How to Fix "Crawled — Currently Not Indexed" Issue Quickly | ResultFirst

How to Resolve the “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed” Issue Quickly

It is very disheartening when you put a lot of effort into your website, but it doesn’t appear in search results. Further, seeing the error “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed” in the Search Console adds to your sadness. This error indicates that although Google has crawled your webpage, it has chosen not to index it. As a result, your web page won’t be indexed and will not appear in search results, potentially costing you valuable traffic and visibility.

This error often arises due to poor site structure, low-quality content, or technical SEO errors. While it’s not an error in itself, ignoring it can affect your website’s overall performance in the long term. You must first identify the issue before trying to fix it. 

While everyone talks about the problem, we’ve your back in fixing it. No efforts will go unrewarded. Just stick to the article till the end and fix the “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed” error quickly. Furthermore, we have mentioned the root causes of the error, so that next time you encounter anything similar, you know what to do!

What Does "Crawled — Currently Not Indexed" Mean?

Image Source: Support.Google

When Google crawls a web page, it interprets the content of the page and decides whether to index it or not. Indexing is the process that makes a web page eligible to appear in the search.

The “Crawled—Currently Not Indexed” status shows that Google visited your page but excluded it from the index for some reason. This decision could be made for several reasons, such as low quality of content, bad site structure, or various problems concerning technical aspects of SEO.

Not all pages on a website need to be indexed by search engines, but some important pages should be. Ignoring this error can lead to significant traffic loss and missed opportunities to convert sales.

How to Fix “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed”

How to Fix "Crawled — Currently Not Indexed"

Image Source: Searchenglineland

Focus on High-Quality Content

Google aims search results at campaign pages that provide complete, relevant, and high-quality content. If the page has thin content, duplicate content, or poor-quality content then, they will not go to the index page.

Action Steps:

  • Auditing content can help you determine the relatively weak or outdated pages that need to be improved.
  • Must add the extra content, some illustrations, and more references for the enhanced content.
  • Tools like Grammarly or Hemingway can be used to ensure readability and clarity of the content.

“According to reports by Higher Visibility, 53% of marketers who update their content notice increased engagement. And 49% observe ranking and traffic increases.”

Improve Your Site Structure

A good structure in the website assists Google in determining the relevance of every single page. It’s true that certain websites with complex structures or poorly designed structures have the potential for limited indexing.

Action Steps:

  • When choosing the hierarchy of categories, it is better to follow a logical sequence in the way they are developed and the subcategories are placed.
  • There should be easy navigation to core pages, which should take not more than 3-4 clicks starting from the homepage.
  • It is recommended to build an XML sitemap and submit that to the Google Search Console.

Analyze the Specific Pages in the Report

Google Search Console contains a list of pages with the “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed” status. One can identify trends or certain problems in these pages.

Action Steps:

  • Review each page in terms of content, organization, and technical aspects.
  • Determine whether these web pages are thin, duplicate, or actually not required.
  • Decide if these pages should be updated, merged, or excluded from indexing.

Cut Down on Duplicate Content

Search engines may be confused by multiple pages that contain similar content, and the priority of your web pages will suffer as a result.

Action Steps:

  • Tools like Copyscape or Screaming Frog can be used to detect duplicate content.
  • Merge similar pages or use canonical tags to indicate the preferred version.
  • Do not use the same meta titles describing a certain page and meta descriptions for the same Web page.

“According to Google Webmaster’s report, if you’re duplicating content just to manipulate search engine rankings, they’ll remove the offending pages or lower your search rankings.”

Improve Internal Linking

Improve Internal Linking

Image Source: Backlinko

Internal links are useful to Google since they allow the search engine to identify important web pages and reveal them to users. They also enhance users’ browser behavior and site credibility.

Action Steps:

  • Use the interlinking method. Link your top ranking, or high authority pages to the “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed” pages.
  • Use relevant anchor text that reflects the target page’s content.
  • Avoid excessive or irrelevant linking.

