Fixing 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Pages in Google Search Console

Quthor

·February 1, 2024

·12 min read

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Understanding 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Pages

When dealing with Google Search Console, webmasters often encounter the perplexing status of 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' for certain pages. This status indicates that Google has found these pages during its crawling process but has chosen not to include them in its index. It's crucial to comprehend the implications and causes of this status to ensure optimal visibility and traffic for your website.

Exploring the 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Status

Reasons for 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' URLs

According to Google, the most common reason for pages ending up as 'discovered – currently not indexed' is server timeouts during a crawl of multiple URLs on the same site.

Impact of 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Status on SEO

A report stating that a page was discovered by Google but not indexed is often a sign that a problem needs to be addressed. This can potentially affect the overall search engine optimization (SEO) performance of the website.

Google's View on 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Pages

As per John Mueller, it’s completely normal for as much as 20% of pages to not be indexed. Additionally, according to a recent study by Botify, pages that are not linked to consume 26% of Google’s crawl budget.

Importance of Addressing 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Pages

Consequences of Ignoring 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Pages

Neglecting these pages can lead to missed opportunities for organic traffic and hinder the overall performance of your website in search results.

Benefits of Resolving 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Status

By addressing this status, you can potentially improve your website's visibility, attract more organic traffic, and enhance its overall SEO performance.

Impact on Website Visibility and Traffic

The non-indexing of important pages can significantly impact your website's visibility in search results and subsequently reduce organic traffic flow.

Common Causes of 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Status

Content Quality Issues

Ensuring high-quality and valuable content is crucial as poor-quality content may lead Google to exclude certain pages from indexing.

Poor Internal Link Structure

Inadequate internal linking can prevent Google from discovering and indexing important pages within your website effectively.

Crawl Budget Limitations

Pages that are not linked or have crawl budget limitations may end up being excluded from indexing, impacting their visibility in search results.

Checking for Content Quality Issues

When it comes to ensuring that your web pages are indexed properly, it's crucial to check for potential content quality issues that might hinder their inclusion in search engine results. Addressing these issues can significantly impact the visibility and performance of your website.

Evaluating Content Relevance and Uniqueness

One of the primary aspects to consider is the relevance and uniqueness of your content. Historical examples have shown that search engines prioritize content that is both relevant to the user's query and unique in its presentation. Identifying any content duplication issues is essential to ensure that your pages stand out and provide valuable information to users.

Addressing Metadata and On-Page Optimization

Optimizing your metadata and on-page elements plays a pivotal role in improving indexing and visibility. As per personal experiences shared by industry experts, well-optimized metadata has led to increased organic traffic, improved click-through rates, and enhanced user engagement. Properly optimized title tags, meta descriptions, and structured data markup contribute to better indexing and presentation in search results.

Leveraging Multimedia and Interactive Elements

Incorporating multimedia elements such as images, videos, and interactive tools can enhance the overall user experience while also contributing to better indexing. Research findings have highlighted the positive impact of multimedia elements on website visibility and traffic. Balancing textual content with visual elements is essential for effective content marketing strategies.

Improving Internal Link Structure

When it comes to enhancing the internal link structure of your website, it's essential to assess and optimize your linking strategies to improve the indexing and visibility of your web pages.

Assessing Internal Linking Strategies

Importance of Relevant Anchor Texts

Utilizing relevant anchor texts in your internal links is crucial for guiding both users and search engines to understand the context and relevance of the linked pages. By incorporating descriptive and keyword-rich anchor texts, you can enhance the association between linked pages and improve their indexing.

Optimizing Link Placement and Distribution

Strategically placing internal links within your content can influence how search engines perceive the importance of specific pages. Properly distributed internal links can ensure that all relevant pages receive adequate attention from search engine crawlers, thereby contributing to improved indexing.

Utilizing Breadcrumbs for Enhanced Navigation

Implementing breadcrumbs on your website not only benefits user experience (UX) but also aids in improving crawling and indexing by Google and other search engines. Breadcrumbs provide an alternate way for users to navigate around your website, offering a clear path back to higher-level pages. This structured navigation system enhances user experience, reduces the number of clicks required to move upward in a website's architecture, and positively impacts SEO.

Resolving Orphaned Pages and Broken Links

Identifying and Redirecting Orphaned Pages

Orphaned pages, which are not internally linked from any other page within the website, often face challenges in getting indexed. Identifying such pages and strategically redirecting them through internal links can help integrate them into the overall site structure, making them more accessible for search engine crawlers.

