So you publish online? You may have your own website or manage someone else’s? Then

you probably want to know how to show up on Google search.

You most likely also already use Google Search Console (GSC from now on). Why?

To check whether you site gets properly included and shown on Google.

You need to be in Google’s index to get found.

One of the most common indexing issues on GSC is the “crawled – currently not indexed” message.

In 2026 you may have noticed that the number of “pages” being barred from the index has grown significantly.

Most people assume it’s some type of SEO issue! Yet it’s not!

It’s rather a content issue.

Don’t believe me? Hear me out!

How to read the Google Search Console indexing report?

When you use GSC one of the most prominent reports is called “Indexing“.

Indeed it’s the first proper section in the left hand navigation.

It looks like this:

Why is it so significant? Google search can show and rank your pages only when they are part of the index in the first place.

So it’s like the first hurdle to overcome.

In other words only once Google adds you to their index your pages can get ranked and shown to searchers.

Ideally they show on top when they are very helpful and authoritative.

So obviously you have to find out whether you’re part of the index already before taking a look at how you perform.

Yet many if not most pages already fail at that.

They won’t even get indexed. Why?

Getting into the index is harder now

Getting into Google’s search index is much harder nowadays.

You may have checked GSC in 2026 and almost got a heart attack.

You’re not alone!

Many website owners witness this change.

People ask for help on Reddit all the time due to indexing issues!

Heck, indeed the number of not indexed pages from this blog grew rapidly in 2026.

It was like 300 pages in “crawled – currently not indexed” in early 2026.

Now in mid 2026 (as of May 8th) more than 800 “pages” are not indexed:

This is GSC screenshot for this very blog here.

It says “Affected pages 806” as you see.

So what happened?

Google started to be very choosy on what to include in its search index.

Why is that?

Everybody and their friends are using AI to flood the Google index with mass created AI content.

Google refers to it as “scaled content abuse“.

Even if it’s not just AI slop or has been “humanized” Google might frown on it.

Also low quality “human” content gets demoted too.

So just because you wrote it yourself does not mean it deserves to be indexed.

Why “crawled – currently not indexed” is not an SEO issue

Now when people notice that their “pages” are not fully indexed they assume the SEO is to blame.

Yet the specific message “crawled – currently not indexed” or even worse “discovered – currently not indexed” is not about SEO!

Of course there is a plethora of technical and other SEO issues that may cause a page not to get indexed.

Nowadays Google will right away tell you about those!

So when I take a look at my indexing issues I see all the technical issues Google encountered already:

Above you see a screenshot from my own GSC report on

“indexing -> pages -> “Why pages aren’t indexed”.

It seems like there are a lot of technical SEO errors up there! Isn’t it? No. Most of these are going according to plan.

The best thing about those is that once you click on them you realize most of them are fine and Google is right! How come?

Let me explain what we see up there and why it’s OK in my case!

Let’s take the biggest example on top:

Page with redirect

When you change a page’s content so much that even the headline and title do not fit anymore it’s also time to fix its name.

Then a change of address is advisable. Ideally you don’t change websites addresses or URLs.

Yet given that this blog is almost 20 years old and that I update the content repeatedly over the years sometimes you have to.

Otherwise the address or post “slug” might be misleading by now.

So when you change it WordPress either automatically redirects to the new one using a so-called 301.

Or you have to enter it manually using a tool. WordPress has plugins for that!

I do both on a case to case basis. Ideally the old URL still works that way and visitors clicking on it end up on the page (or post).

So Google does not want to index the old version anymore obviously!

They just want the new and current one, the one you updated recently. So that’s it.

315 pages have a redirect like that and still had a former version of them in the index.

The old stale versions of the pages have been removed from the index! Yay!

I could explain the other “issues” as well but in this article I rather want to focus on “crawled – currently not indexed”!

Fix your content to get into the index!

So what is the actual problem when a large number of pages are “crawled – currently not indexed”?

Sorry to say that but

• either your content sucks
• or nobody knows you yet!

Most people don’t want to hear it as they feel offended and their ego takes a hit.

Instead they rather try to force Google to index their content.

There is a whole bunch of more or less shady “indexer tools”.

Indexer tools will use manifold tricks to submit or re-submit your pages to Google.

As it’s not a technical issue and Google decided on purpose not to indexed them you might even get banned for that!

So you need to fix your content instead! How?

E-E-A-T

Add some first hand experience, expertise, authority and signs of trust to it or in short E-E-A-T:

Real life photos (experience), certifications (doctorate as a doctor e.g.), industry appearances elsewhere, and other badges of trust.

Incoming links

Ideally other sites directly link to your actual content pages (not just the homepage or about page).

In the best case the content you publish is so unique that many others refer to it both on social media and their own sites.

Unique data from your own survey e.g.

So called editorial links are the best option here.

When you can convince the press to write about your content you will most likely succeed at getting that context indexed.

Content updates

Even of your content is great and has been ranking in the past does not mean it will stay that way forever.

When you let your content rot for years without updating it Google may sooner or later de-index it completely.

In the meantime much better and comprehensive content has been published on the same topic elsewhere in most cases.

Plus you may have even a post on your own site that covers something similar so that Google only chooses the more recent one.

Ensure your content gets refreshed regularly.

Google has a whole set of routines to check for that. Changing the date won’t be enough!