Indexing

Only indexed pages can appear in search results. Being crawled is not enough: after fetching a page, the search engine decides whether it is worth keeping, whether it duplicates another page and which version should represent it. Many crawled pages never make it into the index.

Indexing is also not ranking. An indexed page is eligible to appear, but where it appears for a given search depends on relevance, quality and competition. A page can be indexed and still get no visitors.

How it works

After crawling and rendering a page, the search engine processes its text, headings, links, images and structured data, and groups it with any near-duplicates to pick a canonical. If the page is useful and not blocked by a noindex rule, the canonical version is stored with signals about what it covers.

Google's Page indexing report in Search Console lists pages that are not indexed with a reason, such as "Crawled - currently not indexed", "Discovered - currently not indexed", "Excluded by noindex tag" or "Duplicate without user-selected canonical". A page can be indexed under a different URL from the one you expected, because Google indexes only the canonical version of a group of duplicates. That is why URL Inspection on a duplicate may report it as not indexed while its twin is.

The two "not indexed" statuses mean different things. "Discovered - currently not indexed" means Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet, often because it judged the page low priority or the server seemed busy. "Crawled - currently not indexed" means Google fetched the page and chose not to include it, which usually points to quality or duplication. The index is also not permanent: pages are re-evaluated when recrawled and can be dropped or brought back.

Example

A furniture shop sees that half its product pages are not indexed. The report shows most are "Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user": near-identical pages for each colour. The shop combines colours into one page per product with proper canonicals and better descriptions. Over the following weeks the remaining pages are indexed and start showing impressions.

To check its pages, the shop uses the Page indexing report in Search Console, clicks each reason and reviews example URLs. For a sample of products it uses URL Inspection, which shows whether the page is indexed, which canonical Google chose and when it was last crawled. After the fixes, it uses the report's validation option, which asks Google to recheck the affected pages and tracks progress.

Why it matters for your business

If an important page is not indexed, it cannot bring search traffic, however good it is. Checking the indexing report is one of the quickest ways to find why a service or product is invisible. Not every page should be indexed, though: thank-you pages, internal search results and thin tag pages are often better left out on purpose. Seeing a large number of non-indexed pages is not automatically a problem; what matters is whether the pages you need are among them.

Common mistakes

• Assuming every published page is automatically in Google.
• Leaving a noindex tag on pages after a site moves from staging to live.
• Publishing many thin or near-duplicate pages that Google declines to index.
• Repeatedly requesting indexing instead of fixing the reason a page was left out.

Questions people ask

How do I check if a page is indexed in Google?

The reliable way is the URL Inspection tool in Google Search Console, which states whether the URL is on Google and, if not, why. Searching site: followed by your URL in Google gives a rough check, but the results of site: searches are incomplete and should not be relied on for diagnosis.

How long does it take Google to index a new page?

It varies from hours to weeks. Pages on established sites that are linked from the home page or a sitemap are often indexed quickly; pages on new sites or deep in a structure take longer. Google does not guarantee indexing at all, so slow cases usually point to discovery or quality issues.

What does Crawled - currently not indexed mean?

It means Google fetched the page but decided not to add it to the index for now. Common reasons are thin or duplicated content, low perceived value or weak internal linking. Improve the page so it offers something distinct, link to it from relevant pages, then request indexing again.