How to Fix Indexing Issues in Google Search Console

You’ve published a great page, but it doesn’t show up in Google. Or you open Google Search Console and see a list of “Indexed, not submitted”, “Crawled – currently not indexed”, or “Discovered – currently not indexed”. It’s frustrating, especially when you don’t know where to start.

In this guide, we’ll walk step by step through how to diagnose and fix indexing issues using Google Search Console, and how to prevent them from piling up again in the future.

1. Understand What “Indexing Issues” Really Mean

Before trying to fix anything, it’s important to understand one basic idea: Google is not obligated to index every URL on your site. Indexing is a choice made by the search engine based on quality, relevance, and technical signals.

An indexing issue can come from:

• Technical blocks (robots.txt, noindex, incorrect canonicals).
• Low-quality or duplicate content.
• Pages that Google sees as unnecessary or unimportant.
• Temporary crawl or server issues.

Google Search Console doesn’t just say “something’s wrong” – it gives you specific reasons. Your job is to interpret each reason and decide whether the page should be indexed at all.

2. Start in the Pages (Indexing) Report

In Google Search Console, go to Indexing > Pages (for your website property). Here you’ll see two main sections:

• Indexed: URLs that are currently in Google’s index.
• Not indexed: URLs that Google knows about but hasn’t indexed (with a reason).

Click on “Not indexed” and you’ll see a list of categories. Each one represents a type of issue. We’ll go through the most common ones and how to fix them.

3. Common Indexing Statuses and How to Fix Them

3.1 “Crawled – currently not indexed”

This means Google has crawled the page but decided, for now, not to put it in the index. It’s not a technical block; it’s usually a quality or priority decision.

Ask yourself:

• Is the content unique and truly useful?
• Does it overlap heavily with other pages on your site?
• Is it thin (very short, little value) or auto-generated?

Ways to improve your chances:

• Enhance the content: add details, examples, visuals, and internal links.
• Make sure the page is part of a clear content hub, not isolated.
• Add relevant internal links from stronger pages to signal importance.

After improving the page, you can request indexing again using the URL inspection tool.

3.2 “Discovered – currently not indexed”

Here, Google is aware of the URL but hasn’t crawled it yet. This often happens on:

• Large websites with many URLs.
• Sites with limited crawl budget due to slow performance or server limits.
• Pages that are hard to reach via internal links.

To help Google crawl these pages:

• Improve internal linking so important pages are closer to your homepage.
• Ensure the URLs are included in your XML sitemap.
• Check your server performance – very slow sites waste crawl budget.

For high-priority URLs, you can also inspect the URL and request indexing manually.

3.3 “Alternate page with proper canonical tag”

This message means Google sees your URL as a duplicate or alternate version of another page, and is indexing the canonical version instead.

Check:

• Is the canonical tag on that page pointing to the correct URL?
• Is the page really different enough to deserve a separate index entry?

If you want the page indexed:

• Make sure its canonical tag points to itself (if it’s the main version).
• Ensure there are no conflicting canonicals in HTTP headers or sitemaps.
• Differentiate the content clearly if it’s not supposed to be a duplicate.

3.4 “Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag”

This one is straightforward: the page contains a noindex directive, either in the HTML meta tags or HTTP headers.

If you want the page indexed:

• Remove the noindex tag from the page.
• Check if any plugins or rules are adding it automatically.
• Resubmit the URL for indexing after the change.

If the page is intentionally noindexed (e.g., admin pages, thin archives), you can safely ignore this status.

3.5 “Blocked by robots.txt”

In this case, your robots.txt file prevents Googlebot from crawling the page. If a page is blocked from crawling, it usually will not be indexed.

To fix:

• Open /robots.txt for your domain.
• Look for Disallow rules that include the path of the affected URLs.
• Remove or adjust those rules if the block is unintentional.

Don’t forget to keep sensitive or low-value areas (like /wp-admin/ or internal tools) blocked if needed.

3.6 “Page with redirect”

URLs that redirect are usually not indexed themselves; the target page is what matters. If you see many “Page with redirect” statuses, ask:

• Are these old URLs you intentionally redirected? Then it’s fine.
• Or are users and internal links still pointing to old URLs unnecessarily?

Clean internal links to point directly to the final destination URL where possible.

4. Use the URL Inspection Tool for Page-Level Debugging

For any specific URL, use the URL Inspection tool in Search Console:

1. Paste the URL at the top of the Search Console interface.
2. Check the “Indexing” section to see whether it’s indexed or not.
3. Click “View crawled page” (if available) to see how Googlebot sees the page.
4. Review the “Page availability” and “Enhancements” sections for additional hints.

After fixing issues, you can click “Request indexing”. This doesn’t guarantee indexing, but it tells Google to recrawl the page sooner.

5. Prioritize Which Indexing Issues to Fix First

Not every URL deserves the same attention. Instead of trying to “fix everything”:

• Start with key landing pages, money pages, and high-value blog posts.
• Focus on URLs that are part of your core content hubs.
• Ignore low-value auto-generated pages that you don’t actually need indexed.

A focused approach keeps your site cleaner and makes it easier for Google to understand what really matters.

6. Prevent Indexing Problems Before They Start

Fixing issues is good. Avoiding them is better. Some habits that help:

• Plan your site structure and internal linking before publishing large sections.
• Avoid creating thin, duplicate, or near-empty pages “just in case”.
• Use a clean XML sitemap that includes only indexable URLs.
• Review template changes carefully so you don’t accidentally add noindex everywhere.

A smart SEO assistant like Hunnt AI can help monitor indexing signals, flag anomalies, and connect indexing problems with issues in content, technical setup, or internal links.

Conclusion

Indexing issues in Google Search Console can look intimidating, but they’re really just signals and explanations. Once you understand what each status means, you can decide: Should this URL be indexed? If yes, what’s blocking it — quality, structure, or a technical rule?

Treat the Pages report as an ongoing health check instead of a one-time problem. With clear priorities, good content, and a solid technical foundation, most indexing issues become manageable and predictable.