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To index a website on Google, add the domain to Search Console, verify ownership and submit the sitemap. Then request indexing of the home page in URL Inspection and check the status in the same tool. According to Google, indexing usually takes about a day, but the request does not guarantee a spot in the index.
In short
- A Search Console domain property covers all subdomains plus http and https, but it only accepts DNS verification.
- A sitemap is only a hint for Google. So submit it in the Sitemaps report and check that its status shows Success.
- The Request indexing button has a daily limit. Therefore, use it for the home page and key pages, and leave the rest to the sitemap.
- To show up in AI Overviews, a page must be indexed, eligible for a snippet and included in Search Console’s generative AI features.
Step by step: how to index a website on Google
To index a website on Google, you need five steps, and almost all of them happen in Search Console. Before you start, make sure the home page opens without a login and returns status code 200. That matters because Google only indexes public pages. Then follow the order below, from setup to the final check.
- Create the property in Search Console, either a domain or a URL prefix.
- Verify the property with a DNS record, HTML file, HTML tag, Google Analytics or Tag Manager.
- Submit the sitemap in the Sitemaps report, or list its address in robots.txt.
- Request indexing of the home page and key pages in URL Inspection.
- Check the result in URL Inspection and, on large sites, in the Page indexing report.
This path is for people who start from scratch. If the site already exists and still does not show up, you need a diagnosis instead. In that case, the technical SEO audit brings together the crawling, rendering and indexing tests. For the weight of the index in AI answers, see the SEO and AI guide.
How do you add your website to Google Search Console?
Open Search Console, click the property selector and choose + Add property. Next, pick a domain or a URL-prefix property and prove that the site is yours. According to Search Console Help, adding a property does not affect your site in Search, because it only gives you the data.
Domain or URL prefix: which property should you create?
| Property type | What it covers | How to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Domain (example.com) | All subdomains and protocols | DNS record only |
| URL prefix (https://example.com/) | Only URLs with that exact start | HTML file, HTML tag, Analytics, Tag Manager or DNS |
The domain property is the most complete, because it joins www, non-www, http and https in a single report. On the other hand, the URL prefix fits a folder, such as /blog/, or anyone without DNS access. For example, the property https://example.com/ does not include pages on http:// or on www.
For DNS verification, Search Console shows a TXT record for you to paste at your domain provider. According to the verification help page, the provider can take up to two or three days to serve the record. In addition, the record must stay in place after verification. On WordPress, Site Kit can handle verification, and Google says it is the only plugin it officially sponsors.
Data collection starts as soon as someone adds the property, even before verification. Still, the reports take a few days to show numbers. Once the property is verified, the next step to index your website on Google is the sitemap.
How do you submit a sitemap for your website to Google?
Open the Sitemaps report, paste the file address into Add a new sitemap and click Submit. Google fetches the file right away, but crawling the listed URLs can take time. Finally, check that the status shows Success, because any other status points to a fetch or read failure.
According to the guide Build and submit a sitemap, submitting a sitemap is only a hint. In other words, it does not guarantee that Google will download the file or use it for crawling. Each sitemap takes up to 50 MB uncompressed or 50,000 URLs, in UTF-8 and with absolute URLs. Include only the canonical URLs you want in the results. Google ignores priority and changefreq, but it uses lastmod when the date is reliable.
Not every site needs a sitemap. According to the Sitemaps report help, a site with up to 500 pages, all reachable through links from the home page, probably does not need one. In that case, to index your website on Google, just request indexing of the home page. Platforms like Wix and Squarespace also tend to create the sitemap for you.
To submit through the report, you need owner permissions on the property. Without them, list the file in robots.txt with a Sitemap: line followed by the full address.
Where is the sitemap in WordPress?
Since version 5.5, WordPress creates a sitemap index at /wp-sitemap.xml and lists it in robots.txt, according to the WordPress core team note. The same note says the sitemap turns off when the site asks search engines not to index it. That option, “Discourage search engines from indexing this site,” sits under Settings > Reading and also adds noindex to every page.
If you use Yoast SEO, submit the plugin’s sitemap instead. In the English interface, it lives under Yoast SEO > Settings > Site features, in the XML sitemaps toggle. Then the View the XML sitemap link shows the address to send to Google. According to Yoast’s help page, the file updates itself and leaves out content types marked noindex.
How do you ask Google to index a URL?
Paste the full URL into the Search Console inspection bar, click Test live URL and, if the test passes, click Request indexing. The page then joins an indexing queue. According to the URL Inspection help page, this usually takes about a day, but it can take up to a week or two.
