Google has announced that request indexing features across their URL inspection tool are to be temporarily disabled. While this is set to be only a temporary change, the Search Console indexing tool will be disabled for at least the next few weeks. Within their announcement, Google has stated that request indexing is being disabled in order to make changes to their site infrastructure.
Request indexing is a feature found as part of the Search Console’s URL inspection tool and can be used as to crawl individual URLs. It is a tool commonly used when site owners upload or make changes to pages on their websites, helping to speed up the rate by which Google adds new content to its search index. However, there is no guarantee that Google will index a site page quicker just because a request to do so had been made, as even when the indexing feature is working correctly, immediate inclusion to the search index is not promised. Google may not choose to index the requested content at all.
While request indexing features across the Google Search Console are made temporarily unavailable to platform users, Google has stated that they will continue to find and index new site content through their regular methods.
While it is unclear as to the exact changes Google are planning to make to their site infrastructure, request indexing should be made available to site owners on Google’s Search Console within the next few weeks. When it comes to measuring your site’s health and presence, the Google Search Console is a great tool for identifying any issues, making it an ideal tool for SEO. To learn more about how you can be using the Google Search Console to improve your website SEO in our dedicated article here.