Indexing and SEO: 9 Simple Steps to Boost Content Indexing on Google and Bing

Without content indexing, no one sees your work. You might have the most insightful articles, product pages, or blogs, but if they’re not indexed, they don’t exist in the eyes of search engines like Google and Bing. If you want better search rankings, visibility, and performance, fixing indexing issues is the first step—not the last.

In this guide, we’ll show you nine proven steps to speed up crawling, resolve indexing issues, and skyrocket your SEO performance across Google and Bing.

Why Content Indexing Matters More Than You Think

You’re not alone if you’ve seen “Discovered – currently not indexed” inside your Google Search Console. It’s frustrating. While many focus on search rankings, the real roadblock is often content indexing. Without it, your content never gets a chance.

And this goes beyond classic SEO. Whether you’re targeting search engines, AI-powered results, Google Discover, Shopping, News, or platforms like Gemini and ChatGPT—content visibility depends on indexing. No indexing = no crawling = no ranking.

Across client projects, we’ve found that roughly 9% of high-priority pages—like product listings and blog posts—never get indexed on Google or Bing due to various indexing issues.

Step 1: Audit for Indexing Issues and Fix Them

Start with an indexing audit. Segment your site into different sitemap categories—articles, products, videos, landing pages—and submit these to Google and Bing.

Then check both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools after a few days. You’ll typically see one of three causes behind poor content visibility:

Bad SEO Setup:

This category covers technical SEO issues that prevent search engines from accessing or understanding your content.

• robots.txt blocks: The robots.txt file instructs search engine bots which parts of your site to crawl or ignore. Incorrectly configured robots.txt files can accidentally block important pages.
• “noindex” tags: Meta tags with the “noindex” attribute tell search engines not to index a page. If these tags are used unintentionally, they can prevent valuable content from appearing in search results.
• 404 errors: These errors indicate that a page cannot be found. A high number of 404 errors can negatively impact your site’s crawlability and user experience.
• Bad redirects: Redirects (like 301 or 302 redirects) send users and search engines from one URL to another. If redirects are set up incorrectly, they can confuse search engines and lead to indexing problems.

Low-Value Content:

• Search engines prioritize high-quality, relevant content that provides value to users.
• Thin content: This refers to pages with very little or no original content. Such pages are often considered low-quality and are unlikely to rank well.
• Content that doesn’t meet quality standards: Search engines have guidelines for content quality. If your content is poorly written, irrelevant, or lacks depth, it may be ignored or penalized.

Crawling Delays:

• “Discovered – currently not indexed”: This message in Google Search Console indicates that Google has found your page but hasn’t yet crawled and indexed it.
• This can be due to various factors, including:
  • A large number of pages on your site.
  • Limited crawl budget (the amount of time search engines spend crawling your site).
  • Technical issues that slow down crawling.
  • Search engine algorithm prioritization.

To fix these indexing issues, clean up your sitemaps, strengthen the content, and improve SEO signals to invite better crawling.

Step 2: Submit a News Sitemap for Rapid Indexing

Even if your site doesn’t produce “news,” using a News sitemap helps pages under 48 hours old get indexed faster on Google.

Content indexing happens faster because Google actively prioritizes this feed. It’s a simple move with big impact for SEO and content visibility.

Step 3: Use Google Merchant Center for Product Indexing

If you’re running an ecommerce site, uploading your product feed to Google Merchant Center significantly improves content indexing for product pages.

While this doesn’t apply to Bing, it’s a powerhouse for Google. It reduces indexing issues, enhances crawling, and lifts your search rankings in product-related searches.

Step 4: Add an RSS Feed for Faster Crawling

Set up an RSS feed that includes your latest content. Then submit that feed to both Google and Bing.

Why? RSS feeds often get checked more frequently than XML sitemaps, which speeds up crawling and content indexing. For even more impact, enable WebSub (formerly PubSubHubbub), which pushes updates out instead of waiting for search engines to pull them.

This step improves your SEO, reduces lag in indexing issues, and ensures new pages don’t go ignored.

Step 5: Use IndexNow and Google Indexing API

If you’re serious about fast content indexing, integrate IndexNow (for Bing) and the Google Indexing API.

