Google Explains Reasons For Crawled Not Indexed
Google’s Gary Illyes recently explained the reasons behind the „Crawled – Currently Not Indexed“ error in an interview at the SERP Conf 2024 conference in Bulgaria. This error occurs when a page is crawled by Google but not indexed in its search results. Illyes highlighted several reasons for this issue:
### Duplicates and Similar Content
Illyes mentioned that one reason for a page not being indexed could be that it is too similar to content already indexed. This might indicate that there is already enough content available and that the new content is not unique enough to warrant indexing.
### Site Quality Issues
Another reason could be general site quality issues. If the number of crawled but not indexed URLs is high, it might hint at quality problems with the site. Illyes noted that Google’s perception of a site can change, leading to a sudden increase in indexed URLs.
### Technical Issues
Additionally, technical issues on the site could also prevent indexing. For instance, if the site serves the same exact page to every URL, it could be misinterpreted by Google, leading to the page not being indexed.
### Multiple Reasons
Illyes emphasized that there could be multiple reasons for a page not being indexed, including duplicate elimination, where Google decides not to index a page because it is similar to content already indexed with better signals.
### Takeaways
To debug and fix this issue, webmasters should consider these factors:
– Content similarity to existing indexed content
– Exact same content existing on another site with better signals
– General site quality issues
– Technical issues on the site
Illyes‘ explanations provide valuable insights for webmasters to improve their site’s indexing chances.
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