Search Indexation
Whether a given URL is actually in Google’s index at all — the binary precondition that sits beneath ranking, impressions, and clicks. A page that isn’t indexed can’t rank for anything; it is invisible regardless of how well it’s optimized. Indexation is the floor of the funnel that search-marketing measures.
The measurable floor
Indexation matters to this wiki because it is the measurable half of the recurring measurement tension. GSC‘s Index coverage report and third-party “index checker” tools both answer a yes/no question — is this URL in the index? — with a definite answer. That stands in sharp contrast to the wiki’s central measurement gap: whether an AI Overview or a GEO answer considered a page is not observable at all. So the old, technical layer of search is verifiable; the new, AI-recommendation layer is not.
Indexed ≠ ranking ≠ recommended
Three distinct states, easy to conflate:
- Indexed — in Google’s index (checkable via GSC or an index checker).
- Ranking — placed for a query (GSC Performance report: position/impressions/clicks).
- Recommended — surfaced by an AI Overview / model answer (not measurable — the gap).
Confirming indexation first lets a team separate a search-visibility problem from an organic-demand or merchandising problem — see the operational use cases in google-index-checker-use-cases.
Related
google-index-checker-use-cases · google-search-console · google-search-essentials · search-marketing · ai-overviews · generative-engine-optimization