What is an Index?
An index is a database containing the webpages and other content a search engine wants to display in search results.
Search engines do not search the web in real-time. Instead, they regularly crawl the web to find new and updated content. When they identify a piece of content they may want to include in search results, they add it to their index.Â
When a person enters a search query into the search engine, the search engine retrieves the relevant results from its index, and displays it on the search results page. Â
The process of adding content to the index is called indexing. While indexing takes you a step closer to appearing in search results, there is no guarantee that the indexed content will appear in search results.Â