Page Indexing Report Statuses Explained

The Page indexing report in Google Search Console shows which of your URLs Google has indexed and, for the rest, why not. Many "not indexed" reasons are normal: duplicates, redirects and noindex pages should stay out. The ones to act on are important pages marked "Crawled – currently not indexed", "Discovered – currently not indexed" or a server error.

TL;DR

• Find the report under Indexing > Pages. It shows every URL Google knows about as either Indexed or Not indexed, with a reason.
• "Not indexed" is not an error by itself. Google says you should not expect every URL to be indexed, only the canonical version of each important page.
• "Crawled – currently not indexed": Google fetched the page and chose not to index it for now.
• "Discovered – currently not indexed": Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet, usually to avoid overloading your site.
• The two canonical statuses, "Duplicate without user-selected canonical" and "Alternate page with proper canonical tag", usually mean Google is working as intended.

How the Page indexing report works

According to Google's Page indexing report documentation (as of 30 September 2026), the summary page shows a chart of indexed and not-indexed pages and a Why pages aren't indexed table. Each row has a reason, a Source and a Validation state. Google says that in general you can fix only issues where the source is "Website".

A few limits are worth knowing before you start:

• Google says that if your site has fewer than 500 pages, you probably don't need this report. A site: search and the URL Inspection tool are enough.
• Example URL lists are capped at 1,000 rows and may not show every affected URL.
• The report cannot be searched by URL. Use URL Inspection for a single page.
• "Not found (404)" lists only URLs that returned a 404 in the past month.

Page indexing statuses at a glance

Status	What Google says it means	What to do
Crawled – currently not indexed	Crawled but not indexed. It "may or may not be indexed in the future".	If the page matters, improve it and its internal links. Google says there is no need to resubmit it.
Discovered – currently not indexed	Found but not crawled yet. Google rescheduled the crawl because it expected to overload the site.	Check server health in Crawl Stats; cut low-value URLs; link to the page.
Duplicate without user-selected canonical	A duplicate with no canonical declared. Google picked another URL as canonical.	Usually nothing. Declare a canonical if Google picked the wrong one.
Alternate page with proper canonical tag	An alternate (for example AMP or a mobile version) that points to an indexed canonical.	Nothing. Google says "there is nothing you need to do".
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user	You marked this page canonical, but Google chose another URL.	Compare the pages. A canonical must be a genuine duplicate.
Page with redirect	A non-canonical URL that redirects. It will not be indexed.	Nothing, if the redirect is intended.
URL marked 'noindex'	Google found a noindex directive.	Remove it only if you want the page indexed.
Not found (404)	The URL returned 404.	Fix links you control; redirect moved pages with a 301.
Soft 404	A "not found" message without a 404 status code.	Return a real 404, or add real content.
Server error (5xx)	Your server returned a 500-level error.	Check host status in Crawl Stats and your server.
Redirect error	Too-long chain, loop, URL too long, or a bad or empty URL in the chain.	Point the first URL straight at the final one.
URL blocked by robots.txt	Blocked from crawling. This does not guarantee it won't be indexed.	To keep it out of the index, allow crawling and use noindex.

Four statuses in detail

Crawled – currently not indexed

Google fetched the page and decided not to add it to the index for now. Google's text is short: the page "may or may not be indexed in the future; no need to resubmit this URL for crawling." Google does not give a reason in the report. When we see important pages here, we check whether the page adds something the rest of the site does not, whether it is thin or near-duplicate, and whether it is linked from pages Google already values. Then we wait for a recrawl rather than requesting indexing again and again.

Discovered – currently not indexed

Google knows the URL exists but has not crawled it. Google's explanation: "Typically, Google wanted to crawl the URL but this was expected to overload the site; therefore Google rescheduled the crawl." That is why the last crawl date is empty. Large numbers here point to crawl capacity. Open the Crawl Stats report and check host status and average response time. Reduce the number of low-value URLs, such as filter and sort parameters, that compete for crawls.

Duplicate without user-selected canonical

Google found this page to be a duplicate of another, and the page does not say which version is preferred, so Google chose. Google calls this "not an error" because it does not serve duplicate pages. Inspect the URL to see the Google-selected canonical. If Google picked the wrong one, declare your preferred canonical. If the page is not really a duplicate, make its content differ substantially.

Alternate page with proper canonical tag

This page points to another page as its canonical, that canonical is indexed, and Google agrees. Google says "there is nothing you need to do". Note that Search Console does not detect alternate language pages, so hreflang versions are not what this status refers to.

How to investigate and fix a status

1. Open Indexing > Pages. Use the dropdown above the chart to choose All submitted pages if you only care about URLs in your sitemaps.
2. In Why pages aren't indexed, click a reason to open its details page.
3. Click the inspect icon next to an example URL. In URL Inspection, read the crawl and indexing details, including the user-declared and Google-selected canonical.
4. Click Test live URL to check the current version. Google notes that the live test does not check duplicate or canonical conditions.
5. Fix every instance of the issue on your site.
6. Back on the details page, click Validate fix once. Google says validation "typically takes up to about two weeks, but in some cases can take much longer".

Google's tip: submit a sitemap with only your most important URLs, filter the report by it, then validate. A smaller set can finish faster. You do not have to validate at all; Google updates counts when it recrawls.

Indexing problems are often a symptom of site structure, redirects or rendering. Our technical SEO service fixes the cause, and our SEO audits map every status to an action. Moving or merging pages? See 301 redirections.

Frequently asked questions

Is it bad to have lots of "not indexed" pages?

Not necessarily. Google says non-indexed URLs "can be fine" when the reason is expected: a noindex tag, a robots.txt rule, a duplicate or a redirect. Check the reason for each group and confirm your important pages are indexed.

Should I request indexing for "Crawled – currently not indexed" pages?

Google says there is no need to resubmit these URLs for crawling. Improve the page and its internal links instead, then let Google recrawl it.

Why does URL Inspection show no problem when the report shows an error?

You may have fixed the issue after Google's last crawl, so check the crawl date. Also, the live test does not check duplicate or canonical conditions, which the report does.

Does blocking a page in robots.txt keep it out of Google?

No. Google says a robots.txt block does not guarantee the page won't be indexed. To keep a page out, allow crawling and add a noindex directive.

How long does "Validate fix" take?

Google says validation typically takes up to about two weeks and sometimes longer. You get an email when it passes or fails.

Sources

• Page indexing report (Search Console Help, as of 30 September 2026)
• Crawl Stats report (Search Console Help, as of 30 September 2026)

This post is part of our Google Search Console guide.

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