How to Fix Search Console Discovered – currently not indexed issue

How to Fix Discovered – currently not indexed issue

 

 

 

 

What does it mean by Discovered - currently not indexed

Discovered - currently not indexed: The page was found by Google, but not crawled yet. Typically, Google wanted to crawl the URL but this was expected to overload the site; therefore Google rescheduled the crawl. This is why the last crawl date is empty on the report.

The Discovered - currently not indexed status means that Google knows about these URLs, but they haven't crawled (and therefore indexed) them yet.

If you're running a small website (below 10.000 pages) with good quality content, this URL state is will automatically resolve after Google's crawled the URLs.

If you're running a small website and you keep getting this status for new pages, then evaluate the quality of your content — it could be that Google doesn't think it's not worthy of their time. The confusing thing about this status is that any content quality issues aren't limited to the listed URLs, it could be a site-wide issue.

How to fix  Discovered - currently not indexed Issue

1. Read how Google Search works. If you don't understand indexing, this report will confuse or frustrate you--trust us.

2. Decide whether you need to use this report. If your site has fewer than 500 pages, you probably don't need to use this report. Instead, use one of the following Google searches to see if your site is indexed:

   • site:<<site_root_domain_or_path>> - See a subset of pages that Google knows about on your site. Examples: site:example.com or site:example.com/petstore
   • site:<<your_site>> term1 term2 - Search for indexed pages containing specific terms on your site. Example: site:example.com/petstore iguanas zebras.
   • site:<<exact-url>> - Search for the exact URL of a page on your site to see whether Google has indexed it. Example: site:http://example.com/petstore/gerbil
   If you get no search results, then look at this report to verify whether your site truly has zero indexed pages. If this report says zero valid pages (or zero pages of any status) see the troubleshooting section.
3. Use this report is used to understand the general index status of your site. The report is not useful for investigating the index status of specific pages. To find the index status of a specific page, use the URL Inspection tool.
4. What to look for in this report:
   • Are most of the URLs green (valid) and/or gray (excluded)? Your site should be mostly valid and excluded pages: Valid, because these pages are in the index; Excluded, because Search Console thinks those URLs are excluded from the index for a reason that you can agree with.
   • Are few (if any) URLs red (error)? Error URLs are almost always a problem. However, how much time you want to spend fixing indexing errors depends on how important the page is to your site.
   • Are the gray (excluded) URL reasons what you expect? Excluded URLs are not indexed, but we think that's probably not an error. Reasons for exclusion mean that the page is explicitly blocked from indexing (for example, a robots.txt rule on your site, or a noindex tag on the page). Duplicate pages are also excluded (Google only indexes one version of a set of duplicate pages). Make sure that the reasons your pages are excluded are acceptable. If not, fix them according to the documentation for the specific excluded status.
   • Is Google indexing the most important URLs on your site? The Index coverage report isn't used to check individual URLs, but you can filter results to show only the valid URLs, then see if your important URLs are listed. (Note that the list of example URLs in the report is limited to 1,000 items, and isn't guaranteed to show all URLs in a given status, even when less than 1,000 items.) Check the index status of your homepage and key pages using the URL Inspection tool.
   • Is Google finding most of your URLs? The report shows all the URLs that Google knows about on your site, whether or not they are indexed. If the total URL count in this report is much smaller than your site's page count, then Google isn't finding pages on your site. Some possible reasons for this:
     • The pages, or your site, is new. It can take a week or so for Google to start crawling and indexing a new page or site. If your site or page is new, wait a few days for Google to find and crawl it. In an urgent situation, or if waiting doesn't seem to be working, you can explicitly ask Google to crawl individual pages.
     • The pages aren't findable by Google. The pages should be linked from somewhere known to Google: from other known pages: from your homepage, from other known pages on your site, from other sites, or from a sitemap. For a new website, the best first step is to request indexing of your homepage, which should start Google crawling your website. For missing parts of a site, make sure they are linked properly. If you are using a site hosting service such as Wix or SquareSpace, check your site host's documentation to learn how to publish your pages and make them findable by search engines.
   • Read the documentation for your specific status type to understand the reason and any possible fix recommendations for a specific status. Skipping the documentation will cause you more more effort and time in the long run than reading the docs.
5. What not to look for:
   • Don't expect every URL on your site to be indexed. Some URLs might be duplicates or might not contain meaningful information.
   • Excluded URLs are usually fine. Read and understand the specific reason for each excluded URL to confirm that the page is properly excluded.
   • Error URLs should probably be fixed, read the error reason to understand the issue and how to fix errors.
   • The total coverage numbers above the chart are complete and accurate from Google's perspective, but don't expect them to match exactly your estimate of the number of URLs on your site. Small discrepancies can occur for various reasons.
   • Just because a page is indexed doesn't guarantee that it will show up in your search results. Search results are customized for each user's search history, location, and many other variables, so even if a page is indexed, it won't show up in every search, or in the same ranking when it does. Therefore, if Search Console says a URL is indexed, but it doesn't turn up in your search results, you can assume that it is indexed and eligible to appear in search results.
   • 
     

