By Shad Super in Questions —

What Does It Mean if a Page Is Marked as "Excluded" in the Page Indexing Report, and How Can You Address This?

Summary

If a page is marked as "Excluded" in the Page Indexing Report, it means that the page has not been indexed by search engines for various reasons. Addressing this requires identifying the specific exclusion reason, resolving underlying issues such as duplicate content, noindex directives, or crawl errors, and then requesting indexing of the page. Here’s a comprehensive guide to understand and rectify this issue.

Understanding "Excluded" in the Page Indexing Report

The "Excluded" status in the Page Indexing Report indicates that certain pages on your site are not included in Google's index. This could happen due to specific reasons, each of which requires a tailored approach to resolve.

Common Reasons for Exclusion

  • Crawled - Currently Not Indexed: The page has been crawled by Google but not yet indexed. It could be due to low-quality content or a temporary issue.
  • Duplicate, Submitted URL Not Selected as Canonical: The page is considered a duplicate of another page, and Google has chosen a different URL as the canonical version.
  • Page with Redirect: The URL is a redirect, and therefore, it’s not directly indexed.
  • Blocked by Robots.txt: The page is restricted from crawling due to the robots.txt file.
  • Blocked by Noindex Tag: The page contains a noindex directive in the meta tags, preventing it from being indexed.
  • Soft 404: The page returned a soft 404 response, indicating that the content might not be useful.

How to Address Excluded Pages

To address pages marked as "Excluded," you need to diagnose and fix the underlying issues. Here are steps to take based on common reasons:

1. Improve Page Quality

If the page is marked as "Crawled - Currently Not Indexed," consider improving its content quality. Make sure the content is valuable, unique, and engaging to the users.

  • Provide comprehensive information and use multimedia elements like images and videos.
  • Ensure good readability and proper structuring with headings, subheadings, and bullet points.

For more details, refer to Creating high-quality websites, 2023.

2. Fix Duplicate Content Issues

If a page is excluded due to being a duplicate, implement canonical tags to indicate the preferred version of the content. You can use the rel="canonical" tag to do this.

<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/preferred-page" />

Learn more about Consolidating Duplicate URLs, 2023.

3. Resolve Redirect Issues

If pages are excluded due to being redirects, ensure that the redirects are necessary and correctly implemented. For example, a 301 permanent redirect should point users and search engines to the correct page.

For assistance, check out Understanding 301 redirects, 2023.

4. Update Robots.txt File

If the robots.txt file blocks crawling, update it to allow search engines to access the necessary pages. Ensure that the directives are accurate and only block sensitive or non-essential content.

User-agent: *
Disallow: /example-page

For comprehensive guidelines, refer to Creating a robots.txt file, 2023.

5. Adjust Noindex Directives

If a noindex tag is causing the exclusion, remove it if you want the page to be indexed. Ensure the meta tag in the HTML code is properly adjusted.

<meta name="robots" content="noindex" />

For the correct implementation, see Preventing a page from being indexed, 2023.

6. Fix Soft 404 Errors

If your page returns a soft 404, make sure it has useful content and returns the correct HTTP status code. Ensure useful content or a proper 404 page is in place.

More details can be found at Understanding HTTP result codes, 2023.

Request Indexing after Fixes

Once you’ve resolved the issues, request indexing of the page using Google Search Console:

  1. Go to the URL Inspection tool.
  2. Enter the URL you want Google to index.
  3. Click on "Request Indexing."

Learn how to use the URL Inspection tool here, 2023.

Conclusion

Addressing "Excluded" pages in the Page Indexing Report involves understanding the specific exclusion reasons and resolving them through various strategies such as content improvement, fixing redirects, updating robots.txt, and adjusting noindex directives. Following these steps will help ensure that your pages are indexed and visible in search engine results.

References