The Best Ways to Get Pages Indexed, Compared

There's no single best way to get a page indexed. Each method helps a search engine discover or prioritise a URL in a different way, and they work best together. This guide compares six common methods so you can choose the right mix for your site, your clients or your links.

One thing applies to every method below: none of them guarantees indexing. They influence discovery and crawling. The search engine still decides whether the page earns a place in its index.

1. XML sitemaps

An XML sitemap lists the URLs you want search engines to know about, optionally with a lastmod date. You reference it in robots.txt and submit it in Google Search Console, Bing Webmaster Tools and Yandex Webmaster.

Pros

• Free, and supported by every major search engine
• Scales to millions of URLs using sitemap index files
• An accurate lastmod helps engines notice changes
• Search Console reports indexing status by sitemap, which is useful for diagnostics

Cons

• It's a pull signal: engines check sitemaps on their own schedule
• Google ignores priority and changefreq
• Google retired its sitemap "ping" endpoint in 2023, so you can't nudge Google that way any more
• Only covers sites you control

Best for: making sure every important page on your own site is known. Check yours with the sitemap validator.

2. Internal links

Links from your own pages are how crawlers move through your site. A new page linked from your homepage or a busy category page gets found much faster than one that's only in the sitemap.

Pros

• Free and fully under your control
• Also tells engines how important a page is within your site
• Helps users find the page too
• Fixes many "Discovered – currently not indexed" cases

Cons

• Only works on your own site
• Takes planning on large sites
• Only as fast as the engine's crawl of the linking page

Best for: every new page you publish. If a page has no internal links pointing to it, fix that before trying anything else.

3. Search Console URL Inspection

Google Search Console's URL Inspection tool lets you test a live URL and click Request indexing. Bing Webmaster Tools and Yandex Webmaster have equivalent tools.

Pros

• An official signal straight to the engine
• The live test shows how the crawler renders the page and which canonical it chose
• Free

Cons

• A tight daily limit. On Google, owners commonly hit it at around 10–12 requests per property per day.
• One URL at a time
• Verified properties only, so it's no help for backlinks
• Each engine has its own tool

Best for: a few high-priority pages on your own site, and diagnosing individual problems. See instant indexer vs Search Console Request indexing for a deeper comparison.

4. IndexNow

IndexNow is an open push protocol. You host a key file and ping a participating endpoint when URLs change. Bing, Yandex, Seznam, Naver and Yep support it. Google does not.

Pros

• Fast and free
• Up to 10,000 URLs per request
• One submission is shared across all participating engines
• Widely supported by CMS plugins and CDNs

Cons

• No effect on Google
• Verified hosts only
• A hint, not a command: engines decide whether to crawl

Best for: every site you own, as a baseline. It costs nothing to set up and clearly helps on Bing and Yandex.

5. Indexing services

Indexing services take lists of URLs, including URLs on sites you don't own, and create crawl signals for them across one or more engines. Some also report crawler visits and index status.

Pros

• Works for third-party URLs such as backlinks, guest posts and citations
• Handles bulk submissions
• Can cover Google, Bing and Yandex from one place
• Good services verify crawler visits rather than just accepting your URLs

Cons

• Paid
• Quality varies a lot. Some promise "guaranteed indexing", which no one can honestly offer.
• Can't fix a page the engine has decided isn't worth indexing

What to look for: a clear explanation of the channels used, crawler-visit reporting, a refund or credit policy tied to something measurable, and pre-checks that stop you paying to submit URLs that can't be indexed.

Best for: link builders, agencies and large launches where native tools hit their limits.

6. Social and community signals

Sharing a URL on social platforms, forums and communities creates more paths for crawlers to find it and can bring real visitors.

Pros

• Free, apart from your time
• Can bring traffic as well as discovery
• Works for any URL

Cons

• Many social links are nofollow, and some platforms limit what crawlers can access
• Not a ranking factor in itself
• Spamming communities damages your reputation and gets accounts banned

Best for: content that's genuinely worth sharing. It's a supporting signal, not a primary method.

How to combine them

A practical stack for most sites:

1. Baseline (always): clean sitemaps plus solid internal linking
2. Automate (your own sites): IndexNow on every property
3. Prioritise (a few key URLs): Search Console and Webmaster tools for your most important pages
4. Scale and reach (bulk and third-party URLs): an indexing service that verifies crawls
5. Support: genuine social sharing for content worth sharing

And before any of it, make sure the page can be indexed. A noindex tag or a robots.txt block cancels out every other method. Run new URLs through the indexability checker first. For a full pre-launch list, see the indexing checklist for a new website.

Where QuickIndexx fits

QuickIndexx is an indexing service built for steps 4 and 5: bulk URLs, backlinks and more than one engine. It sends IndexNow notifications where they apply, uses discovery signals elsewhere, and shows each crawler visit. No crawl within 24 hours means the credit comes back. Our docs explain each channel, and plans are on the pricing page.