🚫 Why your URLs show zero progress
The Search Atlas URL Indexer (also referred to as Instant Indexing within Search Atlas) submits your pages to Google's official Indexing API. To use this API, Google requires a verified Google Cloud Project (GCP) with the Indexing API enabled. Without this setup, your URL submissions never reach Google.
⚙️ How to set up your Google Cloud Project
- Go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in with your Google account
- Create a new project (or select an existing one)
- Go to APIs & Services > Library
- Search for Indexing API and click Enable
- Go to APIs & Services > Credentials
- Create a Service Account and download the JSON key file
- Add the service account email as an Owner in your Google Search Console property
- In Search Atlas, go to Indexer > Settings and upload the JSON key file
✅ After connecting
Once your GCP is connected, resubmit your URLs. You should see them move from Pending to Processing within a few minutes.
🛠️ Troubleshooting activation errors
If you connected an existing Google Cloud Project and Instant Indexing activation failed, or you saw a server error when enabling indexing, these were known issues that have since been fixed. First make sure a project is assigned to your GCP connection, then retry activation. If errors persist after retrying, contact support.
⚠️ Important: indexing is still controlled by Google
Submitting a URL to the Indexing API does not guarantee immediate indexing. Google evaluates each URL for content quality, crawlability, and authority before indexing it. Most URLs are crawled within 24-96 hours of submission.