# Indexing

URL: /systems/marketing/indexing · Id: `page:systems/marketing/indexing`

> A Page publishes at once but enters search only when the Startup can keep its promise and the Page passes the quality gate, released in batches.

Indexing decides which [Pages](/business/nouns/page) search and answer engines may find. A Page serves the moment it publishes, but it enters the index only when the [Startup](/business/nouns/startup) can keep the promise the Page makes.

## Published is not indexed
Every Page carries an index state, `indexState`, separate from the [Lifecycle](/business/nouns/lifecycle) of its Startup. Serving and indexing are different decisions: people and [Agents](/business/nouns/agent) with the link read a Page from the first second, while search engines wait for permission.

| State | Served | In search | Sitemap |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `held` | Yes | No, marked `noindex` | No |
| `open` | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| `certified` | Yes | No, waiting for its batch | No |
| `indexed` | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| `withdrawn` | Yes | No, marked `noindex` | No |
| `gone` | Answers `410` | Removed | No |

Every new Page starts `held`, and a Page whose state is unknown is treated as `held`. Nothing reaches the index by default.

## Fulfillment gates acquisition
A Page that promises nothing a buyer can pay for indexes at once. A [Waitlist](/business/nouns/waitlist) Page and a positioning essay go `open` on publish, because the worst outcome is an early signup.

A Page that sells waits. Pricing, comparison, and answer Pages that lead to an [Offer](/business/nouns/offer) leave `held` once the Startup can take payment and deliver. Both are [Live](/business/lifecycle/states/live) entry checks: payouts connected and work defined.

Until then, demand comes from [Plays](/business/nouns/play) that reach a few buyers at a time, such as [cold email](/workflows/plays/cold-email) and a [smoke test](/workflows/plays/smoke-test). Delivery is done by hand where it must be.

The reason is cost. A ranked Page that sells what the Startup cannot deliver turns searchers into refunds. A [Domain](/business/nouns/domain) full of thin Pages teaches search engines to distrust every Page on it, including the good ones written later.

## The quality gate
A Page moves from `held` to `certified` when it passes every check:

1. Every claim resolves to a record, and no proof renders before Live.
2. The copy passes the interchangeability test and names a real artifact of the buyer's world.
3. Every link resolves, and the Page renders in HTML, Markdown, and JSON.
4. Structured data is complete for its type, or absent.
5. The Page answers a [Keyword](/business/nouns/keyword) no other Page on the [Site](/business/nouns/site) targets.

[Evaluators](/business/nouns/evaluator) score the copy and [Guards](/business/nouns/guard) block on the rest. The Agent that wrote a Page never certifies it: the checker is always a different [Worker](/business/nouns/worker) from the performer.

A gate that never fails certifies nothing. Each check runs against a set of known-bad Pages on every release, and a defect that recurs becomes a new check.

## Release in batches
Certified Pages enter the sitemap in batches, not all at once. Take a [Directory](/products/templates/directory) of solar installers with 3,000 city Pages. It releases 100 Pages, and the [SEO](/systems/seo) [System](/business/nouns/system) watches impressions, rank, and citations for that batch.

The next batch waits until the last one holds. A batch that earns no impressions in its window pauses the release and returns its Pages to `held` for rework. The [programmatic SEO](/workflows/plays/programmatic-seo) Play runs this loop; [editorial SEO](/workflows/plays/editorial-seo) and [AEO](/workflows/plays/aeo) release the same way at a smaller scale.

## Leaving the index
A Page leaves search without breaking a link:

- **Dormant.** When a Startup goes [Dormant](/business/lifecycle/states/dormant), its Site stays published and every Page moves to `withdrawn`. Readers with a link still arrive.
- **Removed.** A Page deleted by a definition [Change](/business/nouns/change) answers `410 Gone`, so engines drop it on the next crawl instead of retrying a `404`.
- **Moved.** A Page whose path changes answers its old path with a permanent redirect to the new one.

## Many Startups, one owner
Startups that share an owner link to each other sparingly, with varied anchor text, and each Site discloses the common ownership. No Site carries a sitewide footer of links to its siblings. Each Site earns its rank on its own Pages.

## What indexing is not
`llms.txt` and the Markdown form of each Page serve Agents that already found the Startup. They are not ranking levers, and no Page claims they are. Structured data types that search engines retired, such as `FAQPage` and `HowTo`, are not emitted.

## Next
- [Publishing](/products/site/publishing): how a Page reaches readers before it reaches search.
- [Storefront](/products/site/storefront-and-portal): where readers from search become [Customers](/business/nouns/customer).