"Crawled – currently not indexed" in Google Search Console

  • google-search-console
  • indexing
  • seo
  • crawling

Updated

"Crawled – currently not indexed" means Google visited the page and decided not to add it to search results, for now. It isn't an error and there's no penalty. Usually Google judged the page too thin, too similar to another page, or not important enough yet. Check which pages are affected: many shouldn't be indexed anyway, and the ones that should need stronger content and more links from the rest of your site.

What Google says it means

In Google's words: "The page was crawled by Google but not indexed. It may or may not be indexed in the future; no need to resubmit this URL for crawling." Google also says not to expect every page to be indexed, because some are duplicates or don't contain meaningful information. Source: Page indexing report.

Don't confuse it with Discovered – currently not indexed, where Google found the address but hasn't visited it yet. That one usually clears with time, a sitemap, and links to the page.

See which pages are affected

  1. In Google Search Console, open Indexing → Pages.
  2. Under Why pages aren't indexed, click Crawled - currently not indexed.
  3. Look through the list of example addresses.

Sort the list

Most lists are a mix of pages that don't matter and a few that do.

Fine to leave alone:

  • Tag, author, and date archives, and paged lists such as /page/2/
  • Search result pages, feeds, and addresses with ? parameters
  • Image attachment pages, cart and checkout pages, thank-you pages
  • Old test pages and near-duplicates

To keep these out of the report for good, mark them noindex or remove them. See SEO for categories, tags, and authors.

Worth fixing: service pages, product pages, location pages, and articles you want people to find.

Make important pages worth indexing

  1. Make the page useful on its own. A few lines of text, or copy that repeats another page, gives Google little reason to list it. Answer the question the page is for, in your own words.
  2. Make it different. If two pages target the same thing (for example two near-identical service pages), merge them and redirect one to the other. See Set up a 301 redirect in WordPress.
  3. Link to it. Link from your menu, home page, or related pages, with link text that says what the page is. Pages nobody links to look unimportant.
  4. Check the basics. Give it a clear title and one H1 (see Structure a page with headings), make sure it's in your sitemap, and check it isn't set to noindex.
  5. Ask Google to look again. After a real improvement, paste the address into URL Inspection at the top of Search Console and click Request indexing. Requesting again without changing the page doesn't help.

New sites and new pages often sit in this list for weeks before Google indexes them. If the page is good and well linked, give it time.

If your site runs on Dirigible

  • Dirigible SEO's Private Page (Do Not Index) setting, in each page's SEO box, keeps test pages and thin pages out of Google and out of your sitemap. See Page SEO.
  • Date archives are always kept out of search results. The theme also keeps out your 404 page, and thank-you pages that a Gravity Forms confirmation sends visitors to when the page address says "thank you" or "confirmation".
  • To find pages linking to addresses that no longer exist, run Audit broken links in Dirigible → Tools & Maintenance.

If important pages stay out of Google for months, or a large share of your site is affected, it's worth getting an SEO review: the cause is usually how the site's content and links are organized, which is easier to see from outside.