What Is Crawling and Indexing in SEO?

30 June 2026·1 min read

Quick answer: Crawling is when Google’s bots follow links to discover your pages; indexing is when Google stores and understands those pages so they can appear in results. A page must be crawled and indexed before it can rank. If a page isn’t indexed, it’s invisible to search — so making sure Google can crawl and index your site is the foundation of all SEO. 📈

Two words explain how your page gets into Google at all: crawling and indexing. Here’s what they mean. 💖

The two steps

Crawling — bots discover your pages
Indexing — Google stores & understands them
Then ranking — ordering the results
No index, no rank — invisible to search
Check in Search Console — see what’s indexed

💡 First found, then ranked. Ranking is step three. First Google has to crawl (find) your page, then index (store) it. If a page isn’t indexed, it literally can’t appear in search — so this is the foundation everything else sits on.

Frequently asked questions

What is crawling and indexing?

Crawling is when Google’s bots follow links to discover your pages. Indexing is when Google stores and understands those pages so they can appear in results. A page must be crawled and indexed before it can rank.

What’s the difference between crawling and indexing?

Crawling is discovering a page; indexing is storing and understanding it. Google can crawl a page without indexing it (if it’s low quality or blocked), and a page must be indexed to appear in search.

How do I check if my page is indexed?

Use Google Search Console’s URL Inspection tool, or search site:yoursite.com in Google. If the page doesn’t appear, it isn’t indexed — check for blocks and request indexing in Search Console.

Keep reading 🤍

Written by

Kate, founder of Chronically Online

I help Gold Coast and Brisbane businesses grow with branding, websites and marketing that actually works.

Work with me ✦