Fixing Broken Internal Links and Redirects

Addressing broken internal links is essential for maintaining a seamless user experience as well as ensuring efficient crawling by search engines. Regular checks using tools like Rank Math SEO can help identify broken internal links or redirects that hinder proper indexing. Fixing these issues promptly contributes to better indexing status for your web pages.

Impact of Internal Link Structure on Indexing

Improving the internal link structure has a direct impact on how efficiently search engines crawl, index, and rank your web pages. A well-optimized internal link structure ensures that all important pages are easily discoverable by search engine bots, leading to improved visibility in search results.

Resolving Crawl Budget Issues

When it comes to Google Search, understanding and addressing crawl budget issues is crucial for ensuring the efficient indexing and visibility of your website's pages. Let's delve into the significance of crawl budget, its impact on indexing, and strategies for resolving related issues.

Understanding Crawl Budget and Its Significance

Factors Affecting Crawl Budget Allocation

Crawl budget refers to the resources and time allocated by search engines to crawl and index a website's pages. It is influenced by various factors such as the site's size, speed, server performance, and historical crawling patterns. Optimizing your crawl budget can lead to a significant increase in the number of pages crawled, indexed pages, and organic traffic.

Impact of Crawl Budget Limitations on Indexing

Limitations in crawl budget allocation can result in certain pages not being crawled or indexed efficiently. This can hinder their visibility in search results and subsequently affect the overall SEO performance of your website.

Strategies for Optimizing Crawl Budget Usage

Improving site speed
Enhancing internal linking
Creating an XML sitemap
Monitoring server errors
Using canonical tags

Optimizing these aspects helps ensure that search engine crawlers can access and index the most important pages efficiently, leading to improved rankings and increased organic traffic.

Addressing Crawl Errors and Redirect Chains

Fixing Crawl Errors and Server Responses

Identifying and rectifying crawl errors such as 404 or 5xx status codes is essential for maintaining a healthy crawling process. By resolving these errors promptly, you enable search engine bots to effectively crawl and index your web pages.

Managing and Minimizing Redirect Chains

Minimizing redirect chains within your website's structure reduces the complexity of crawling paths for search engines. Streamlining redirects ensures an efficient crawling process, leading to improved indexing of your web pages.

Ensuring Efficient Crawl Path for Search Engines

Creating a clear path for search engine crawlers through proper URL structures, internal links, and sitemaps enhances the efficiency of crawling. This ensures that all relevant pages are discovered and indexed appropriately.

By addressing crawl budget issues effectively, you enhance your website's visibility in search results while attracting more organic traffic.

Ensuring Proper Indexing

When it comes to ensuring proper indexing of your website's pages, optimizing the robots.txt file and enhancing the website architecture play a crucial role in guiding search engines to index the most relevant and valuable content.

Optimizing Robots.txt for Indexing

Configuring Robots.txt for Search Engine Access

The robots.txt file serves as a directive for search engine crawlers, indicating which pages or files they can or cannot request from your site. By configuring the robots.txt file, webmasters can control the access of search engine bots to specific areas of their website. This allows for the prioritization of critical content and resources, ultimately conserving crawl budget and improving indexing efficiency. As highlighted by a source on Asper Brothers, excluding backend resources from being scanned in robots.txt can significantly impact crawl budget optimization.

Managing Disallow and Allow Directives

Utilizing directives such as disallow and allow within the robots.txt file enables webmasters to filter out non-critical or repetitive content, ensuring that search engines prioritize indexing essential pages. This strategic implementation helps conserve crawl budget while guiding search engine bots towards valuable content, thereby influencing the overall indexing status positively. According to insights shared on LinkedIn, employing robots.txt, meta robots, and canonical tags assists in indicating which pages should be prioritized for indexing.

Impact of Robots.txt on Indexing Status

The impact of the robots.txt file extends beyond controlling search engine access; it also contributes to steering Googlebot away from certain sections of the site while freeing up crawl budget. This strategic utilization influences how Googlebot navigates through a website, ultimately impacting its indexing status. As emphasized by SEO Clarity, managing the robots.txt file plays a pivotal role in optimizing crawl budget allocation and enhancing website indexing.

