Google Search Console (GSC) is the best tool to identify and fix indexing problems. It provides valuable insights into how Google crawls and processes your site. Here’s a step-by-step guide to diagnosing and resolving these issues so your content can start showing up in search. This means that although your page exists, Google hasn’t added it to its search index—which is a necessary step for the page to appear in search results.
The first thing you’ll want to do is log in to your Google Search Console account and choose the property (your website). From the left-hand menu, click on “Pages” under the Indexing section. This area shows you which of your pages are currently indexed and which aren’t, along with reasons for exclusion. Google knows the page exists, but hasn’t crawled it yet. This often happens with newer or lower-priority pages, or when a site has limited crawl budget.
This means Google was able to access the page but decided not to index it—often due to low-quality or thin content, duplication, or simply because it didn’t seem valuable enough at the time. A meta tag on your page is telling search engines not to index it. This might be intentional—but if not, it needs to be corrected. Google is indexing another version of the same content, based on your canonical tag, and is ignoring this version to avoid duplication.
However, if it’s been sitting in this state for a long time, you can try requesting indexing manually. Go to the URL Inspection tool in Search Console, enter the URL, and click “Request Indexing.”
If a page is marked “Discovered – currently not indexed”, it usually just means you need to wait. Once you’ve identified the reason a page isn’t being indexed, the next step is to take appropriate action.
If your page is being blocked by robots.txt, locate your robots.txt file and check whether the URL or folder is being disallowed.
In the case of a noindex tag, you’ll need to remove that tag from the HTML code if you actually want the page indexed.
Once Google confirms the page is accessible and eligible, you can click “Request Indexing” to ask for a faster re-crawl.
For pages marked “Crawled – currently not indexed”, review the content. Ask yourself: Is this page unique and valuable? Does it have original information, or is it very similar to other pages on your site? Improving the quality, depth, or relevance of the content can encourage Google to include it in the index.
For issues related to canonical tags, double-check whether you’ve set them correctly. If you’ve mistakenly told Google to treat another page as the preferred version, update the canonical tag to point to the correct URL—or remove it if it’s unnecessary. This is a common error that sometimes gets left in the page header during development or testing.
Fixing indexing issues isn’t just about getting your pages into Google—it’s about ensuring that the right pages are being indexed for the right reasons. Indexing errors can prevent your best content from reaching your audience, so regular monitoring through Google Search Console is an important part of maintaining a healthy, search-friendly website.