Indexed But Not Retrieved

Diagnose why pages are indexed by search engines but not retrieved by generative AI systems.

Your pages appear in Google Search Console as indexed, but generative AI systems (ChatGPT, Perplexity, AI Overviews) do not retrieve them when answering relevant queries.

Indexing and retrieval are separate processes. A page can be indexed (crawled and stored) but fail retrieval because:

• Content segments lack atomic structure
• Segments cannot be scored for relevance
• Content is ambiguous or context-dependent
• Segments exceed optimal length for retrieval
• Headers do not match query patterns

This maps to retrieval failure patterns. See Failure Modes Index for detailed mechanics.

1. Verify indexing status: Confirm pages are indexed in Search Console
2. Test retrieval: Query AI systems with your target keywords
3. Check segment structure: Are sections atomic and self-contained?
4. Review confidence signals: Does content provide clear, deterministic answers?

To enable retrieval:

1. Restructure content for atomic retrieval
2. Implement prechunking framework
3. Ensure segments are independently scorable
4. See GEO fundamentals for mechanics

This is a failure state within AI Optimization, where systems fail to retrieve or select a source during AI-driven search and answer generation.