Crawled - currently not indexed and Discovered - currently not indexed: what they mean and how to fix them

What do the two statuses mean?

Both statuses mean a URL is not in Google's index: "Discovered" means Google has not crawled it yet, and "Crawled" means Google crawled it and chose not to index it for now. You find them in Search Console under Indexing → Pages, in the list of reasons why pages are not indexed. Google's Page indexing report help describes them like this:

• Discovered - currently not indexed. Google found the page, from a link or a sitemap, but has not crawled it yet. Google says this typically happens because it wanted to crawl the URL but expected that to overload the site, so it rescheduled the crawl. That is why the last crawl date in the report is empty for these URLs.
• Crawled - currently not indexed. Google crawled the page but did not index it. Google says it may or may not be indexed in the future, and that there is no need to resubmit the URL for crawling.

The difference tells you where to look. A Discovered page has not been fetched, so Google has not judged its content yet; the question is how Google reaches it and how fast your server answers. A Crawled page was fetched and judged; the question is why Google did not think it worth adding. To see where each stage fits in the bigger picture, read how search engines work.

To check one URL, paste it into Search Console's URL Inspection tool. It shows the indexing status Google has for that URL, the canonical Google picked, and whether the page came from a sitemap or a referring page.

Why pages get stuck in these statuses

Pages usually stay unindexed because Google sees too little reason to add them, cannot reach them easily, or is told they are a copy of another URL. The common causes:

• Thin or duplicate content. A page that adds little beyond what is already indexed, such as a near-copy of another page, a short tag page or an auto-generated location page, is a common candidate for Crawled - currently not indexed.
• Weak internal links or orphan pages. A page that only your sitemap lists, with no links from other pages, gives Google little sign that it matters. See how to find and fix orphan pages.
• The wrong canonical. If the page's canonical tag points at another URL, Google treats that other URL as the main one. Google's canonicalization guide explains how it picks one URL from a set of duplicates.
• A slow server or limited crawl capacity (mainly Discovered). Google's crawl budget guide says Googlebot crawls less when a site responds slowly or returns server errors, and that wasting crawls on duplicate or low-value URLs leaves less for the pages you want.
• Soft 404s. A page that returns HTTP 200 but looks empty or says "not found" may be treated as a soft 404. Google's HTTP status guide explains how to fix them: add real content, or return a real 404 or 410.

How to fix "Crawled" and "Discovered - currently not indexed"

Fix these statuses in order: rule out technical blocks, make the page clearly worth indexing, link to it, clean up the sitemap, then ask Google to look again.

1. Rule out technical blocks

   Run the URL through the free indexability checker. It checks the HTTP status and redirects, robots.txt rules for Googlebot, a noindex in the robots meta tag or the X-Robots-Tag header, and where the canonical points. These problems show up under their own reasons in Search Console, but a canonical pointing elsewhere or a header noindex left by a CDN is easy to miss. For header rules, see X-Robots-Tag explained.

2. Improve the content

   Compare the page with what already ranks for its main search. If it is short, repeats another page on your site, or does not answer the search better than the results already there, expand it with what is missing, or merge it into the stronger page and 301 redirect it there.

3. Add internal links

   Link to the page from 2 or 3 related pages that are already indexed, with descriptive anchor text, and from a hub or category page if it belongs in one. Make them plain <a href> links. Pages with no links at all are covered in the orphan pages guide.

4. Check the sitemap

   Make sure the page is in your XML sitemap and the sitemap lists only URLs you want indexed: no redirects, 404s, noindex pages or duplicates. The free XML sitemap validator flags malformed and duplicate entries and tests a sample of URLs live. Google's sitemaps overview notes that a sitemap helps discovery but does not guarantee crawling or indexing.

5. Request indexing

   Once the page has changed, open it in URL Inspection, run a live test, and choose Request indexing. Do this once per changed page; Google's recrawl guide says repeated requests for the same URL do not make it crawl any faster. For many URLs, resubmit the sitemap instead. Then give it time and recheck the report.

For Discovered pages across a whole site, also look at server speed and errors in Search Console's Crawl stats report (Settings → Crawl stats), and at how many duplicate or parameter URLs Google is spending crawls on.

Status, likely cause and fix at a glance

Match the status and what you see on the page to its most likely cause, then apply that fix first.

What about Bing?

Bing has its own index, so check the same URL in Bing Webmaster Tools and use IndexNow to tell Bing about new and changed pages. A page indexed in Google can still be missing in Bing, which also feeds Copilot. In Bing Webmaster Tools, URL Inspection shows one URL's index status, crawlability and response code, and IndexNow or the Submit URLs tool tells Bing a page is new or has changed. The full setup is in our Bing Webmaster Tools guide.

When you do not need to worry

Not every URL in these lists needs fixing; only the pages you want people to find in search do. These are usually fine to leave:

• Filter and parameter URLs, such as sorted or filtered product lists and tracking parameters, that repeat a page you already have indexed.
• Pagination pages (?page=2, /page/3/) when the items they list are linked and indexed elsewhere.
• Feeds, such as RSS or Atom URLs, which are for feed readers rather than search results.
• Brand-new pages listed as Discovered for a short time. Keep them linked and in the sitemap, and recheck later.

Start with the URLs that matter: pages in your sitemap, pages that earn or should earn traffic, and pages that used to be indexed. In the Page indexing report, filter by your sitemap to see only submitted pages.

Questions and answers