- Inspect the URL in the bar at the top of any Search Console screen. It must belong to the open property.
- Click Test live URL to see if Google can reach the current version of the page.
- Click Request indexing. Google only accepts the request if the live test finds the page indexable.
- Go back to URL Inspection over the next few days to check the status.
There is a daily limit on requests per property. Also, the guide Ask Google to recrawl your URLs says that repeating the request for the same URL does not speed up crawling. So save the button for the home page, your most important new pages and the ones you just fixed. For many pages, use the sitemap with the modified date in lastmod. The same guide notes that only owners and full users of the property can request indexing.
A passing test also does not guarantee that Google will index your website. After all, the test checks access, but it does not judge duplicates, canonicals, quality or manual actions. If the page builds its text with JavaScript, open View tested page and compare the screenshot with the real page. The test and the fixes are in the guide to JavaScript SEO for AI crawlers.
How do you know if Google indexed your website?
Inspect the URL in Search Console. The status URL is on Google means that Google indexed the page and that it can appear in search. By contrast, URL is not on Google means that it cannot appear. Repeat the check on the home page and key pages, and use the Page indexing report for the whole site.
| What URL Inspection shows | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| URL is on Google | The page is in the index | Search for the address on Google |
| URL is not on Google | The page is out of the index | Read the reason under Page indexing |
| URL is unknown to Google | Google has never seen the URL | Request indexing and link the page |
| Google-selected canonical shows another address | Google preferred another version | Declare the right canonical |
However, a positive status still does not prove that the page appears. To be sure, the help page itself says to search for the page address on Google. If it does not come up, open the Manual actions and Security issues reports, because the inspection does not cover them. Meanwhile, the Page indexing report shows how many URLs are in and out of the index, with the reason for each group. It mostly helps large sites: below 500 pages, the help page suggests Google searches instead of the report.
How long should you wait for indexing?
In the report’s help page, Google says it can take a week or so to start crawling and indexing a new site or page. So wait at least that long before you dig in. If the page is still out of the index, the reason appears under Page indexing in URL Inspection.
Is being in the Google index enough to show up in AI Overviews?
No, but it is the first requirement. According to the page AI features and your website, a page must be indexed and eligible to show with a snippet. Even so, Google warns that meeting the requirements does not guarantee that it will crawl, index or show the content.
That is why, after you index your website on Google, you should check the snippet controls in your theme templates. The nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet and noindex rules limit what Search shows from the page. So, based on our reading of the docs, a forgotten nosnippet in a template will likely keep the page out of AI Overviews. That holds even when the page is indexed. After all, without a snippet, the page no longer meets the requirement.
The last check happens in Search Console itself. In the domain property, open Settings > Search generative AI and confirm that the selected option is the one that includes your site’s links and content. According to the Search generative AI control help page, the choice covers AI Overviews, AI Mode and Discover, and inclusion is the default. However, URL-prefix properties inherit the parent’s choice by default. For that reason, start with the domain property.
Beyond that, Google says you do not need AI text files or special schema.org markup. To track the result, use the Search Console generative AI report, which counts page impressions in these features. For the work of getting your brand cited, beyond being in the index, see the guide what is GEO.
What about ChatGPT and Copilot?
The Google index does not carry over to other search engines. According to Bing’s guidelines, Bing and Copilot search experiences share the same crawling, indexing and ranking base as traditional search. In addition, Microsoft states that Bing powers AI tools like ChatGPT. So repeat the setup and the sitemap submission in Bing Webmaster Tools, as the guide on how to index your site on Bing shows.
Frequently asked questions
Indexing a website on Google costs nothing. Google’s documentation states that getting a page into search results is free. In addition, Google does not accept money to crawl a site more often. So be wary of services that sell guaranteed indexing.
No. Once the sitemap is submitted and new pages are linked from pages already in the index, Google can find the content without a manual request. Hosted platforms such as WordPress also tend to notify search engines on their own, according to Google. Keep manual requests for your most important pages.
Search Console takes a few days to collect data for a new property. If data still does not appear several days after verification, Google points to two causes. Either it has not seen the site in Search yet, or the property uses the wrong address, such as http instead of https.
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Main sources
- Search Console Help, Add a website or platform property to Search Console (2026).
- Search Console Help, Verify your site ownership (2026).
- Google Search Central, Build and submit a sitemap (2026).
- Search Console Help, Sitemaps report (2026).
- Search Console Help, URL Inspection tool (2026).
- Search Console Help, Page indexing report (2026).
- Google Search Central, AI features and your website (2025).
- Search Console Help, Search generative AI control (2026).
