What Is An Index?
An index is a database used by a search engine to store information for all the websites it has crawled on the Internet. Users cannot find web pages through a search engine if the content is not in the index database. Also known as a search index.
Search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing can only display results from websites included in the index database. An index contains a site’s URL, videos, text, or images posted on a website as well as all other information included in its HTML code.
Algorithms analyze this data when calculating the post’s relevance for a search term by attempting to understand which content holds the most value for the searcher’s query. All search rankings are based on index data analysis.
Google and other search engines with global coverage have country and local indexes that help display the most relevant results for a specific country, region, or city.
Visit the SEO Glossary
Go to the SEO Glossary to find more terms and definitions that relate to the field of search engine optimization.
The Editorial Staff at SEO Chatter is a team of search engine optimization and digital marketing experts led by Stephen Hockman with more than 15 years of experience in search engine marketing. We publish guides on the fundamentals of SEO for beginner marketers.
