for crawl access, canonicals, sitemaps, internal links, webmaster tools, and verification.
Read the guide →Use URL inspection to diagnose—not just request indexing.
Understand the Google Search Console URL Inspection Tool, live tests, canonical signals, crawl details, common exclusions, and what to do next.
Read the guide →Straight answers
Know what to fix next.
Understand each status, avoid wasted submissions, and focus on the changes that improve discoverability.
Can any tool guarantee that a URL will be indexed?
No. Tools can help with discovery, inspection, and supported notifications, but search engines independently decide whether to crawl, index, and rank a page.
What is the difference between submitted, accepted, crawled, and indexed?
Submitted means an attempt was sent. Accepted means the provider received it. Crawled means a search engine fetched the page. Indexed means the engine stored the page so it may appear in search. Each state requires separate evidence.
Does IndexMyWebsite submit URLs or connect to Google accounts?
No. IndexMyWebsite is a static information site. It has no accounts, does not accept credentials, and does not submit URLs to search engines.
How does Bing and IndexNow ownership verification work?
A site owner generates an IndexNow key, hosts the key file at the required location, and includes that key when notifying a supported endpoint. Follow the current IndexNow documentation for verification requirements.
Which URLs should I submit?
Submit canonical, public, indexable URLs that are new or materially changed. Avoid redirects, duplicates, parameter combinations, private pages, noindex pages, and URLs you do not control.
Can I import an XML sitemap?
You can submit an XML sitemap through Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Keep it limited to canonical, indexable URLs and reference it from robots.txt.
Start with the fundamentals
Read the guide