Rule (R4): do NOT spam-request indexing — duplicate Request-Indexing submissions are ignored within a crawl cycle; "a hint, not a command" (Google)

Rule: Do not repeatedly click "Request Indexing" on the same URL hoping to force a crawl. Duplicate requests are ignored within a crawl cycle. Google's framing: Request Indexing is "a hint, not a command."

Why: It doesn't work, it consumes the URL Inspection API quota (2,000/day/property cap), and worst — it papers over the actual problem. If a page is in "Crawled – currently not indexed," re-requesting indexing won't change Google's quality decision (Search Console "Crawled – currently not indexed" is a deliberate quality decision, not a queue state — Google fetched and evaluated the page and CHOSE not to index it). If it's "Discovered – currently not indexed," re-requesting won't fix the site-wide signal driving the deferral (A large "Discovered – currently not indexed" backlog is a SITE-WIDE quality signal, not a per-page problem — Google declines to spend crawl resources on URL patterns it predicts will be low-value).

How to apply: Use Request Indexing once per URL after a substantive change (new page, significant rewrite, fixed-canonical issue). If the page remains unindexed after ~4 weeks despite clean technicals and good content, escalate to a quality + internal-linking audit (Rule: if important pages remain unindexed after ~4 weeks despite good content and clean technicals, escalate to a content-quality and internal-linking audit — do NOT just keep clicking "request indexing") — do NOT keep clicking the button. Cross-link: Benchmark #11 (Single-source): IndexCheckr submission-tool test 2025 — 33,930 previously-unindexed pages submitted to indexing tools, 29.37% indexed / 70.63% remained unindexed (the independent-test number for all submission tooling: 29.37% indexed, 70.63% remained unindexed).