It’s a dreaded message that pops up in Google Search Console, and now the search engine’s managers explain it. Why aren’t my news items indexed if Google has crawled them? The mystery of ‘Discovered Currently Not Indexed’ solved.
Google’s Martin Splitt posted a video in his ‘SEO Made Easy’ series, discussing three reasons why the search engine bot (Googlebot) crawls content, but stops and its index decides not to index it.
The message that appears in the Google Search Console: ‘Discovered – Currently Not Indexed’ would occur, basically, for these three reasons:
- The content is considered to be of low quality
- Page speed due to server
- The bot needs more time, just for the reason above
What is ‘Discovered – Currently Not Indexed’?
The message “Discovered – Currently Not Indexed” indicates that Google has found the URL of a page, but has not yet crawled or indexed it:
- It means that Googlebot is aware of the existence of the page and decides not to give it priority for indexing at that time.
- This state can last for days, weeks, or even indefinitely if the underlying causes are not addressed.
What are three reasons why Google does not index your URLs?
Digging deeper into the three reasons why Googlebot stops and chooses not to index a URL, according to Martin Splitt, we would have these justifications:
- Content quality issues: Google might determine that the content on the page is low quality, irrelevant, or duplicate, causing the search engine to prioritize other pages for indexing. According to Google’s Martin Splitt, if Google detects a pattern of low-quality content on a site, it may decide not to index certain pages, leaving them in this state.
- Server performance issues: Another critical factor can be server performance. If Googlebot tries to crawl a page and finds the server to be slow or error-prone, it might postpone crawling to avoid overloading the server. This is more common on large sites with many products or pages, where Googlebot must handle high volumes of URLs.
- Need for more time for indexing: Sometimes the problem simply comes down to needing more time. Google may take a while to crawl and index pages due to the high workload of Googlebot on other sites or other parts of the same website. In these cases, you don’t need to take immediate action as it could be indexed later.
What is the impact on SEO strategy of the ‘Discovered: Currently not indexed’ message in Search Console?
Non-indexing of pages can have a significant impact on the visibility of a website, especially if these pages contain key content that is expected to contribute to the site’s traffic. If a large number of important pages are left in this state, the content strategy and/or server performance need to be reviewed.
How to resolve ‘Discovered: Currently not indexed’ issue?
Patience and continuous monitoring: In some cases, the best strategy is to simply wait and continue monitoring the status of the pages in Search Console. If there are no obvious quality or performance issues, it is likely that Google will eventually index the pages.
Improve content quality: It is crucial to review and improve the content of the affected pages. This includes adding more value to the content, ensuring it is unique and relevant, and avoiding excessive keyword stuffing. Additionally, optimizing the site structure and creating effective internal links can help Google consider these pages as valuable to index.
Optimize server performance: Checking server responsiveness is crucial. It is recommended to review the crawl statistics report in Google Search Console to identify any performance issues that may be affecting Googlebot’s ability to crawl the site efficiently. Working with the hosting provider to improve speed and traffic handling capacity can be an effective solution.
