Get your pages indexed (Google, Bing, Brave)
Getting your pages indexed means making sure each search engine has actually stored your page in its index, the searchable database it draws answers from, because a page that isn't in a search engine's index can't be retrieved or cited, by classic search or by the AI answer engines that read those indexes. This covers how to check whether your pages are indexed (a site:yourdomain.com search in each engine) and what to do when they aren't: submit your sitemap to Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools, request indexing for priority pages, turn on IndexNow where it's available, and clear the blocks that keep pages out: an accidental noindex, a robots rule, or a wrong canonical. You make these changes in your own platform and in the search engines' own tools, then mark the recommendation done.
A page can only appear in search results or be cited in an AI answer if the search engine has stored it in its index, so getting indexed is the precondition for being found at all. The strongest page stays invisible if it was never indexed. Submitting your sitemap tells each engine which pages exist, requesting indexing moves a priority page to the front of the crawl queue, and IndexNow pings Bing (and Yandex, Seznam, and Naver) to re-crawl a changed page within minutes instead of waiting days. Clearing an accidental noindex or a stray robots or canonical block lets pages that were silently held back finally enter the index, where both classic search and the AI answer engines that read those indexes can retrieve and cite them.
Do it on your platform
Pick your website platform below for the exact place to make this change, and how to confirm it worked.
Which search engine to target
Google's index is the gateway into Search, AI Overviews, AI Mode and Gemini grounding.
Submit your sitemap in Google Search Console (Sitemaps), and for priority pages use URL Inspection > 'Request Indexing' (start with your homepage). Make sure robots.txt and your WAF don't block Googlebot or Google-Extended. Google-Extended is separate from ranking and gates whether you can be cited in Gemini, so don't block it. There is no public request-indexing API for ordinary pages (only the manual button), and indexing takes days to weeks.
A single Bing index feeds Copilot, ChatGPT Search, DuckDuckGo, Ecosia, Qwant and Yahoo, the most valuable index for GEO.
Submit your URLs and sitemap in Bing Webmaster Tools (manual submission up to 1000/day). Use IndexNow, an instant 'this page changed' ping that gets pages re-crawled in minutes and is supported by Bing, Yandex, Seznam and Naver (NOT Google). Since ChatGPT Search increasingly uses its own crawler, also allow OAI-SearchBot at your firewall.
Brave's independent index feeds the Brave Search API consumers: Anthropic/Claude, Cursor, Cline, Windsurf and Kagi. That's your route into the non-Google/non-Bing AIs.
Don't block Googlebot: Brave's rule is 'if Googlebot can't crawl a page, Brave won't either', so anything open to Google is open to Brave. Submit a URL at search.brave.com/submit-url (no account; crawl in 1-3 days, with no confirmation) and earn a few inbound links. There are no Brave webmaster tools or status API. Presence is always an estimate.
- 1
First check whether you're already indexed: type site:yourdomain.com into each search engine, trying it both with and without www. Any results mean you're indexed, and zero results is a strong 'probably not indexed' signal.
- 2
Submit your sitemap: your Yoast or Rank Math SEO plugin already publishes it at /sitemap_index.xml, so submit that URL in both Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools.
- 3
Remove any accidental noindex: open the page in the WordPress editor, find the Yoast or Rank Math SEO box below the content, and set its search visibility back to index,follow.
- 4
Make sure WordPress isn't hiding the whole site: go to Settings → Reading and confirm 'Discourage search engines from indexing this site' is turned OFF site-wide.
SettingsReading - 5
Turn on IndexNow so Bing re-crawls your changes instantly: enable the IndexNow option in your SEO plugin. Both Yoast and Rank Math ship one.
Check it worked. A site:yourdomain.com search returns your pages in each engine. For the exact reality, connect Google Search Console (its URL Inspection tool gives a per-URL coverage state) and Bing Webmaster Tools.
Heads up. A site: search is a proxy, not the truth: it undercounts and its result counter is unreliable, so 'we didn't find you' isn't 'definitely not there'. Confirm the exact status by connecting Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools. Indexing is never instant. Expect days to weeks, and a brand-new site can take months.