Discovered - currently not indexed: The page was found by Google, but not crawled yet. Typically, Google tried to crawl the URL but the site was overloaded; therefore Google had to reschedule the crawl. This is why the last crawl date is empty on the report.

 

So, google should go back to those pages and try again.  As to why google had an issue with an actual crawling is hard to tell, but it will try again in time.

If  you  are using any SEO plugin on your site. whether you have not excluded indexing of blog posts by mistakenly? In SEO plugin there are option to add 'No Index' tags to your web page. May be you have enabled this features by mistakenly.

Moreover,  your Robot.txt file can also be one of the reason for not indexing the blog posts. I suggest you click on the individual web page in the webmaster and thereby run the 'Test Live URL' and 'Test Robot.txt' for more details.

FAQs

What does this report show?

The Index coverage report shows whether specific URLs have been crawled and indexed by Google. (If you don't know have a good knowledge of what these terms mean, please read how Google Search works). Google finds URLs in many ways, and tries to crawl most of them. If a URL is missing or unavailable, Google will probably continue to try crawling that URL for a while.

A URL in this report can have one of the following statuses:

• Valid: Google found and indexed the page. Nothing else to do.
• Warning: Google found and probably indexed the page, but we think there is a problem. Read the warning description below to understand your next steps.
• Error: The URL is not indexed, and we think it's because of a mistake that you can correct. Read the error description below to understand your next steps.
• Excluded: The URL is not indexed, but that is probably the right thing. Either you are blocking Google from crawling and indexing the page, or the page has been classified as a duplicate of another, crawled page on your site.

What is indexing?

Indexing is when Google finds (crawls) your page, then processes content of the page and puts the page into the Google index (indexes it), where the page is eligible to appear in Google Search results, as well on as other Google services, like Discover. For more about indexing, read how Google Search works.

How do I get my page or site indexed?

If you are using a site hosting service such as Wix or SquareSpace, your hosting service will probably tell Googe whenever you publish or update a page. Check your site host's documentation to learn how to publish your pages and make them findable by search engines.

If you are creating a site or page without a hosting service, you can use a sitemap or various other methods to tell Google about new sites or pages.

We strongly recommend ensuring that your homepage is indexed. Starting from your homepage, Google should be able to index all the other pages on your site, if your site has comprehensive and properly implemented site navigation for visitors.

Is it OK if a page isn't indexed?

Absolutely. Google doesn't index pages that are blocked by a robots.txt rule or noindex tag, or pages that are duplicates of other pages on your site, or pages that are inappropriate to index them (for example, variations of a page with different filters applied). Use the URL Inspection tool to see why a specific page isn't indexed. If there is an indexing error, or if a page was excluded for a reason that doesn't make sense, follow the documentation to understand and fix the issue.