Understanding Google’s Reasons For “Crawled – Not Indexed” And How To Fix It In 2024

Google search console has a terrifying alert for your website nowadays. Many web pages get crawled by Google but will never get indexed. You may notice that your web page never gets tanking it deserved and the reason might be a crawled but not indexed error. Many SEO professionals are pondering the reasons for crawled currently not indexed. There can be multiple factors and reasons contributing to this sudden error as per Google’s SEO expert, Garry Illyes according to the SERP conference held in Bulgaria last May 2024. 

Let’s dive deep into this error and see tips to solve indexing errors. An SEO expert finds this error on the coverage report from Google Search Console. Within that section, you will find information on how Google views different pages of your website.  For example, the number of valid pages, alternate pages with proper canonical tag, discovered but not indexed by the search engine, pages with a redirect, excluded by non-index tag, error pages, and valid with warnings.

Crawled but not indexed

Google crawled but not indexed is indeed a big nuisance to you if you are concerned about reader friendliness and SEO rank of your website. We were not certain of the new reason preventing your pages from being indexed for some time unless Garry Illyes spoke up. Neither manual indexing review nor getting rid of duplicate content hasn’t stopped Google crawling but currently not indexed problem. Besides, a thorough guideline from Google is not available for SEO savvy. 

Reasons that impact indexing

According to Garry Illyes, multi-faceted reasons contribute to the error, Google crawled but not indexed.  You may also find YouTube videos on how to fix crawl errors in the Google Search console interesting and appealing. 

Similar content

The similarity of wordings and exact ideas is a real problem when it comes to fixing page-crawled but not indexed issues. Outranking similar content is difficult to attain as per the latest algorithms. 

Duplicate content

Duplicate content is a real catastrophe as your credit for the original content can be snatched by another because multiple versions make it difficult to rank the original one. Outranked content might contain better signals. 

Thin Content

Fewer words compared to other web pages can be a new reason preventing your pages from being indexed as Google prefers long-form content which elaborates on a particular topic.

Poor overall quality of your website matters

Why indexing is difficult? You may ponder and the answer might be website quality. Poor quality of URLs and website structure perilously impact indexing efforts by your SEO agency. Google might view your site as unoriginal and unauthorized to be on the top SERp results. 

Content not aligning  with the searcher’s intent

If your web page contains information other than the prompt asked by the searcher, Google may penalize your business with a crawled but currently not indexed error. 

Website’s Technical hindrances

Technical issues cause page crawled but not indexed issues most of the time your website structure is not legitimate and you are not using top-quality web hosting providers for your website.

How to fix crawled but not indexed

Google indexing tips cannot be found anywhere but the insights from the talk between Garry and the broadcaster can be a real source for finding page solutions crawled but not indexed error.

Increase the use of lengthy content on the web page

Having a greater understanding of search intent helps you create content to the point. When you do this elaborate as far as you can about the subject to give a wholesome user experience. Besides, a piece of well-arranged information on the webpage and creating original content from scratch helps a lot. 

Resolve technical issues at the earliest

Resolving technical issues such as quality HTTP code, correct tags and inclusion of favicons helps you tackle the problem of google crawled but not indexed. 

The overall quality of your website

Having an authoritative perception of a website greatly depends upon the overall quality of the website. Its design, security amount of traffic and other attributes account for determining website quality over mere existence.

Avoid Duplicate or similar content

Conduct a website audit to find out any similar content or exact content on other pages to avoid crawled but not indexed errors due to duplicate content issues on the site. Moreover, such an audit may reveal root causes such as bugs or the latest algorithms of search engines. 

Validation of URLs

Validating the quality and robustness of site URLs using a temporary sitemap helps detect any flaws. If it is up to the mark, Google may consider it for re-crawling after your manual submission for the same.

Update your internal linking strategy

The quality of internal links is often checked but you need to ensure all your error pages have enough internal links to add value in the eyes of search engines.

If you incorporate these changes into your web page, a lion’s share of crawled but not indexed errors can be eliminated right away. Plus, you can help other businesses or perhaps your clientele who is clamoring about ‘why is Google not crawling my site’ with this valuable information.

Upon incorporating the above points, your website may still be in the category of crawled but not indexed. What will be the new reason for preventing your pages from being indexed never remain history. It indicates your content marketing strategy team needs to deep delve into each point mentioned above and tackle minor issues that persist to improve the overall website quality. The page quality matters in terms of design, content and security. 

Winding up

In essence, you have a fair answer to the question of why are pages crawled but not indexed. Multiple factors such as website quality issues, duplicate content and similar content, security, and page authority play vital roles. Combining the how-to-fix crawl errors in Google Search console blog information also helps you tackle the problem even faster. If you tackle underlying issues faster, you can get indexed and crawl all pages.