## **🚫 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**

1. Go to console.cloud.google.com and sign in with your Google account
2. Create a new project (or select an existing one)
3. Go to **APIs & Services > Library**
4. Search for **Indexing API** and click **Enable**
5. Go to **APIs & Services > Credentials**
6. Create a **Service Account** and download the JSON key file
7. Add the service account email as an **Owner** in your Google Search Console property
8. 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.