Enhancing Website Architecture for Indexing

Improving URL Structure and Hierarchy

A well-structured URL hierarchy not only aids user navigation but also facilitates efficient crawling and indexing by search engines. Improving the URL structure involves creating clear hierarchies that reflect the organization of content within your site. This enhances both user experience and search engine visibility, contributing to improved site indexation.

Utilizing XML Sitemaps for Indexing

XML sitemaps serve as a roadmap for search engine crawlers, providing detailed information about all accessible pages on a website. By submitting an XML sitemap to search engines like Google, webmasters facilitate comprehensive indexing of their web pages. This proactive approach ensures that all relevant URLs are discovered and indexed efficiently.

Importance of Canonical Tags for Indexing

Canonical tags play a crucial role in addressing duplicate content issues by specifying the preferred version of a web page for indexing purposes. Implementing canonical tags helps consolidate indexing signals for similar or duplicate pages, thereby preventing dilution of ranking potential across multiple URLs with identical or similar content.

Utilizing Google's URL Inspection Tool

When it comes to ensuring the proper indexing of your website's pages, leveraging Google's URL Inspection Tool can provide valuable insights into the status of individual URLs and their indexing by Google. Understanding how to utilize this tool effectively is essential for addressing any potential indexing issues and optimizing the visibility of your web pages.

Leveraging the URL Inspection Tool for Indexing

Understanding URL Inspection and Live Page View

The URL Inspection Tool allows webmasters to retrieve the indexation status of specific URLs from Google and gain access to the URL Inspection screen. This feature provides a comprehensive overview of how Google views and indexes individual pages, offering insights into any potential issues affecting their inclusion in search results.

Requesting Indexing and Resolving Indexing Issues

One significant functionality of the URL Inspection Tool is its capability to request indexing for specific URLs. By utilizing this feature, webmasters can prompt Google to re-crawl and re-index individual pages, addressing any potential indexing issues that may have hindered their visibility in search results.

Impact of URL Inspection on Indexing Status

The impact of leveraging the URL Inspection Tool extends beyond obtaining information about individual URLs. It empowers webmasters to take proactive measures in resolving indexing issues, ultimately influencing the overall indexing status and visibility of their website's pages in search results.

How It Works

Choosing to inspect a URL will retrieve its indexation status from Google and display the URL Inspection screen. This screen provides detailed information about how Google has processed and indexed the specific page, highlighting any potential errors or issues that may be impacting its visibility.

Insights from Google's John Mueller

When it comes to addressing non-indexed pages and maintaining the overall health of your website, insights from Google's John Mueller shed light on the impact of non-indexed pages and strategies for handling them effectively.

Impact of Non-Indexed Pages on Website Performance

John Mueller emphasizes that non-indexed pages can hinder the overall performance of a website in Google search results. These pages may contain valuable content that contributes to the site's relevance and authority, making their exclusion detrimental to the website's visibility.

Strategies for Handling Non-Indexed Pages

Mueller suggests that webmasters should evaluate the reasons behind non-indexing and take proactive measures to address any underlying issues. This involves identifying technical or content-related obstacles that prevent indexing and resolving them promptly to ensure comprehensive inclusion in search results.

Insights on Removing Non-Indexed Pages

In an English Google SEO office-hours session, Mueller addressed whether removing non-indexed pages would help solve the 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' problem. He explained that while removing such pages might alleviate crawl budget concerns, it does not directly resolve the underlying issues causing non-indexing. Instead, he recommends focusing on improving content quality and technical aspects to facilitate proper indexing.

Google's Recommendations for Indexing and SEO

During various discussions, John Mueller has offered valuable advice on overcoming indexing challenges and enhancing overall SEO performance.

John Mueller's Advice on Indexing Challenges

Mueller stresses the importance of creating high-quality, unique content that aligns with users' search intent. He encourages webmasters to focus on providing value through their content while ensuring technical aspects such as crawlability are optimized for efficient indexing.

Best Practices for Improving Indexed Status

In English Google SEO office-hours, Mueller shared best practices for improving indexed status, emphasizing the significance of a well-structured website with clear hierarchies and optimized internal linking. These practices contribute to enhanced crawling, indexing, and ultimately improved visibility in Google search results.

Google's Perspective on 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' Pages

Mueller has provided insights into how Google views 'Discovered - Currently Not Indexed' pages. He acknowledges that it is normal for a certain percentage of pages not to be indexed due to various factors such as crawl budget limitations. However, he emphasizes the importance of addressing technical and content-related issues to maximize a website's visibility in search results.

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