So you made links. A lot, maybe hundreds. You think your ranks would keep going up, but they don’t. You say to the screen, “Why isn’t Google noticing what I’m doing?” as you sip your coffee and click on another SERP position checker in anger. It’s very likely that your links haven’t been scanned or indexed yet. The Search Engine Insight link indexers are the unsung heroes.

Think about the old post office. You can write letters all day, but if no one ever delivers them, your penpal in Paris won’t know you told them you love croissants. If you send out backlinks and search engines don’t find them, it’s like talking to yourself in an empty room. Link indexers take every link and put it in the spotlight—hey, internet gods!

Not all indexers follow the same rules, though. Some people yell for attention by sending in a lot of submissions. Some people do well in whisper campaigns, when they slowly drop URLs into different web hooks. In the end, it all comes down to how you want people to find your links. Some indexers come in slowly, like rain on a tin roof. Others come in all at once, like someone dumping a bucket of water on your head. Knowing how fast you want to go can influence whatever tool you choose.

Let’s speak about how to manage expectations. Not every link will be picked up at lightning speed. Some stick right away, while others take forever, like a cousin who never replies. That’s OK. Indexers take your links and make signals like bookmarks, pings, and embeds that crawlers have to follow. But, like with any magic trick, the results may be different. Google sometimes yawns and comes back later. Sometimes, things change in a flash.

Quality is important. There are a lot of indexers on the playground who say they can do anything with their “secret formula.” A few do. Most of them make you feel bad. Junky indexers can send out low-value signals, like echoes in empty buildings, that do more harm than good. You might be getting a pig in a poke if it appears too inexpensive. Take note of how often they make changes to their systems. Old ways of doing things get old. You don’t want to serve old bread at a dinner party, do you?

Don’t go overboard with it, though. Sending out hundreds of thousands of URLs can make people raise their eyebrows. Search engines can smell footprints that aren’t natural. It’s like getting a million orders for a little bakery all at once. Everything falls apart.

Indexers aren’t magic, but they are an important part of SEO. Without them, links become less important. But are you using them too much? You might stand out for the wrong reasons. Think about Goldilocks: Find the best way to do things.

Do you want to know more? Start with a tiny batch. Keep track of the changes. Check out how search engines respond. Add some luck, see how it goes, then change your plan. That’s how you transform random guesses into planned SEO actions. And soon, those linkages that are being difficult might finally do their job.