Indexing is one of the crucial procedures in the website launching process, usually performed immediately after making the page or website live. It enables efficient data retrieval and search, as the crawlers do their work.
Without indexing, a website cannot be accessed or addressed, it is practically invisible to both Google and people across the world. Time is of great importance in digital marketing, each passing day without indexing can result in losing leads or falling behind the competitors. Unlike other technologies, WordPress does not involve any complicated indexing processes or long time duration for getting the websites indexed. WordPress Instant Indexing Plugin simplifies the indexing process and makes it more efficient, effortless, and less prone to errors. In this blog, let us understand how instant indexing API works, how it can benefit your online business, and other important factors that can affect the indexing process.

What is Indexing? And how does it work?
Indexing is a systematic procedure that involves organizing the data in a way that makes it easier and faster to retrieve. This includes creating a data structure that facilitates quick search and access to the stored information. But how does this work? Under the hood?
- Search engines like Google perform various complex algorithms to evaluate websites and their pages to index.
- Google has millions of crawlers that scan the web to discover new pages and updated pages.
- These crawlers extract necessary information from the pages that are crawled and store the parsed data in a structured format.
- Next time the user searches for relevant keywords, they quickly retrieve this data and display it to the users.
How is Instant Indexing for Google different from indexing?
Regular indexing involves a standardized process in which search engines like Google discover, crawl, and index web pages. On the other hand, instant indexing allows site owners to notify Google directly every time when new pages are added, updated, or removed. This facilitates faster indexing compared to the regular indexing process.
What is Google’s Indexing API?
Indexing API is a tool that simplifies the indexing process by notifying Google whenever there is a new page or updates on the existing page. Some of the key functionalities of indexing API include:
- Updating a URL
- Removing an URL
- Get the status of a request
- Sending batch indexing requests
RankMath’s instant indexing plugin in WordPress uses Google’s indexing API to automate the indexing process with an easy-to-use interface for managing indexing requests without needing to handle the technical details of the API. This significantly simplifies the indexing process and makes it accessible to users almost instantly. It also automatically submits the URLs for indexing when you publish or update the content.
How to instantly index a site in WordPress?
Step 1: Install the Rank Math Plugin
- Go to Your WordPress Dashboard.
- Navigate to Plugins > Add New.
- Search for the “Rank Math” plugin and click Install Now on the Rank Math SEO plugin.
- Once installed, click Activate.
Step 2: Set Up Rank Math
- Once the plugin is activated, Rank Math will prompt you to run the setup wizard. Follow the on-screen instructions to configure basic settings.
- You may need to create a Rank Math account and connect it to your WordPress site.
Step 3: Install the Instant Indexing Plugin
- Go to the Rank Math website and download the Instant Indexing plugin.
- Tap on the dashboard and navigate to Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
- Choose the recently downloaded ZIP file and click Install Now.
- Once installed, click Activate.
Step 4: Enable the Indexing API
- Go to the Google Cloud Platform.
- Create a new project.
- Navigate to APIs & Services > Library.
- Now search for “Indexing API” and turn it on for the respective project.
Step 5: Create a Service Account
- Go to Google Cloud Console, and tap on APIs & Services > Credentials.
- Tap on Create credentials and select Service account.
- In the service account, go to Keys and create a new key in JSON format.
- Download the JSON file, which contains your API key.
Step 6: Configure the Plugin
- In your WordPress dashboard, navigate to Rank Math > Instant Indexing > Google API Settings.
- Upload the JSON key file you downloaded from Google Cloud.
- In the plugin settings, configure it to automatically submit URLs for indexing when you publish or update content.
Step 7: Submit URLs for Indexing
- Navigate to Rank Math > Instant Indexing > Console.
- Enter the URLs you want to index and click Send to API.
- Set the plugin to automatically submit URLs whenever new content is published or existing content is updated.
Steps to Create an Indexing API
Step 1: Create a Google Cloud Project
- Go to the Google Cloud Platform and visit the Google Cloud Console.
- Create a project file for the respective client by clicking on the project dropdown and then selecting the New Project button.
- Enter a project name and click Create.
Step 2: Enable the Indexing API
- Navigate to APIs & Services in the Google Cloud Console, and go to APIs & Services > Library.
- Enable the Indexing API by searching for “Indexing API” and enable it for your project.
Step 3: Create a Service Account
- Go to Credentials and then navigate to APIs & Services > Credentials.
- Create a Service Account by clicking on Create credentials and selecting Service Account.
- Enter all the necessary information and then click on the create button.
- Generate a JSON Key in the service account, go to Keys and create a new key in JSON format.
- Download the JSON file, which contains your API key.
Step 4: Verify Site Ownership in Google Search Console
- Open Google Search Console and go to Google Search Console.
- Verify Ownership by adding your website and verify ownership using any of the supported methods (e.g., HTML file upload, DNS record).
- In Search Console add Service Account as Owner and then go to Settings > Users and permissions.
- Now, set the previously created service account email as an owner.
Step 5: Configure the Indexing API
- Use the JSON key file to obtain an access token for authenticating your API calls. This can be done using tools like curl or programming languages like Python.
- Use HTTP POST requests to send Indexing Requests by notifying Google of new, updated, or deleted URLs. You can do this manually or automate it using scripts or plugins.
Step 6: Using the API with WordPress (Optional)
- Use plugins like Rank Math or SEOPress to integrate the Indexing API with your WordPress site.
- Upload the JSON key file in the plugin settings.
- Configure the plugin to automatically submit URLs for indexing when you publish or update content.
Conclusion
All in all, indexing is a fundamental step in making your content both visible and accessible, instant indexing API streamlines this process and ensures that your new and updated content is instantly indexed. Using Google’s instant indexing API with WordPress by using plugins like Rank Math can significantly revolutionize the way indexing works. This can help you stay ahead of the competition and ensure that the site is always indexed. For more information on WordPress website development or other related queries contact us.