What do the Search Console page indexing errors mean?

Part of our SEO help centre. This guide explains each status in Search Console's Page indexing report, whether you should worry, and what to do.

How to read the Page indexing report

1. Open Search Console and select your property.
2. In the left menu, under Indexing, click Pages.
3. Scroll to the table Why pages aren't indexed. Each row is a reason, with a count of URLs.
4. Check the Source column. Google says you can generally only fix issues where the source is Website.
5. Click a row to see example URLs. To check one page in detail, paste it into the URL Inspection bar at the top.

Google also notes that sites with fewer than 500 pages probably don't need this report at all. A quick site:yourdomain.com.au search, or URL Inspection on your key pages, is often enough. If your main service pages are indexed, a long list of excluded URLs may be harmless.

Status table: worry or not?

Status	Worry?	Fix
Crawled - currently not indexed	Only for important pages	Improve the page and link to it internally; wait
Discovered - currently not indexed	Only if it persists for key pages	Wait; check server speed and internal links
Duplicate without user-selected canonical	Usually no	Add a canonical tag or make pages distinct
Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user	Sometimes	Make your signals agree (redirects, canonicals, sitemap)
Alternate page with proper canonical tag	No	Nothing; this is working as intended
Page with redirect	No, unless the target isn't indexed	Update internal links and sitemap to the final URL
Soft 404	Yes, if the page should exist	Add real content, or return a proper 404
Not found (404)	Only if the page moved	301 redirect moved pages; leave deleted ones
URL blocked by robots.txt	Only if you want the page found	Remove the robots.txt rule
URL marked 'noindex'	Only if you want the page found	Remove the noindex tag or setting
Server error (5xx)	Yes	Fix hosting or plugin errors
Redirect error	Yes	Fix loops and long redirect chains

Each status explained

Crawled - currently not indexed

Meaning: Google visited the page but chose not to index it for now. Google says it may be indexed later and there's no need to resubmit it.

Worry? Only if it's a page you need in search, such as a service or location page. Thin pages, tag archives and near-identical suburb pages often land here.

Fix: Ask whether the page is genuinely useful and different from your other pages. Add the detail a customer needs, link to it from relevant pages and your menu, and make sure it's in your XML sitemap. Google's guide to creating helpful content is the benchmark.

Discovered - currently not indexed

Meaning: Google knows the URL exists but hasn't crawled it yet. Google says it usually delayed the crawl to avoid overloading your site.

Worry? Not for a new site or a big batch of new pages; give it a few weeks. Worry if key pages sit here for months.

Fix: Check that your server responds quickly and doesn't throw errors. Link to the pages from pages that are already indexed. On large sites, remove low-value URLs (filters, tags, endless parameters) so Google spends its time on pages that matter.

Duplicate without user-selected canonical

Meaning: Google sees this page as a duplicate of another, you haven't said which one is preferred, and Google picked the other one.

Worry? Usually not. Common examples are http and https versions, URLs with tracking parameters, or print versions.

Fix: Add a rel="canonical" tag pointing to the version you want, or redirect the duplicate. If two pages are meant to be different, make the content clearly different. See Google's guide to consolidating duplicate URLs.

Duplicate, Google chose different canonical than user

Meaning: You declared a canonical, but Google preferred another URL. Google treats canonical tags as a strong hint, not a command.

Worry? Check it if the URL Google chose is the wrong one, for example an old URL or a parameter version.

Fix: Make all your signals point the same way. Google lists conflicts such as a canonical that differs from the sitemap URL, a redirect from https back to http, or a canonical added by JavaScript. Use URL Inspection to compare the user-declared and Google-selected canonical.

Alternate page with proper canonical tag

This page points to another page as canonical, and Google agrees. Nothing to fix. It's the report confirming your setup works.

Page with redirect

The URL redirects somewhere else, so Google indexes the destination instead. This is expected after a redesign or a move to https. Tidy up by updating internal links and your sitemap to the final URLs. If you've recently moved a site, see our guide to redesigning without losing rankings.

Soft 404

Meaning: The page returns a normal "OK" response, but looks like an error or empty page to Google. Empty category pages, "no results" pages and out-of-stock products are common causes.

Fix: If the page should exist, give it real content. If it's gone, make the server return a proper 404 or 410, or redirect to a close replacement.

URL blocked by robots.txt

A rule in your robots.txt file stops Google crawling the page. That's fine for admin, cart and search pages. If an important page is blocked, remove the rule. Google warns that robots.txt doesn't reliably keep a page out of search; use noindex for that. A common slip is a staging rule like Disallow: / left in place after launch.

URL marked 'noindex'

Your report may show this as "Excluded by 'noindex' tag". The page tells Google not to index it. In WordPress, check Settings > Reading > Discourage search engines and your SEO plugin's per-page setting. Remove the tag on pages you want found, then request indexing.

Server error (5xx) and redirect errors

These are real problems. A 5xx means your server failed when Googlebot asked for the page, which points to hosting limits, a broken plugin or a firewall blocking Google. Redirect errors mean a loop, a chain that's too long or a broken URL in the chain. Fix the cause, test with URL Inspection, then validate.

Validating your fixes

1. Fix every affected URL for that reason, not just a few.
2. Open the reason's details page and click Validate fix.
3. Don't click it again while it's running. Google sends email updates.
4. Status moves through Started and Looking good to Passed, or Failed if too many URLs still have the problem.

Google says validation usually takes up to about two weeks and sometimes longer. To speed it up, Google suggests filtering the report by a sitemap of just your important pages before you validate.

What not to do

• Don't mass-request indexing. Requests through URL Inspection are limited by a quota, and Google says asking again for the same URL won't get it crawled faster. For many URLs, submit an XML sitemap instead.
• Don't try to get every URL indexed. Filters, tags and duplicates belong out of the index.
• Don't use robots.txt to remove pages from Google. Use noindex or remove the page.
• Don't panic over counts. A rising "not indexed" number after a redesign is often just old redirected URLs.

Australian detail

If you have both .com.au and .com domains, or old addresses from a previous web developer, pick one main domain and permanently redirect the rest. Otherwise expect plenty of duplicate and redirect statuses. If your main pages still aren't showing on Google at all, start with why your website isn't showing on Google.

When to get help

If key pages stay in Crawled or Discovered for months, or Google keeps choosing the wrong canonical, a specialist looks at server logs, internal linking, duplicate content and how your CMS generates URLs.

Talk to our technical SEO team

About this guide

Written by Amann Jhamb, Director of AR Digital Solutions, 17 years in web design, SEO and paid ads. Last checked: 3 November 2026 against Search Console Help: Page indexing report. Change note: first published 3 November 2026. Part of our SEO help centre.