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How to Fix Crawled But Not Indexed on Google Search Console: A Step by Step Guide

If you are a website owner, you will be familiar with Google Search Console (GSC). After all, this tool helps you keep an eye on your website’s status in the SERPs (search engine results pages) and can flag any issues you need to address. A common problem you might come across in GSC is that your page is not indexed: the crawled – currently not indexed status is showing. This can be catastrophic for your online visibility as it means that although Google has crawled your web page, it hasn’t indexed it, which means that it won’t be shown in search results. The result? Your organic traffic will be affected.

Just because Google has chosen not to index your web page, it doesn’t mean that it never will. This blog tells you everything you need to know about how to fix crawled – currently not indexed in GSC.

Crawling and Indexing: Why Are They Important?

Crawling and indexing are part of the process that enables web pages to appear in Google search results. Three stages are involved in getting a web page to be displayed in the SERPS: first crawling, then indexing, and finally ranking.

The crawling stage is where bots look for new and updated pages, recording their content. Indexing is the process of storing the pages it finds by looking at the content, keywords, and how valuable the information is. Valuable pages will then be added to its index – a huge database where Google stores all the web pages it uses in its results.

The final stage is ranking. This is where Google takes relevant pages from its index and ranks them based on authority, user experience, and what will be helpful for users. If you are seeing that Google crawled but not indexed your pages, they won’t be an option when it comes to ranking so it’s important this gets fixed.

What Does “Crawled – Currently Not Indexed” Mean in Google Search Console?

What is crawled – currently not indexed? It’s exactly what it sounds like. It means that Google has crawled your page but hasn’t indexed it. In other words, it knows that your page exists, but it hasn’t been added to its index to show in the SERPs for relevant queries.

Why Does Crawled But Not Indexed Happen?

There are lots of reasons why your pages can be crawled but not indexed. Google might not think that your content is high enough quality, you might have technical issues that are holding you back, a badly structured site, or duplicate content that puts the search engine off from indexing. It can take a few hours to weeks for new and updated pages to be indexed, so it might also be that Google needs more time to get the job done.

Google Needs A Reason To Index Your Pages

Another reason why your pages might be struggling to be indexed is that Google might have changed its priorities. With so much content being published daily, the search engine needs to take a critical approach to the pages it accepts and those it doesn’t. Core Updates and the Helpful Content Update only highlight this, so you need to make sure your content stands out.

To be in with a chance of getting indexed, your content needs to be:

  • Original
  • Quality
  • Valuable

How To Fix Crawled – Currently Not Indexed: Steps To Take

While it can be frustrating to find out your pages are not being indexed, the good news is that there is a crawled – currently not indexed fix out there. If you’re not being indexed, the following steps should help you get back on track.

  1. Focus on Internal Linking

Poor internal linking structure is just one reason why Google might choose not to index your web pages. Whether internal or external, links signal to Google that your pages offer value. Internal links also help the search engine’s crawlers understand your website and its structure. If your page doesn’t have any links pointing to it from other pages on your website, it is what’s known as an orphan page. To fix this, simply link to the page in question from an existing, related page on your site.

  1. Assess Thin, Low-Quality Content

Google will usually always favour original, informative, in-depth content over thin content that lacks quality. To combat this, it’s worth looking at the type of content that is ranking in the top spots for a certain theme. If the pages in the top spots have content that is thousands of words long and yours is just a few hundred words, take this as a sign to beef your content out, adding information that will enhance its value to the reader.

  1. Ensure Content Aligns With Search Intent

If your page is crawled but not indexed, it might be because it doesn’t match the current search intent for the keywords and phrases you’re targeting. To fix this, review the content currently ranking for a specific search term and ensure yours matches this in terms or format. For example, if the results throw up ‘how to guides,’ producing an ‘FAQs’ style article is probably not a good idea.

  1. Look For Pages That Are Almost Duplicates

To fix crawled currently not indexed, it’s worth checking that you don’t have any pages that are duplicating – or almost duplicating – existing content. Google doesn’t like duplicated content as it confuses its indexing process. This is common for eCommerce websites, for example, where product descriptions can be very similar for products that are the same but with a slight variation. In this case, you might use a canonical tag to tell the search engine to index just one page.

  1. Have a Sound Site Structure

To have the best chance of being indexed, your website needs a clear structure with category and sub-category pages, preferably following a breadcrumb structure that helps the user experience. Generating and submitting an XML sitemap to Google can help the search engine ‘read’ your site and then index pages.

  1. Check For Technical SEO Issues

It’s possible that technical issues might be holding your web pages back from being indexed. Mistakes in your robots.txt file and incorrect use of nofollow and noindex tags can all block Google from indexing your pages. So check that these are implemented correctly for the best chances of ranking.

Fixed: How To Solve Crawled – Currently Not Indexed

Few things are more frustrating than seeing the crawled – currently not indexed status. The good news is that it’s not the end of the world and that by ensuring your content and technical SEO are all up to scratch, your pages should be indexed and ranked. If you don’t see improvements immediately, remember to be patient as it can take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks for Google to recrawl and index your pages.