Why are my new pages not being indexed by Google?

New pages are usually not indexed for one of three reasons: Google has not found or crawled them yet, a technical signal such as “noindex”, a robots.txt rule or a canonical pointing elsewhere excludes them, or Google has crawled them but does not (yet) consider them worth indexing. The URL Inspection tool in Search Console shows you which reason applies to each individual address.

Keep in mind that Google does not index every page, and indexing is not guaranteed. Crawling is no guarantee either. A new page needs both a clear technical path and a clear reason why it is useful to searchers.

Which reasons does Search Console show?

• Discovered – currently not indexed. Google knows the URL but has not crawled it yet. Often Google rescheduled the crawl to avoid overloading the server. For new pages this is frequently just a matter of time.
• Crawled – currently not indexed. Google fetched the page but did not index it. According to Google it may be indexed later, and there is no need to resubmit it. This is the moment to take a critical look at the content.
• Excluded by ‘noindex’ tag. The source code or the HTTP header contains a noindex directive. This often happens when a page was copied over from a staging site.
• Blocked by robots.txt. A Disallow rule prevents crawling, so Google cannot see the content.
• Duplicate or alternate page. Google selected a different URL as canonical, for example because the new page is nearly identical to an existing one or its canonical points to another address.
• Not found (404) or server error (5xx). The page could not be reached when Google tried.

How do you check a new page?

1. Enter the URL in the URL Inspection tool at the top of Search Console. It shows whether the page is on Google, when it was last crawled, whether indexing is allowed and which URL Google selected as canonical.
2. Run the live test. It checks the current version of the page and shows whether Google can fetch and render it.
3. Check the robots meta tag and the canonical in the source code. A standalone page’s canonical points to itself.
4. Make sure the page is in the XML sitemap and is linked internally from other pages on your site. Pages without internal links are hard for Google to find.
5. If everything looks right, click Request indexing. According to Google, requesting a crawl multiple times does not make it happen faster.

What helps if a page is crawled but not indexed?

In that case the cause is rarely technical. Ask whether the page offers something that does not already exist on your site or elsewhere on the web. Typical cases are very short pages, many near-identical location or product pages, and filter pages without content of their own. Merge such pages, add information only you can provide, and link the page from relevant pages that are already indexed.

Check every new page once with the URL Inspection tool, add it to the sitemap and link to it internally. Then give Google time instead of requesting indexing again and again.

If an address shows up as “Page with redirect” instead, read: Why am I getting the message “Page with redirect” for my URLs?

Sources

• Search Console Help: Page indexing report
• Search Console Help: URL Inspection tool
• Google Search Central: Ask Google to recrawl your URLs
• Google Search Central: Block indexing with noindex

Your new pages are not showing up on Google? We check indexing, sitemap and internal linking and tell you which pages are worth it. Book a free intro call or read more about our search engine optimisation.