SEO basics

"Crawled, currently not indexed" and "Discovered, currently not indexed": what they mean and what to do

13 October 2026 · 2 min read

The two most common Search Console indexing statuses explained in plain words, why Google skips a page, and a checklist of fixes that actually help.

In Search Console, under Pages, two statuses worry people most. They sound similar and mean different things.

What they mean

• Discovered, currently not indexed: Google knows the address exists (from a sitemap or a link) but has not crawled it yet. It is waiting in line.
• Crawled, currently not indexed: Google fetched the page and decided not to put it in its index, at least for now.

Neither is an error you can click to fix. They are Google's decision about whether a page is worth including, so the remedy is to make the page worth including and easy to find.

A checklist, in order

1. Rule out a blocker. Is the page noindex, password-protected, blocked in robots.txt, or does its canonical point somewhere else? In OnlyAI SEO, Indexation, Run audit lists exactly these for your newest posts.
2. Is it in your sitemap? Open /sitemap_index.xml and check. Submit it in Search Console (sitemaps guide).
3. Is anything linking to it? A page with no internal links looks unimportant. Link to it from related posts and from a hub page (internal linking guide).
4. Is it thin or a near-duplicate? Short pages, tag and date archives, and pages that repeat another page are common reasons for "Crawled, not indexed". Expand it, merge it into a stronger page, or noindex it on purpose.
5. Does it add something? Original facts, a clear answer, your own experience and images give Google a reason to keep the page. A page that restates what ten others say may not be kept.
6. Is the site healthy? Slow responses and server errors make Google crawl less. Check Settings, Crawl stats in Search Console.

What not to do

• Do not resubmit the same address again and again. It does not speed anything up.
• Do not paste the address into dozens of directories or link farms.
• Do not expect the Indexing API to fix it. Google documents that API for job-posting and livestream pages only, and a successful send does not guarantee indexing (the honest limits).

How long to wait

A new page can take days to weeks, longer on a young site with few links. If a good, linked page is still not indexed after a month, improve it and request indexing once in Search Console's URL Inspection tool. Then wait again.

OnlyAI SEO can also show Google's own index status for each post on the Indexation page once Google is connected, so you can see which posts are indexed without opening Search Console.