IndexNow helps Bing learn about updates instantly. Google’s API supports limited daily calls (up to 200 URLs), but it’s a game-changer for timely SEO updates.

These tools directly reduce indexing issues and improve your site’s content visibility across major search engines.

Step 6: Strengthen Internal Links to Boost Search Rankings

Don’t underestimate the power of linking. A page that’s buried under layers of navigation often doesn’t get indexed.

Link new or important pages from high-authority spots like your homepage or core navigation. Internal links help search engines discover and prioritize pages faster, improving crawling, content visibility, and search rankings.

Use crawling reports to identify pages with weak internal links—then reinforce them. This solves indexing issues without new content.

Step 7: Block Low-Value Pages That Waste Crawl Budget

Every site has low-priority pages that hog crawl resources—think filter results, thank-you pages, or internal search pages. These dilute your crawl efficiency.

Use robots.txt and meta tags like “noindex” or rel=”nofollow” to guide search engines. This ensures your crawl budget is spent on valuable content and reduces indexing delays.

Cutting out clutter helps Google and Bing focus on what really matters, boosting SEO performance and content visibility.

Step 8: Use 304 Status Codes to Save Crawl Resources

Pages that haven’t changed since their last crawl should return a 304 Not Modified status. This tells search engines the content is the same and doesn’t need reindexing.

It saves your crawl budget for new pages that actually need content indexing. That way, fresh pages get indexed faster, improving your search rankings and avoiding unnecessary indexing issues.

Step 9: Request Manual Indexing for Priority Pages

Sometimes, crawling and automation aren’t enough—especially for critical pages.

For Google, use the “Request Indexing” feature in Search Console (up to 10 URLs/day). For Bing, IndexNow usually works better and automates the process. Use it when you publish a new blog post, launch a product, or fix a key error.

It’s your last line of defense when indexing issues get stubborn and content visibility starts to suffer.

The Bottom Line: No Indexing = No Impact

You could have the best site in the world, but if your pages aren’t indexed, they’ll never reach users. Search bots won’t rank what they can’t find.

To recap, here’s how to fix indexing issues and boost content visibility:

Audit Your Site for Content Indexing Problems:

• Regularly check for issues that prevent indexing, such as broken links, errors in your robots.txt file, or pages with “noindex” tags.

Submit News Sitemaps for Quicker Updates:

• For news websites, submitting a news sitemap helps search engines quickly discover and index new articles.

Use Google Merchant Center for Product Indexing:

• For e-commerce sites, Google Merchant Center helps get product information indexed and displayed in shopping results.

Enable RSS Feeds for Faster Crawling:

• RSS feeds can notify search engines about new content, leading to faster crawling and indexing.

Integrate IndexNow and Google Indexing API:

• These tools allow you to directly notify search engines about new or updated content, speeding up the indexing process.

Strengthen Internal Links to Lift Search Rankings:

• Internal links help search engine bots navigate your website and discover all your pages, thus improving indexing and SEO.

Block Low-Value Pages That Hurt Crawl Efficiency:

• Prevent search engines from wasting time crawling low-quality or duplicate pages, which can improve the overall indexing efficiency of your site. Use the robots.txt file, or “noindex” meta tags.

Use 304 Codes for Unchanged Content:

• 304 codes tell search bots that content has not changed since the last crawl, saving crawl resources.

Manually Request Indexing Where Necessary:

• Use tools like Google Search Console to manually request indexing for specific pages.

By following these steps, you make it easier for Google, Bing, and other search engines to process your site correctly. That means faster content indexing, stronger SEO, fewer indexing issues, and way better content visibility in search.

Note on Indexing Expectations

Don’t expect 100% indexing—ever. Even top-tier websites can’t achieve that. Search engines use selective crawling, especially for massive domains. And that’s OK.

Your goal? Get high-value pages indexed, eliminate blockers, and streamline your technical setup. When you fix indexing issues, your SEO work finally pays off in full.

Contributing authors are selected for their experience and commitment to sharing high-impact strategies in the world of SEO and content marketing. All articles go through editorial review, and the views expressed are their own.