The step where Google processes a crawled page, works out what it is about and stores it in its index. Only indexed pages can appear in search results, and Google does not index every page it crawls.
Example
In Search Console's page indexing report, Meera sees that 40 of her product pages are 'Crawled, currently not indexed'. Google saw them but chose not to store them, so they cannot rank.
How you'll hear it
“Check indexing first. If the page is not in the index, no amount of on-page work will make it rank.”
Don't confuse it with
- Crawling: fetching the page. Ranking: deciding where an indexed page appears for a query.
Related terms
Want to use this at work? AI-led SEO Excellence is aFactor's 16-week program for SEO work.
Sources
- In-depth guide to how Google Search works, Google Search Central
- About Search Console, Search Console Help