By Shad Super in Questions —

How Can I Identify Patterns Among "Crawled - Currently Not Indexed" Pages to Fix Systematic Issues Affecting Their Indexing Status?

Understanding and Addressing "Crawled - currently not indexed" Issues

This status indicates that Google has crawled the page, but has chosen not to index it. To identify patterns among such pages and to address potential issues, you should review your website's structure, content quality, technical settings, and more. For a comprehensive fix, both automated and manual approaches can be beneficial.

1. Review Google Search Console

Inspect URL

Start by using the URL Inspection Tool in the Google Search Console (Google Search Console, 2024). This tool provides details about the crawl, index, and serving information about your page.

Coverage Report

Next, check the Coverage Report in Google Search Console. It provides information about the indexing state of the pages in Google's index (Google Developers, 2023).

2. Evaluate Website Architecture

Ensure that the pages in question are not isolated; they should have at least one internal link pointing towards them. Pages lacking internal links can be challenging for Google to discover and index (Ahrefs, 2023).

XML Sitemap

Check if the URLs are included in your XML Sitemap. Sitemaps help Googlebot discover important pages on your site and provide valuable metadata about them (Google Developers, 2024).

3. Verify Content Quality

Google aims to index pages that provide value to users. Pages with thin, duplicate, or low-quality content may not get indexed (Moz, 2022).

4. Speed and Mobile Usability

Pages that are slow to load or not optimized for mobile can impact a page's ability to be indexed (Google Developers, 2023). You can check your website's mobile usability in Google Search Console and use Google's PageSpeed Insights to identify opportunities to improve load times (Google PageSpeed Insights, 2024).

5. Look for Technical Issues

Technical issues such as incorrect use of noindex directives, robots.txt disallow directives, and canonical tags can prevent pages from being indexed (Google Developers, 2022).

Conclusion

Understanding and addressing "Crawled - currently not indexed" issues requires a thorough review of your website's architecture, content, and technical settings. Your primary tools will be Google Search Console and Google's PageSpeed Insights. Optimizing these factors can improve your chances of getting your pages effectively crawled and indexed.

References