Check Your Robots.txt File

Your robots.txt file controls which parts of your site Google can crawl. Incorrect directives might block important pages.

Action Steps:

  • Open your robots.txt file and ensure the affected pages aren’t disallowed.
  • Test the file in Google Search Console’s robots.txt tester.
  • Remove unnecessary “disallow” directives for critical pages.

Assess Page Load Speed

Search engines love fast-loading websites. If your website loads slowly, it will also have a negative impact on indexing.

Action Steps:

  • Use tools like GTmetrix and PageSpeed Insights to identify issues that cause your website to load slowly.
  • Enable browser caching, use CDN, and Optimize images it makes a drastic difference.
  • Minimize CSS and JS render-blocking issues.

Submit a Request to Google to Re-crawl Your Specific URLs

Once you have fixed all the issues listed above, now you can re-request Google to crawl your web pages again.

Action Steps:

  • Open Google Search Console, on the left side click on the URL Inspection tool.
  • Enter your URL to check, once the page loads click “Request Indexing”.
  • Now sit back and relax, check the page’s status in the Search Console after a few days.

“According to the Google Support: If the page was crawled by Google but not indexed, it may or may not be indexed in the future. There’s no need to resubmit this URL for crawling.”

So, make sure you are bumping constant crawl requests to Google, as it will make no difference.

Try a Temporary Sitemap for Faster Indexing

A temporary sitemap highlights pages that need immediate indexing.

Action Steps:

  • Create a special XML sitemap with priority pages.
  • Submit this sitemap in Google Search Console.
  • Remove the temporary sitemap once the pages are indexed.

Common Reasons for Encountering “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed”

Common Reasons for Encountering "Crawled — Currently Not Indexed"

Image Source: Onely

1. Low-Quality Content

Thin pages, those with outdated content or content irrelevant to the user query, do not meet Google’s requirements for indexing.

2. Slow Page Load Times

Web pages that take a long time to load are not user-friendly so Google will likely not index them.

3. Issues with Robots Meta Tag or Noindex Directive

Web pages that have “noindex” included in their meta directives will not be indexed and thus will not be visible in the search engine result pages.

4. Canonicalization Issues

Incorrect or conflicting canonical tags may indicate Google not to index certain pages.

5. Blocked by Robots.txt

If your robots.txt file blocks essential pages, they won’t be indexed.

Crawled – Currently Not Indexed vs. Discovered – Currently Not Indexed

It’s essential to understand the difference between these two statuses:

  • Crawled — Currently Not Indexed: Google has crawled your page but hasn’t added it to the index.
  • Discovered — Currently Not Indexed: Google is aware of the URL but has not indexed it.

“As per Ahref’s data, Google doesn’t index everything it discovers. It prioritizes high-quality, unique, and compelling content.”

So, if you want to reserve your place in the top ranking positions, then post high quality, value oriented, and original content.

Get Your Website Back on Track with ResultFirst

The “Crawled — Currently Not Indexed” position seems like a step backward, but in fact, it is a chance for the website to be improved. By focusing on high-quality content, optimizing technical aspects, and staying proactive, you can ensure your important pages are indexed and visible.

FAQs:

No, it’s not an error. It’s just an indication that Google has decided not to index your page due to specific reasons. 

This often occurs as a result of low-quality content, improper site architecture, or meta tags, and coding problems such as slow loading time or improper redirects.

Yes, redirected pages might fall into this category, especially if the redirect chains are complex or broken.

Page speed is a very important factor, as it impacts both user experience and Google’s decision to index your page.

The robots.txt file can block specific pages or sections from being crawled and indexed if not configured correctly.

Yes, they can direct Google to prioritize specific pages for crawling and indexing.

Check your crawl budget, check that pages are crawlable, and remove other issues that might hinder the process such as long page loading times or blocked objects.

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