Guide
Crawled, currently not indexed (and Discovered, currently not indexed): how to fix them
Updated · 6 min read · By Mohamed Asif M
The short answer
"Crawled, currently not indexed" means Google read the page but chose not to add it to its index for now; Google says it may or may not be indexed later and there's no need to resubmit it. "Discovered, currently not indexed" means Google found the address but hasn't crawled it yet, often because it rescheduled the crawl to avoid overloading the site. For important pages, the fix is usually the same: make the page clearly useful and distinct, and link to it from your strongest pages.
Key points
- Neither status is an error. Worry only when an important page is stuck in it for weeks.
- Crawled, not indexed is usually about the page: thin, very similar to another page, or low value.
- Discovered, not indexed is usually about the site: weak internal links, too many low-value URLs, or a slow server.
- Requesting indexing again and again doesn't help; improving the page and its links does.
Where you see these
In Google Search Console, open Indexing, Pages. Under "Why pages aren't indexed" you'll see a list of reasons with a count of pages for each. Two of the most common are these. New to Search Console? Start with Search Console for owners.
What Google says each one means
Crawled, currently not indexed: Google's help page says the page was crawled by Google but not indexed. It may or may not be indexed in the future, and there's no need to resubmit the URL for crawling.
Discovered, currently not indexed: the page was found by Google but not crawled yet. Typically, Google wanted to crawl the URL but expected that to overload the site, so it rescheduled the crawl. That's why the last crawl date is empty in the report.
Neither is a penalty. Google doesn't index every page it finds, and it never promised to. See indexing for the basics.
First: does it matter for this page?
Click the status to see the example pages. Sort them into two piles:
- Pages that don't need to be in Google: tag pages, filtered URLs, search result pages, old test pages, thank-you pages, feeds. Their being unindexed is fine, and often good.
- Pages that should be in Google: your service pages, product pages, location pages, useful guides.
Only the second pile needs work. If it's empty, you're done.
Fixing "Crawled, currently not indexed"
Google read the page and decided it wasn't worth adding for now. The usual reasons, and what to do:
The page is thin
A service page with two sentences and a contact form gives Google little to show. Add what a customer needs: what the service involves, who it's for, price drivers, timings, areas served, and real questions answered. See SEO content writing.
The page is very similar to another page
City pages with only the town name swapped, product variants with identical descriptions, or a blog post that repeats a service page. Google may keep one and leave the rest. Either make each page genuinely different or merge them into one stronger page and redirect the others. If the duplication is deliberate (say, the same product under two addresses), point both at one version with a canonical URL; see duplicate without user-selected canonical.
The page adds nothing new
Rewritten general information with nothing specific to your business. Add your own experience, examples, photos and data.
The site has lots of low-value pages
Hundreds of auto-generated or near-empty pages can make it harder for Google to see the good ones. Remove or noindex pages that don't help visitors.
Fixing "Discovered, currently not indexed"
Google knows the address but hasn't got round to crawling it. Common causes:
Weak internal links
A page linked only from the sitemap, or buried five clicks deep, looks unimportant. Link to it from your home page, your main menu or related service pages, with descriptive link text.
Too many URLs for the site's size
Filter combinations, calendar pages, session IDs in addresses and endless tag pages can create thousands of URLs. Google spreads its crawling across them. Block the useless ones from crawling in robots.txt or stop generating them. See crawl budget; for most small sites it isn't the real issue, but runaway URLs can be.
A slow or struggling server
Google's own explanation mentions avoiding overloading the site. If your hosting is slow or returns errors under load, Google crawls less. Check Settings, Crawl stats in Search Console for response times and server errors, and talk to your host if they're high.
The page is new
Sometimes it's simply a queue. New pages on small sites are often crawled within days, but not always.
After you fix it
- Run URL inspection on one fixed page. Check the live test shows the page can be indexed (no noindex, not blocked).
- Click Request indexing once. Repeating it doesn't speed things up.
- Make sure the page is in your submitted sitemap.
- In the Pages report, open the status and click Validate fix when you've fixed the examples. Google's help says validation typically takes up to about two weeks, and sometimes much longer.
- Note the date of your change, and check the page's status again after a couple of weeks.
What doesn't work
- Requesting indexing every day.
- Resubmitting the sitemap repeatedly without changing anything.
- Adding the page to dozens of directories or link schemes. Google lists low-quality directory links as link spam.
- Generating more pages with AI to "signal freshness". That adds to the problem.
How do I get Google to index my page?
The free website health check checks the basics for your home page in a minute. For any page: make sure nothing blocks it (no noindex tag, not disallowed in robots.txt, returns a normal 200 status), link to it from important pages on your site, include it in your sitemap, make it clearly useful and distinct, and request indexing once in URL inspection. Then give it time. If your whole site is missing, read why your website is not on Google.
A worked example
A tile and sanitaryware dealer in Rajkot (a made-up example) sees 140 pages under "Crawled, currently not indexed". Most are product pages with the manufacturer's identical description, and 30 are city pages with the same text. The dealer merges the city pages into one "areas we deliver to" page and redirects the old addresses. It rewrites its 20 best-selling product pages with its own photos, sizes in stock, delivery times and installation notes, and links them from the category pages. It requests indexing for a few, clicks Validate fix, and notes the date. Two weeks later it checks which pages moved to indexed. See our page for ecommerce and D2C brands.
Questions people ask
How do I get Google to index my page?
Make sure nothing blocks it, link to it from important pages, include it in your sitemap, make it clearly useful and distinct from your other pages, and request indexing once in Search Console's URL inspection. Then give it time.
What is the difference between crawling and indexing in SEO?
Crawling is Google fetching and reading a page. Indexing is Google storing it so it can appear in search results. A page can be crawled and still not indexed, which is what "Crawled, currently not indexed" means.
Should I resubmit pages that are crawled but not indexed?
Google says there's no need to resubmit them. Improve the page or merge it with a similar one, then request indexing once.
How long does Validate fix take?
Google says validation typically takes up to about two weeks, but in some cases can take much longer.
Sources
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