Confused by the “Crawled, currently not indexed” error message in Google Search Console? Here’s how to interpret it and fix the problem in 6 steps.
If the Google Search Console is one of your essential tools, you have certainly noticed the type oferror “Crawled, currently not indexed””. As a Lead Traffic Manager SEO, SEA and Analytics, I see this error message for almost all the sites I work on.
This message seems strange when you first encounter it. Why does Google crawl pages but not index them?
Understanding the error
There are several reasons why a page may be crawled but not indexed. For example, a 404 server status code, a tag noindex or duplicate content… However, reasons like “Excluded by tag noindex”, “Not Found (404)”, “Server Error (5xx)” and many others are already present in the same section of Google Search Console.
If we refer to the standard operation of a search engine, which consists of exploring, classifying and then returning pages or information, it then seems very likely that with the message “Crawled, currently not indexed” Google is telling us that it considers the content of the page (or pages) as having no added value and is thus signaling a problem concerning the quality of the content of the site.
What is also important to know is that since the appearance of AI-generated previews in its search results page (SERP), Google has reduced the budget dedicated to crawling countless sites to focus on those recognized for the quality of their content. Offering quality content is therefore an absolute priority!
Fix “Crawled, currently not indexed” issue
Here are the 6 steps to fix the crawled page indexing problem.
1. Manually review the pages reported in the “Pages” > “Crawled, currently not indexed” report
– Check the dates and trend of the unindexed pages. The dates compared to the affected pages will let you know if the trend line is increasing or decreasing. If it is decreasing, it means that the problem may have been resolved.
– Analyze the structure of URLs to identify potential patterns (parameters, subfolders, etc.). We are looking to see if there is a typical pattern in order to determine the problem.
2. Establish a strong internal linking hierarchy
– Identify relevant internal linking opportunities.
– Check keyword cannibalization in Google Search Console.
– Ensure a good navigation structure on the site.
3. Add self-referencing canonical tags to combat duplicate content
– Make sure that canonical tags include all elements of the URL (subfolders, parameters, etc.).
– Avoid listing parameter URLs in canonical tags.
4. Check the validity of hreflang tags
– Check that the language and country codes are correct.
– Ensure that the content exists in the indicated language.
5. Check the XML sitemap
– Verify that all listed pages have a 200 status and self-referencing canonical tags.
– Create an XML sitemap dedicated to unindexed pages if necessary.
6. Have fixed URLs inspected by the Google Search Console tool
Manually submit fixed URLs to the URL Inspection tool. Small batches of 5-20 URLs will give you a quick overview of how Google treats them. Remember that you have to wait for Google to recrawl each URL to fix the problem, and this can take a long time.
Fixing the “Crawled – currently not indexed” error becomes easy with these 6 steps. By strengthening your internal links, optimizing your tags, and manually submitting your URLs, you can improve the indexing of your pages. Keep in mind that indexing can take time, especially with Google’s reduced crawl budget.
The most important thing is to make sure that the content is high quality, relevant and well structured. This will help avoid indexing issues in the long run.
Rossitza Mavreau, Lead Traffic Manager SEO SEA Analytics at UX-Republic
