Why Your Pages Aren't Getting Indexed (And How to Fix It)

You publish a new page. You wait. Nothing happens.

A week later you check Google—still not indexed. You manually request indexing in Search Console. Maybe it works, maybe it doesn't. You forget about it and move on.

Meanwhile, that page is invisible to Google. No rankings. No traffic. Wasted effort.

The worst part? This happens more often than you think. And most people don't notice until months later when they wonder why their traffic isn't growing.

The Indexing Problem Nobody Talks About

Google doesn't index everything automatically. Not anymore.

In the early days of SEO, you could publish anything and Google would crawl it within hours. Those days are gone. Google now evaluates whether your content is worth indexing before adding it to their database.

This means pages can sit in limbo indefinitely. Not rejected, just... ignored.

The Search Console documentation calls this "Discovered - currently not indexed" or "Crawled - currently not indexed." Both mean the same thing: Google knows your page exists but decided not to include it in search results.

Why Google Ignores Your Pages

Several factors determine whether Google indexes your content:

1. Crawl Budget Limitations

Google allocates a limited crawl budget to each site. Large sites with thousands of pages often hit this limit. New pages compete with existing ones for attention.

If you're publishing faster than Google can crawl, some pages will be left behind.

2. Quality Signals

Google's algorithms evaluate content quality before indexing. Thin content, duplicate content, or pages that don't add unique value often get skipped entirely.

This isn't a penalty—it's Google being selective about what deserves to rank.

3. Technical Barriers

Sometimes the issue is purely technical:

• Accidental noindex tags
• Robots.txt blocking crawlers
• Slow page load times
• Broken internal links
• Missing XML sitemap entries

These problems are fixable, but you need to know they exist first.

4. Site Authority

New sites and sites with low authority face stricter indexing standards. Google is more selective about what it indexes from unknown sources.

This creates a frustrating catch-22: you need indexed pages to build authority, but you need authority to get pages indexed.

The Manual Indexing Trap

Most people's solution: manually request indexing through Search Console.

You open Search Console, paste the URL, click "Request Indexing," and hope for the best.

This works sometimes. But it doesn't scale.

If you have 50 pages with indexing issues, you're spending hours on a repetitive task that might not even work. And you have to remember to check back and re-request if it fails.

Worse, Google limits how many manual requests you can make per day. Hit that limit and you're stuck waiting.

What Actually Gets Pages Indexed

After years of watching indexing patterns, certain strategies consistently work:

Strong Internal Linking

Pages with more internal links get crawled faster and indexed more reliably. Google follows links to discover and prioritize content.

If your new page is orphaned—no links pointing to it—Google might never find it even if it's in your sitemap.

Fresh, Updated Content

Google prioritizes sites that regularly update their content. A site that publishes and updates frequently signals relevance.

This is why fixing outdated content often triggers re-crawling of your entire site.

XML Sitemap Accuracy

Your sitemap should only include pages you actually want indexed. Including everything—including thin pages, duplicates, and non-canonical URLs—dilutes your crawl budget.

Quality over quantity. Always.

Consistent Publishing Schedule

Sites that publish erratically get crawled erratically. Consistent publishing trains Google's crawlers to check your site regularly.

This doesn't mean publishing daily. It means being predictable.

The Monitoring Gap

Here's what most site owners miss: they never check indexing status proactively.

You publish a page. You assume it gets indexed. Months later, you notice it's getting no traffic and finally check—only to discover it was never indexed at all.

That's months of potential traffic lost to an easily fixable problem.

The solution is systematic monitoring:

• Check indexing status for all important pages
• Identify patterns in what gets indexed versus ignored
• Fix technical issues before they compound
• Track which re-indexing requests actually work

Using Search Console Data Effectively

Google Search Console provides all the data you need. The problem is manually checking hundreds of pages and tracking changes over time.

The Coverage report shows:

• Which pages are indexed
• Which pages have errors
• Which pages are excluded (and why)
• Trends over time

But navigating this data for a site with hundreds of pages is tedious. You need to check regularly, spot patterns, and take action—not just look at numbers once and forget about them.

Automation vs. Manual Checking

The indexing workflow that actually works:

1. Regular status checks - Not once a month, but weekly or even daily for important pages
2. Automatic issue detection - Know immediately when something breaks
3. Systematic re-submission - Request indexing for problematic pages without manual effort
4. Progress tracking - See whether re-indexing requests actually worked

Doing this manually is possible but unsustainable. You'll do it diligently for a week, then forget, then only remember when you notice traffic dropping.

This is exactly why we built indexing monitoring into SEO Rank Tracker. Every sync with your Search Console data checks indexing status. You see which pages aren't indexed, get alerts when new issues appear, and can track whether your fixes are working—all automatically.

Preventing Indexing Problems

Prevention beats cure. These practices reduce indexing issues before they start:

Audit Before Publishing

Before publishing any page, verify:

• No accidental noindex tags
• Page loads quickly
• Internal links point to it
• Sitemap includes it
• Content provides unique value

Five minutes of checking saves weeks of waiting.

Monitor New Pages Aggressively

New pages are most vulnerable to indexing issues. Check their status within 48 hours of publishing, not 48 days.

If a page isn't indexed within a week, something is wrong. Investigate immediately.

Fix Technical Issues First

A single technical problem can affect your entire site's crawling. One misconfigured robots.txt rule can block hundreds of pages.

Regular technical SEO audits catch these issues before they cause widespread damage.

The Bottom Line

Indexing isn't automatic. Google evaluates every page before deciding whether to include it in search results.

Most site owners discover indexing problems too late—after months of wasted effort and missed traffic.

The fix isn't complicated: monitor consistently, identify issues quickly, and take systematic action. Whether you do it manually or use automation, the key is actually doing it regularly.

Your content can't rank if it's not indexed. And you can't fix what you don't measure.

Stop guessing whether your pages are indexed. Try SEO Rank Tracker free and see your indexing status alongside your rankings—automatically synced from Search Console.