Link indexation rate is the share of your backlinks that sit on pages Google has indexed. If you build 20 links and 16 of the linking pages appear in Google's index, your link indexation rate is 80%.

The page that carries the link is what matters, not the page receiving it. A link on a guest post that Google has crawled and indexed can be counted in Google's link analysis. A link on a page Google has never indexed, or has dropped, is unlikely to help rankings, because Google's ranking systems work from what is in the index.

Link indexation rate is not a Google metric. Google does not publish one, and it is not shown in Search Console. It is a check link builders and buyers use to judge whether new links have a chance of counting.

To calculate link indexation rate, divide the number of linking pages Google has indexed by the total number of linking pages, then multiply by 100.

Link indexation rate = (indexed linking pages ÷ total linking pages) × 100

Three rules keep the number honest:

  • Count pages, not links. Two links on one page are one indexed page or one unindexed page.
  • Only count live links. A page that no longer carries your link should come out of both numbers. See live link rate.
  • Fix the date. A rate measured three days after publication and one measured six weeks after are different numbers. Always report the age of the links checked.

To check if a backlink is indexed, check whether Google has indexed the page that contains the link. You cannot use Google's own indexing tools for this unless you own the linking site.

  • URL Inspection in Search Console gives the definitive answer, but only for pages on a property you own or are a full user of [2]. A site owner can check a guest post on their own site; the person who bought the guest post cannot.
  • A site: search for the exact linking URL in Google is the quick check anyone can run. If the page appears, it is indexed. If it does not appear, it may still be indexed, so treat a blank result as a prompt to recheck, not proof.
  • Search for a unique sentence from the page in quotes. If Google returns the linking page, it is indexed.
  • Rank tracking or backlink tools with an indexation check run the same tests at scale.

For your own site, Search Console's Links report lists a sample of external links Google has found [5]. A linking site that shows up there has at least been seen by Google.

How long does Google take to index a linking page?

Google gives no fixed time to index a page, and it does not promise to index any page at all. Google's guidance on recrawling says crawling "can take anywhere from a few days to a few weeks", and that requesting a crawl "does not guarantee that inclusion in search results will happen instantly or even at all" [2]. Google's overview of how Search works states that Google "doesn't guarantee that it will crawl, index, or serve your page" [1].

Several things affect how fast a new linking page is indexed:

  • How the page is found. Google discovers new pages mainly by following links from pages it already knows and from sitemaps [1]. A guest post linked from the publisher's homepage or category pages is found quickly; an orphan page with no internal links may not be found at all.
  • Whether the link itself is crawlable. Google can only reliably crawl a link that is an <a> element with an href attribute [4].
  • The quality of the page and site. Google states that not every page it processes will be indexed, and that low quality is one of the common reasons [1].

Some backlink pages are not indexed because Google judged them not worth indexing, has not crawled them yet, or was told not to index them. Google's Page indexing report lists the two most common states [3]:

  • Crawled, currently not indexed: Google crawled the page and chose not to index it. It "may or may not be indexed in the future."
  • Discovered, currently not indexed: Google knows the URL exists but has not crawled it yet, often to avoid overloading the site.

Other causes are a noindex robots tag on the page, a page blocked from crawling, a duplicate of another page, or a site so full of thin, link-selling pages that Google indexes little of it. A low indexation rate across many links on one site is a strong sign the site itself has a quality problem.

Google also tells site owners not to expect every URL to be indexed [3]. That is reasonable for a site's own pages. It is a problem for a page created mainly to carry a paid or placed link.

Link indexation rate measures whether Google has indexed the linking pages, while live link rate measures whether the links are still present on those pages. A link can be live but unindexed (on the page, but the page is not in Google), or indexed but no longer live (the page is in Google, but the link has been removed).

Live link rateLink indexation rate
QuestionIs the link still on the page?Is the page in Google's index?
Checked byCrawling the linking pagesite: search, quoted text search or URL Inspection (owner only)
Fails whenLink removed, page deleted, link changedPage never indexed, dropped or set to noindex

A link needs to pass both checks before it can help a site rank.

No primary source publishes a benchmark for link indexation rate, so any "industry average" you see is a vendor's own figure. A sensible standard is that every placed link sits on an indexed page within a stated period, and that a page which is still unindexed after that period is treated as a failed placement.

What indexation window is fair for new links?

A window of about 30 days fits Google's own timeline. Google says crawling after a request takes a few days to a few weeks [2], so a page on a healthy site that is still unindexed after a month is unlikely to be a timing issue. If you buy links, ask for the window in writing and what happens when a page misses it: a replacement placement is the usual remedy.

No. Services that promise to "force" third-party pages into Google's index cannot use URL Inspection on pages they don't own [2], and the methods they use instead, such as blasting the URL with automated links, are the kind of automated link creation listed in Google's link spam policy [6]. If a linking page needs tricks to get indexed, Google has usually already judged it, and the better fix is a link on a page Google wants to index.

You improve link indexation rate by choosing better pages to get links from, not by pushing weak pages into the index.

  • Vet the site first. Check that the site's existing articles in the same section are indexed and rank for something.
  • Ask for internal links. A new guest post linked from the publisher's category page or a related article is found faster [1].
  • Avoid pages built only to hold links. Pages with no audience and no internal links are the most likely to sit in "crawled, currently not indexed" [3].
  • Recheck at a fixed point, such as 30 days after publication, and act on the failures.